The People, Process, & Progress Podcast - Structure Before Action | Foundations Friday S5EP3

Episode Date: June 6, 2025

In this Foundations Friday, Structure Before Action, we explore the importance of applying project structure to any event or initiative. Whether you're planning a community gathering, a training workshop, or a major deployment, structure is your best friend. Learn two quick strategies to lead with clarity and avoid chaos.What You'll Learn:Why structure should come before actionHow to define your event like a project charterTwo simple ways to build a planning foundationA reminder that leadership starts with preparationPaired Full Episode:

Whether you were running an event or leading a project, chaos shows up pretty quickly when there's no structure. People get confused, timeline slip, before you know it you are reacting instead of being able to lead. And I don't mean super strict, you have to do this, then that, unless it's a safety thing like shoring up, you know, rubble to go in, then you wanna wait.

But I mean, there has to be some kind of structure, right? That's part of the process piece of this. I've seen in emergency management and healthcare and IT and public events, but I've also seen how one shift treating your event like a project can change everything. In this Foundations Friday, we're going to focus on one powerful principle, structure before action. It could be two examples and steps to help you lead with clarity, not chaos, no matter we're gonna focus on one powerful principle, structure before action. It could be two examples and steps

to help you lead with clarity, not chaos, no matter the size of your event or project. So let's get into it. All right, focus. So structure before action. So before you dive into logistics or vendors or permits or whip out all those forms or documents or project management systems, take a breath,

give your event a project structure. This means applying the same clarity that you've used in formal projects for your event planning process. So here we're going kind of a crossover from the project management world to the public safety and incident management world. So one, here's an actual step. Define the event like a charter. If you don't know what a project charter is, it's essentially your ICS 201 or 202. You got your objectives, right? What is the objective? Who are the stakeholders?

Who's who in the zoo? How are you gonna measure success, those key performance indicators, or you can build those into your objectives, right? We wanna reduce water rise in this area with sandbags by whatever time or day or something like that, right? Or if it's a project, we're gonna reduce documentation time with the implementation of this, blah, blah, blah. So the first thing is define the event like a project charter. So have those key things,

objectives, who's who, how are we going to measure this? And to set milestones early, right? Where are we trying to get to that will make us significant progress to the positive, right? Make a simple timeline. You can draw a line at a piece of paper or just write like one day, one week, one hour, one month, six months, whatever the appropriate timeline is. And then assign those roles and responsibilities. This is why I've talked about org charts so many times have been part of the first foundation.

Well, three and four and five and all these things, but don't go solo, know who your experts are, know who's accountable, that RACI chart. Remember, responsible, accountable. Who are we gonna consult? Who are we gonna keep informed? So these two strategies you can do, just take a second. Think of the elements of a charter

or the elements of a really short instant action plan. Set milestones early and then start getting to work. Then have to be a super rigid process, a whole lot of documentation. Just pause, plan, then act. Right, before booking the venue or sending the invites, put the project framework in place, it'll save you time, it'll reduce the stress,

and it will cut down on last minute scrambles. Thanks so much you all for scrambling to the People Process Progress podcast. Go to peopleprocessprogress.com, follow me on Instagram and X at Penel KG. Go to the newly branded, newly aligned, own move anchor YouTube channel that was the Penel 5 Fitness Club. It's that and more and you can learn a lot more about it when you go to that channel.

Thanks so much for listening. Subscribe, share the show if you think this was helpful, if it was a good idea. If not, let me know. Reply, reach out to me on socials. Thanks for your time. Stay safe out there. Godspeed.