One of the strange things about the corporate world is the love of a project name. We create these with the stated aim of confidentiality, rather than call something what it is – we give it a “project name” so that no-one will ever know what we’re working on. The corporate halls are filled with projects named after gem stones, countries, animals, plants and pretty much any other grouping that you get taught about in kindergarten.

Don’t get me wrong, there are clearly big commercial projects and programmes that require the sort of confidentiality that comes with a project name (and normally a Non Disclosure Agreement) too. But there are also a hell of lot where it simply isn’t necessary. I’m not naive, I recognise I’m not going to change that, too many people are circling back, to move the needle on project names and sometimes taking them offline to create a win win.

You get where I’m going…

But I do want to talk about those people related changes and why your project names are bad for you, bad for employees and bad for your business. HR loves a project name, because it makes us look special, important and allows us to hold power through secrecy. We create these because it makes US feel special, but ultimately disrupts the business more than necessary and makes us look like fools.

Fresh Start!

One Team!

Fit for the Future!

Reset!

Chrysalis!

Re-vision!

(The exclamation marks aren’t necessary but whilst I write this my inner voice is taking control)

The first reason not to do is this is the names are always divisive. The people coming up with them are seldom impacted by the change other than having to implement it. Whereas the people who have their lives turned upside down due to rubbish piece of branding have to go home and tell their families that they might not be able to pay the bills because of a project named after insects transforming.

The second reason is you create a “thing”. Organisation memory lasts longer than most leaders. It is much more likely that people will remember and talk about the impact of, “Fit For The Future” rather than the time they changed the management structure. The point of a brand is to make it memorable, but on people related change you want quite the opposite – you want people to move on as soon as possible.

And the final reason is it stops you thinking about the people. When you start to measure success in relation to a project, and stop measuring it in terms of the impact of people’s lives you fulfil all the stereotypes that people have of management and leadership. Imagine you were managing Project Cause No Distress. What decisions would you make then?

Sometimes changes need to take place in organisations, that goes without saying. Our job is to implement them with as little unintentional impact as possible and to help individuals, teams and the organisation to heal and move on as quickly as possible. There’s no project name ever created, that’s additive to that.