Maintain Momentum

It’s key to maintain momentum with your innovative ideas. Innovations often take time to produce the desired results and maintaining momentum can be a difficult thing to achieve.

Projects can move too slowly or get veered off track for a number of reasons…

For example:

• Key project resources could transfer off the project, or
• Financial support could run dry
• Or changes in the market might result in new requirements in order for the project to remain successful.

At the initial outset, it’s relatively easy to get people excited and motivated with the vision for a great new innovative idea, however, it’s another thing entirely to maintain that motivation throughout the full lifecycle of the project, particularly if the project is likely to span many months.

Set a clear, easy to understand, direction for your team and sell it well so that you gain buy-in and support from all involved.

Maintaining momentum requires key project stakeholders such as the project champion and project leader to keep a high state of enthusiasm within the team.

Communication is key… You should communicate with all of the key stakeholders on a regular basis. Use many different forms of communication and consider inviting key stakeholders to progress meetings where you can demonstrate progress made so far and where you can highlight any obstacles or project risks.

Never forget the communication motto… “Communicate, communicate, and then communicate again!”

Also, focussing on a small number of clear short term goals that gradually ease you closer to your long term vision can be extremely useful.

Try and match goals to the individual. Some people are naturally more suited to some goals rather than others. If you are able to readily match people to goals that motivate them and closely match their skill sets and strengths while still giving them some room to be challenged and for growth then you’re already in a strong position.

Think about how you can measure your progress too. Having a small number of easily updateable metrics can act as a useful gauge to measure your progress against. Metrics can also enable team members to compete with one another in a friendly motivational way.

Use prototypes to demonstrate any small wins.

Overall just try and Keep your Mr. Motivator hat on at all times as it can be a long and challenging road to get from innovative ideas to successful implementation. 

Good luck!