Have a workable plan. Sit down
in the project space and say,
‘Here’s a list of tasks,’ and think
about whether you have the right people with enthusiasm,
experience, availability, talent.
If you don’t have the right people, you don’t have a plan —
you have a wish list.
You have to sit down and
say, ‘How exactly are we going
to accomplish this? Who
exactly is going to accomplish
this? Are they free to do this,
or are they consumed on other
things they can’t be diverted
from?’ Until you work those
things out, you don’t have a
plan that’s workable.
Work those things out, and
you have a plan that — if it’s
carefully thought through and
you’ve considered the possibilities, the risks, the pitfalls and
the complications that may
arise — then it’s a good plan,
and it will probably get carried
out the way you intend.
Get people rowing together. Communicate in a variety of
ways in order to get people to
understand what we’re trying
to accomplish as a company. If
you think that reaching out is
sending an e-mail or calling
someone up and saying, ‘Do
this,’ you’re missing the boat.
You have to make sure the
message is received, that it’s
understood and accepted, and
that you’re going to get the
cooperation that you need with
other people in the organization in order to make things
happen. The only way you get
those is to have an in-depth,
two-way conversation.
Engage them and ask questions — how do you think this
will work out? If I’m talking to
marketing, ‘Do you think the sales organization has the data
or documents that will help
them explain this to the customer? How do you think this
will go over in production? We
need to make sure this release
works with your schedule. Are
people in customer support
ready to answer the phones?’
Ask them to take the plan to
the next step — ‘If this makes
sense and you’re on board,
then why don’t you come back
to me with some more details
on how you’re going to carry
this out and who you’re going
to use to do this, and then let’s
talk again because a couple of
things may dawn on you after
the conversation.’
If someone has issues, problems, concerns, hear those and
think about them. Very often,
they’re right because they’re a lot closer to the action. You
have to react to that. Modify
things as you have those conversations. If you don’t, it’s a
one-way blast, and it’s basically pointless, and they’ll go off
doing what they’re already
doing.
By asking questions and having someone think beyond the
narrow thing they’re doing, you
get a sense whether or not they
bought it, whether or not
they’re mentally committed to
it and whether or not they’re
thinking ahead as to how do all
these pieces work together.
If you don’t challenge them
that way and don’t ask those
questions, they’ll say, ‘I got my
piece of it,’ but they won’t
understand how their piece fits
into the whole.
HOW TO REACH: Primavera Systems Inc., (800) 423-0245 or www.primavera.com
