I don’t want to give you the impression that I’m getting old, but when I first started managing projects I didn’t have access to virtually any of the tools that I have now. I frequently had to recruit members of my team to help carry parts of the project file to the meeting room for the status meeting because they were too heavy to carry on my own. I also had file folders that copies of the status report went into--and a sheet on the front for each recipient to initial after receiving it each week.
Thankfully the world has moved on, and project managers now have a whole host of tools and technologies at their disposal to make their life easier (not to mention to save them from lugging heavy files around the office). In all of this technology, however, we have to be careful--it can help us become more effective and efficient, but it’s not a substitute for good management.
Communication
When I first started to learn project management, the person that taught me the basics said two things to me that have stuck in my mind. (They weren’t his quotes, but unfortunately I can’t recall who first said them so my apologies for not giving credit where it’s due.) He said to me:
- If you think that you are over-communicating, then you are probably coming close to communicating enough
- A project manager should spend 85 percent of their time communicating
Let’s just look at that second one for a minute—85 percent. If you work an eight-hour day from 9 to 5, that means that if you start communicating at 9 a.m. on Monday morning, you won’t have completed that work and be free to start the rest of your tasks until 11:00 on Friday!
Now for those of you that feel that you have communication covered because you are always on BlackBerry and sending e-mails well into the night, is that really communication? They tell me that communication is the secret to a good marriage--I’m not sure that my wife would think that e-mails telling her how much I enjoyed the dinner that she cooked would be appreciated.
Don’t get me wrong, I love e-mail, but recognize the limitations of the tool. It’s a wonderful support tool, but a lousy communication tool. Consider a status meeting: If you set up mechanisms for status updates to be provided via e-mail ahead of the meeting and then you as project manager consolidate those submissions into an overall status summary and distribute it ahead of the meeting, then e-mail has been a great help. That frees you up to spend the time at the meeting talking about the problem areas, the risks that need addressing, the issues that require resolution, etc. It’s a great way for communication skills to be supported by technology.
The other options don’t work nearly as well--I suspect that many of you have sat through endless status meetings where everyone around the table provides their update and everyone else sits there bored out of their mind. I also suspect that you have been witness to, or part of, those endless e-mail chains that attempt to resolve an issue when what is really required is a quick phone call or meeting.
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