The Consultant's Blog April 2013
Forward Momentum
I’ve found one of the hardest parts of a project life cycle to be a consultant, is the post Go Live phase. Not
hardest as in the most complicated or difficult skills wise, but hardest as far as a challenge to stay motivated.
The Go Live itself is usually exciting, exhausting, challenging and satisfying. It is fantastic to be involved in
implementing something you have helped design, build and test. But after the critical support period is over, consultants
are often still in place ‘just in case’ something goes wrong, or until the agreed handover period is fully completed.
After the highs and adrenaline rushes of the Go Live, if you have done a good professional job up till now, this last
period of support can feel like a slump, a very flat period of few challenges where time drags itself through seemingly
endless days!
‘One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals’.
Michael Korda
It’s at this stage of a project that I start to assess, plan and re-group mentally. There will always be lessons to be learnt,
things that could have been done better. Hindsight is a wonderful tool for forward momentum.
Review your work on this project, determine for yourself what you did well (and will strive to continue to do so in future work), and
what you feel you could have done better. Be honest with yourself and if you are brave, have an informal review of your performance
with your peers or team leader. Feel good about what you have achieved and relax a little while you can. Set yourself goals to perform
even better on your next project.
And if your Go Live was not as successful as you would have liked, don’t dwell on what went wrong after you have extracted your lessons learnt.
Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward, toward finding the answers. As Denis Waitley says:
'Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future, and live in the only moment of time over which you have any control: NOW.'
Past Blogs
Please click on the appropriate link below to view past blogs:
The Origin of the Functional Spec - April 2012
The Life of the SAP Functional Spec - May 2012
Get an Inside Track to Successful Consulting - June 2012
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