Anatomy of a Kickoff: Part 1: Overview

By Arun Nithyanandam

A lot of people have asked me about powerful kickoffs and their benefits. In this post, I will write about conducting one. I realized that there were a lot of things to write about, and decided on writing about the anatomy of a kickoff, and its benefits. What followed was a series of posts. This is a first post on the Kickoff series.

Kickoffs are done for almost all projects, but they are often choreographed very poorly. Many people treat kickoff event as a standard meeting. As a result, they lose an opportunity to set the stage for the entire project.

The best project kickoffs are like stories or movies. They introduce people and present a structured sequence of events. Most importantly, they offer a compelling vision to the participants. By the end of the kickoff, the participants should know the project’s goal, the roles everyone will play, and understand the critical pathways and timelines.

In this series, we will look at how to use introductions during a project kickoff to build trust.

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About the Author

Arun Nithyanandam is a Strategy and Management Consultant based in Silicon Valley. Arun has managed multiple multi-million dollar IT projects in US and Europe across verticals. His current focus areas are Enterprise Contract Management Systems (deploying Nextance proposal-to-revenue and source-to-savings solutions to help companies improve financial performance and lower risk) and Enterprise Content Management Systems. Arun works with CIGNEX Technologies, a provider of Open Source based enterprise content management solutions.

During his spare time (if any) Arun enjoys hiking and reading.

Arun is currently working on a book (co-authored with Bill Sherman) code named “Managing Multi-million dollar projects” to be published in 2008.

For the collection of all Arun’s articles, please visit Squidoo Lens Arun Says