Peter Mehlape

What I have seen well before is setting up clear priorities and managing expectations with clear timelines. Creating dashboards with a clear see through framework for everyone involved to track progress. This coupled with regular status updates will make stakeholders more relaxed and confident that progress is being made in the most organised. Visible ghant charts and timelines are all necessary for stakeholders and the execution teams to visualise progress of the work being. Agreeing on deliverables and timelines from the beginning helps to anchor the work and helps in reinforcing the rules of engagement.

Almost all products launched or introduced to market are made to advance current offerings and designed to improve the current products performance available in the market. It is therefore very important to clearly demonstrate and showcase the benefits of the new products over the older ones. In most cases these products can be sold at a premium. Show casing and demonstration of benefits will not only help to increase market penetration but will also assist in justifying the exorbitant prices charged for these new products. Demonstrations could be in a form of product samples and trials or even testing or test driving if they are cars.

Getting the implementation team onboard is key. Is very important to keep the team well aligned and focused on what needs to be accomplished by all involved. Ensuring the clarity of the communication when sharing the vision and purpose of what needs to achieved. This is also the right clearly state the expectations and rules of engagement. Having regular status updates with the team assist in keeping the team focused and synced . Celebrating key milestones as they happen helps to keep the together and create a common purpose for all involved.This works well if all stakeholders supporting the team are also involved in celebration of milestones.

The best experience where things have worked well is when progress is meticulously monitored. Today there are many new tools available to monitor progress and track progress in a seamless fashion. One can astutely monitor progress using tools like dashboards, ghant charts, trackers and reminders. These tools can help in keeping all stakeholders updated and informed. Regular status updates with all involved also helps to ensure that monitoring progress is the responsibility of the team and not just one individual. This is another way of holding everyone accountable while monitoring progress continuously.

In my experience on managing priorities the best way is to plan ahead and by ahead I mean the whole year. Calebdarizing all the activities for the year and being deliberate in informing all stakeholders about what is coming and what on the table. This maybe includes clearly defined expectations of everyone involved. It helps to garner the buy in. With a full buy in from stakeholders there is a better protection on management of competing activities

My shared experience on this is always to set priorities and agree on them with all stakeholders. If this is done in the beginning and in early stages it will save resources and deepen collaboration. This will also increase focus and dedication to prioritised tasks. Having regular status updates and dashboards to inform all stakeholders on progress is critical. This will reassure the stakeholders and partners running tasks that are staged to commence immediately after the prioritised tasks. Sending messages about tasks being on track. I have seen firsthand how this can assist in building trust and understanding of shared vision.