Credit: Ramit Sethi, I will teach you to be rich

If you’ve ever worked on a project, you know they almost always go sideways.

You’re waiting on another team before you can proceed … or you get an unexpected second project that adds more work to your plate … or you need additional (and costly) resources to complete the project … or you deliver something other than what was expected … and on and on.

At IWT, we practice extreme ownership. This philosophy comes from the #1 New York Times bestseller Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy Seals Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin.

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Here’s a brief description of the book:

“Two U.S. Navy SEAL officers who led the most highly decorated special operations unit of the Iraq War demonstrate how to apply powerful leadership principles from the battlefield to business and life.”

Highly recommended! If you’re a leader of any kind (yes, at work or in business, but also in your family, as a volunteer, etc.), you need to read this book.

Recently, one of my colleagues at IWT developed “The Project Ownership Checklist” for us. It’s a step-by-step plan for a successful project and an example of what extreme ownership looks like.

Here it is:

The Project Ownership Checklist

Description: A simple document that outlines the questions to ask when starting a new project. The goal is to remove any uncertainty on expectations and to plan for potential risks to the project’s success.

1. Do I know what done/success looks like?
   1. Is there a single deliverable or multiple?
   2. Are there KPIs (key performance indicators), and do I understand them?
   3. Can I break this down into multiple projects or multiple parts?
   4. Have I checked with my stakeholders that my vision and their vision of what “done” looks like is the same?
2. Do I know who my stakeholders are?
   1. Am I making assumptions about who needs to be kept informed?
   2. Do I know what their expectations are for the frequency and nature of updates?
3. Do I know what my deadlines are?
   1. Is there a final deadline?
   2. Are there deadlines along the way that I need to be aware of?
4. What resources are available to complete my project?
   1. Are there constraints I need to be aware of?
   2. Are there resources that would help me complete my project that I am not aware of?
   3. Who can I ask for help?
   4. What can I delegate?
5. Have I considered the risks? Do I have a plan if something goes wrong?
   1. Do I understand the assumptions I’m making that lead me to believe I can complete the project?
   2. Do I have plans to address issues that may come up?
      1. Plan for performance issues
      2. Plan for missed deadlines
      3. Plan for resource constraints
      4. Plan for dependencies not being completed
      5. Plan for project scope changing