September 12th, 2025 Weeknotes
How to Drive Progress and Deliver Results: Lessons from the Field
Delivering successful projects often means balancing multiple priorities, staying focused on outcomes, and maintaining strong collaboration. Over the past weeks, I’ve been involved in a variety of exciting initiatives where I’ve been applying principles like accountability, innovation, and a strong sense of urgency to maintain momentum and achieve results. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how these values have been brought to life.
Laying the Foundation for Success
I was recently assigned a new project with the goal of establishing a new legal entity by early 2026. This required me to hit the ground running with early discovery work, including:
- Meeting with key stakeholders to begin mapping the process.
- Reviewing the project tracker to understand the critical steps needed for delivery.
- Organizing resources, including creating a shared folder to house all the files and building a master slide deck to track activity and risks as they emerge.
Even at this early stage, issues were identified and flagged for resolution. Additionally, I learned about an external project manager leading a component of the project. Making a plan to connect with them ensures we’re collaborating effectively and reducing duplication.
Key takeaway: When starting any project, laying a strong foundation with early discovery, clear communication, and resource organization increases your chances of long-term success.
Driving Agility Through Sprints
Agile methodologies are all about quick iteration and delivering value incrementally. In recent weeks, I’ve facilitated sprint ceremonies to help teams prioritize their work and focus on impactful outcomes. Key activities included:
- Leading retrospective and planning sessions to reflect and adapt for future sprints.
- Preparing the team for the next sprint by aligning on goals during backlog refinement sessions.
- Completing scheduled agile ceremonies to maintain rhythm and momentum.
- By focusing on refinement and planning, the team is better equipped to work toward their goals, simplifying complex problems and moving forward with clarity.
Key takeaway: Agile isn’t just about frameworks; it’s about fostering a culture of ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
Process Improvement: Closing Gaps in Recruitment
One area of focus this month has been driving process improvements in recruitment. Specifically, I initiated a sprint to address urgent challenges in final interview stages, such as the timely alignment between hiring managers and offer deadlines. The solution involved:
- Identifying final interview candidates who required immediate decisions.
- Sending reminders to hiring managers to act quickly on offers and ensure alignment with hiring schedules.
- Designing a report to track these activities and updating processes to prevent delays. This initiative is already paying off by building urgency into hiring decisions and reducing the risk of losing top candidates.
Key takeaway: Small process improvements can create significant impact when they address bottlenecks and empower teams to take timely, data-driven actions.
Fostering Collaboration and Clarity
Clear communication and collaboration have been consistent themes across all projects. Here are a few ways I’ve approached this:
- Developed feedback forms to capture lessons learned from past initiatives, ensuring open and constructive conversations within teams.
- Formalized time allocation for individual projects, balancing resources effectively and communicating priorities transparently.
- Scheduled regular check-ins on workstreams like backlog refinement and risk assessments, making sure teams are aligned and working toward shared outcomes.
Key takeaway: Collaboration thrives when everyone has clarity on roles, responsibilities, and priorities.
Moving Forward With Purpose
Projects can often feel overwhelming, especially in their early phases, but by adhering to core principles like accountability, maintaining a sense of urgency, and focusing on impact, it’s possible to break even the most complex tasks into actionable steps. Whether by spearheading agile methodologies, discovering risks earlier, or streamlining processes, the approach remains the same: plan purposefully, communicate clearly, and act decisively.
I hope these insights inspire others to apply similar methods in their projects. Remember, success often comes from the small, consistent improvements that accumulate over time. Now, where can you drive agile progress or process improvement in your current projects?