Project management

Larson has a strucutred process for encouraging diverse people to run important projects:

1. Define the project’s scope and goals in a short document. Particularly important are identifying:

   • Time commitment: People need to decide if they must ask permission from their managers.
   • Requirements to apply: If there are no requirements, say so explicitly; otherwise, a lot of folks will assume that there are, and will opt out.
   • Selection criteria: If multiple individuals apply, how will you select the project leader between them?

2. **Announce* the project … What’s most important is that you:

   • Allow folks to apply in private. …
   • Make sure that the applicants don’t see who else has applied. Some poeple will see someone they view as senior apply, and will immediate disengage because they feel that they are less qualified.
   • Give at least three working days for people to apply. Do this whenever possible, as some folks will need to talk with their manager or peers to muster up the confidence to apply.

3. Nudge folks to apply who; you think might be good candidates but who might not self select.

4. Select a project leaders … privately reach out to them to confirm that they’re able to commit.

5. Sponsor the project leader by finding someone who has successfully completed a similar project to be their advisor. This sponsor will be accountable for coaching the leader to successful completion.

6. Notify other individuals who applied that they were not selected. It’s extremely helpful if you provide them feedback on why you didn’t select them. Sometimes it’s because they’ve already done something great and you want to create room for another person to learn, and that’s a totally reasonable thing to tell them!

7. Kick off the project, notifying … who the project leader is, who the sponsor is, and what their plan for running the project is.⊕ (Larson 2019, 5.2)