Recognising the possibility – or rather, the inevitability – of the death of your project will focus your mind:
- Given that we can’t do anything in the time available, what’s most important?
- Will people miss us when we’re gone?
- Will your project’s main legacy be something physical you’ll leave behind, or an idea or value, or a change in people?
- Given that the cause that motivates your project will probably remain, what can you do to seed new projects and make it possible for new people to pick up the ball?
- How can you avoid a painful decline and death-spiral – that is to say, how will you make sure the project dies well?