The decision to sunset or cancel a program is sometimes considered a taboo subject. You might (gasp!) eliminate a portion of someone’s job and then (another gasp!) have to change a description and so on..
The thing is, we all have strings leading to nowhere. Programs that we don’t really pay attention to are sitting on our webpages or desktop folders much like dusty boxes in an attic.
We may have forgotten about them, they didn’t take off the way we wanted, or we didn’t realize the time it would take to get them going.
Consider how much these outstanding projects or programs may be hurting both you and morale in general.
If you handed off one of these projects to someone in your organization with no real clear direction or desired result, then what’s the purpose?
I myself have recently made it a point to examine items. Something as simple as a one-pager that we distribute once a year or something as complicated as an entire program we had created from the ground up. It was time to evaluate its relevancy.
Is it difficult? Of course. I mean, it’s like saying you failed, right? It might feel that way at first but once it’s done and the decision has been made, you will find yourself lighter with more space in your mind bank of to do’s.
That being said, sometimes a new generation may come up with a similar idea or see something differently. In light of that I now have a “sunset folder” with a description of the cancelled program along with the reason(s) of why we decided to shut it down. And that employee whose job it “might” have been? Chances are they will be glad to possibly have another new exciting challenge to take on and some deadweight taken off their plate.