Projects at Home too!

by Skip Colfax

As one of my hobbies, I like to bake and sometimes am asked to create beautiful and delicious cakes for weddings and other cake-worthy events. Creating these cakes takes a lot of planning and is clearly defined as a project.

To manage a project like this, I use the Effective Edge best practices on projects. In many cases, the cake order starts with a phone call from the new Bride and Groom. We talk for a while and I ask a few basic questions, such as: “What date is the date of the wedding?” “Where will the reception be held?” “Approximately how many guests do you want to serve?” “What did you have in mind for your cake?”

The answers to those 4 questions usually give me enough information to get started. I create the Project in my EDGE System and give it a snappy title that I’ll recognize instantly. I will assign a due date (the date of the event) and write the first version of my desired outcome for this wedding cake. The desired outcome gets revisited after I have met personally with the decision makers.

Next is my project mind sweep, where I think about what needs to be done to create the wedding cake as my desired outcome describes. This can be a lengthy list of tasks, including everything from “pick up the cake topper from the bride” to “buy groceries needed to bake the cake”.

Then, just like any other project, I pull one or two items at a time that are the very next tasks and add them my Task list, categorized as Actions. Once each is completed, it is marked with an asterisk in my project plan, indicating that it is completed.

This process works well, keeps me on track, and when I need to get refocused, I have a wonderfully descriptive desired outcome statement to keep me motivated.

I’ve been making wedding cakes for over 20 years and until I learned about how to manage projects from The Effective Edge, I haven’t had a good tool for managing a wedding cake project; keeping tabs on all of the things that need to be accomplished to produce a beautiful and delicious cake.

The point of all of this is that The Effective Edge best practices on projects works, not only for business related projects, but for any project.

The deck in my back yard needs to be rebuilt… and soon, so that’s my next project! I’ll be creating my Project Plan and Desired Outcome in the next day or two.

Now that’s effective!