A smart Project Update meeting technique

I was once involved in a project where the project manager did something that struck me as unusual at first, but which I came to find was quite an effective technique.

At the very start of every meeting he asked “How are things going? Do you have any feedback to give on the project?”

In the early meetings the response from the stakeholders was usually a polite “Everything seems to be going well” kind of comment, which our PM recorded in the minutes. Over the course of the project though, the feedback became richer and more beneficial, often praising the efforts of particular team members.

The value of this is significant.

• Firstly, it opens the communication channels and lets all stakeholders know that their feedback is invited and valued.
• Secondly, it establishes a positive atmosphere in the early stages of the project, and gives excellent opportunity for people to provide positive feedback on team members.
• Thirdly, it allows the PM to keep a close eye on the sentiment of the project – especially if he is not on site every day to observe it for himself.

This is an excellent project management device that is really easy to implement – start asking for feedback in every project meeting and see it work for you.

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Don’t stress – Just focus on the facts

As a project manager, one of the most difficult balances to maintain is your emotional buy-in to a project. Many project managers become so involved that they end up stressed and burned out.

Sure, to motivate your team, you need to care about the project and want it to be successful.

But the real opportunity to reduce stress is when you’re presenting information to stakeholders so they can make decisions. They’re relying on you to present them with all the facts, good or bad, and have done some analysis so it’s relatively straightforward for them to decide on a course of action – what’s not needed is your emotional involvement in their decision. It’s your job to manage the project, and theirs to steer it.

For example, you might have to inform the project executive that a project is behind schedule. You’ve done everything you could to minimise delays, you’ve informed them in a timely manner and you’ve provided them with fact-based estimates and possible mitigations to support their decisions. You’ve done all you can – stressing about the situation won’t change the facts, and it may reduce your ability to deliver the best possible outcome after the executive makes their decision.

Don’t shoot the messenger

And the better you get at analysing and communicating facts, the better your reputation will become. You will become a facilitator of good and timely decision making – what more could your employer and customers ask for?

So save your emotion for motivating your team, and focus on the facts when it comes to communicating with your project stakeholders and customers.

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Trust: Your 6th sense of project management

Think about the people you manage – do you trust them to deliver? Chances are you know you can rely on most of them, but then there’s one who always misses their deadlines, or needs constant pushing…

For those who don’t deliver so reliably, there are four possible reasons why they’re not performing:

1)    They’re not committed to meeting your expectations.

2)    They don’t know what your expectations are.

3)    They don’t have the skills to deliver.

4)    They’re not motivated.

While it may seem like number one is always the cause, it may be one of the other reasons, and you can control these by exercising your communication skills.

So increasing your trust in them is as much about what you can do as what they can do.

However, you can use decreasing trust as a trigger to check your management approach. When you feel your trust in a colleague’s ability to deliver starting to fall:

1)    Discuss their understanding of your expectations and make sure you’re both working towards the same goal.

2)    Ascertain whether they have the ability to deliver to these expectations – if not, get them skilled up or assign the task to a colleague who does have the appropriate skills.

3)    Discuss their motivations for the task and negotiate if necessary/appropriate.

4)    Ask them to commit to the task.

You’ll create an environment where everyone is clear on what needs to be done, confident they can do it and motivated to do it. This is good for your projects, great for your workload and excellent for team morale.

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Is email ‘efficiency’ making you look bad?

Email is a great way to collect information from a group of people. An email will whip around the team, or bounce between the project and the customer, collecting information as it goes.

You, as the project manager, are often the hub of these communications, directing the flow and prompting the appropriate people to contribute.

Once an email has accumulated the information for a task, have you ever forwarded it as-is to one of your team members as the supporting information? E.g. Hi Bill, the information for Task X is in the attached email…

If so, you may have created a few problems which could easily have been avoided:

• Emails that have gathered details from a number of people can be quite lengthy, so the delegate will spend time finding the details they need to commence work.
• Some of the information may be incorrect, replaced elsewhere in the email during discussions or negotiations. Depending on where they are looking, delegates can accidentally use the wrong information.
• If you are simply forwarding emails, what value are you adding to the process? Your team will certainly ask that question as they sift through long email trails to find the information they need.

It’s not difficult or time-consuming to avoid these issues, both during information gathering and when the task is assigned.

As an email skips from recipient to recipient, periodically:

1. Summarise the information so far, and identify what else is needed.
2. Truncate the trail of information.
3. Send it on its way again.

You’ll make it clear where the information gathering process is up to, clarify what has been gathered and highlight what needs to be contributed.

When you’ve got all the information, create a final, concise summary and provide it to the team member who’ll do the task. They’ll be able to get work straight away, using the right information.

Summarising and truncating emails will improve the efficiency of information collection and task assignments. It will also build your focusing skills and confirm your reputation as a value-adding, get-to-the-point project manager.

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