🚩Tactical Memo 080: The biggest lie in management

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What’s the biggest lie in management?

It’s that “anyone can manage a project”.

I've spent years working with startup CEOs.

Most of them are smart. They have big ideas and conviction to spare. But they can't execute.

They know what done looks like. Getting there is where it falls apart. That's why they bring me in.

I step in, take the idea, and build the system around it. I assign the work, track the risks, manage the communication up, and push it to done.

After enough of these projects, the same pattern kept showing up: execution is a skill.

Most people assume anyone can run a project. That's wrong. The people who can take something from idea to finished are rare. And the ones who do it consistently all do the same things.

Here is what I do on every single project.

1/ Define success before kickoff

Before anyone touches the work, I write what success looks like in one sentence. Then I put that sentence in front of my boss early, because if we disagree on the finish line, I want to find out in week one, not week nine. I bring it back up every week so it never drifts.

2/ Run a pre-mortem on day one

On day one, I ask the team a blunt question: what could kill this project? We list the top three risks while everyone is still honest, before anyone has something to defend. Each risk gets an owner by name. A risk without an owner is a surprise waiting for a date.

3/ Build a weekly status rhythm

Every Friday, my boss gets one paragraph from me. Same format, same day, every week. It takes ten minutes to write and it means my boss never hears bad news from someone else first. That rhythm is worth more to my credibility than any deliverable I ship.

4/ Use AI to draft your project plan

I paste my goals into ChatGPT and let it produce the first draft of the plan. Then I do the part that matters: I edit it, cut the fluff, and pressure-test every line against what I know about the team. The tool saves me an hour. The editing is where I earn my keep. I own the result completely.

5/ Set scope boundaries in writing

Before work starts, I write down what's in and what's out, and I get sign-off on both lists. Three months later, when someone says "I thought that was included," I open the document instead of opening a debate. That one page has ended more scope arguments than any meeting I've ever run.

6/ Hold a 15-minute weekly team sync

The agenda goes out first and it never changes. We start on time and we end at 15 minutes with no exceptions, because the moment a sync becomes a status dump, people stop preparing and start performing. Short and predictable beats long and thorough every week.

7/ Track decisions, not just tasks

Tasks tell you what got done. Decisions tell you why. So I log every key call with a date and the name of the person who made it. Six months later, when someone asks why we went with option B, I have the answer in writing. That log is my paper trail.

8/ Manage up proactively

Once a week, I bring my VP one risk and one ask. Nothing more. No full recap, no tour of everything going well. Executives don't want the whole story. They want to know what could go wrong and what you need from them to stop it.

9/ Run a retro after every project

When the project ends, I answer two questions: what worked, what broke. I write the answers down somewhere I can actually find them, then I read that page before my next kickoff. Most people repeat their mistakes because they never wrote them down the first time.

Watch the operators who keep getting promoted. Their projects never surprise anyone. That's the skill.

Pick one of these and start it this week. The rest builds from there.

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Until next time,

Justin Bateh, PhD
Founder and Editor
Tactical Memo