THE PROJECT BODY

The human body is an amazing creation. It works in total harmony to allow us to engage with life as we desire. When things go wrong, it tells us – the central nervous system sends a warning or alert to our brain and tells us that we have a problem that needs fixing.

We take the medicine. We go and see a doctor. We rest up for a while… whatever it takes, we sort out the problem and move on with life.

We don’t ignore the warnings.

We make sure that we take as good a care of our bodies and minds as we possibly can. We are in tune with ourselves instinctively.

Effective project management is the same. In order for the “whole” to work, we must understand each part of the projects make-up and how they interact with each other towards success.

If we use the human body as an example, the project manager is the brain. It is the project managers responsibility to be in tune with the rest of the team and to be aware of things that are possibly not going according to plan.  The rest of the body is the remaining elements of the project management process and the team engaged to make it happen.

It is vital that the project manager is conscious of every aspect of the project – budget, processes, input/outputs and the people that are going to make it happen.

Problems in projects start when the project manager loses touch with what is going on in a particular part of the delivery. Problems start when something doesn’t go according to plan; a person makes an error, a machine breaks down, a budgeted item is more expensive than previously thought, the scope is creeping because it wasn’t defined correctly in the first place….  The list goes on and on. The trick for the project manager is to make sure that the problem is identified early and action taken.

But how does the project manager do this?

Singularly the most important part of any project is the people engaged in its delivery. People notice (or make) problems and it is people who are going to fix those problems for the project manager. This means that the strongest aid to helping a project manager overcome a problem is an open communications structure where honesty on mistakes does not equal a witch-hunt!

Depending on the nature of the project, the team can be local or dispersed. Communication can be written or verbal – but there must be communication. To me, the strongest form of communication is verbal – pick up the phone, turn around in your chair, conduct those necessary meetings… whatever it takes, make sure that the verbal communication happens.

Once the channels of communication are open, the next step is to make sure that there is a “comfortable” environment in which to report problems. The project manager, while inevitably will feel/express frustration, must encourage problems to be brought to the fore as soon as possible. The longer they are left, the more expensive they are to fix.

Lastly, once the problems are out in the open, they should be addressed and not ignored. Talk to the project sponsor, re-negotiate with the client, inform the management team that there is a budget overrun… whatever the problem is, the project manager should engage with the right people to overcome the challenge at hand.

Are you in sync with your project body? Are you operating a clean communications path for problem discovery?

Photo: Brain_blogger