Everyone is so busy! We’re facing competing demands, achieving a happy work/life balance, increasing concerns about money and the rising cost of living. We’re all fighting challenges on a daily basis that are hitting us from stage left, right, above and even below.
As a project manager working on umpteen complex projects at once, I’ve learned the importance of ‘proportionate project management’. By that, I mean a pragmatic approach to managing projects that helps you stay sane when you’re extremely busy, as well as effectively fulfilling your role in ensuring the successful delivery of a project.
One of your key roles as a project manager is to reassure your team that everything is under control and the project is on track, as well as finding ways to help manage people’s capacity, especially when you’re trying to ‘manage upwards’ within your, or someone else’s, organisation.
We know that every project is unique and subject to change. There are many project management approaches and methodologies to consider using, each with their own unique perks and pitfalls – whether your preferred flavour may be PRINCE2, Agile, Waterfall, Lean, Six Sigma – or just good old winging it…
Whatever your preferred methodology, adapting to your working environment; understanding your team’s individual nuances and preferred ways of working; your client and/or the organisation you’re working for and their often complex organisational culture(s), and a project’s complex timescales are all essential if your work is going to be delivered successfully.
With these considerations in mind, here are five ‘proportionate project management‘ principles that I try to follow in my day-to-day work:
1. Use email where possible – and avoid arranging (more!) calls! Given how busy people are, it’s often hard work to fit in another call. An email allows people to reply in their own time, giving them space to cover everything they want to say in a timeframe that suits them. It’s worth considering that emails can be picked up on the move and replied to if someone is free (or bored) during another meeting – rather than having to change out of their pyjamas before finding a time slot to talk with you.
Also, use email tags (such as ‘High Importance!’) only when you really mean it – a bit like swear words, these tags become a lot more effective if you use them sparingly. Finally, try to title the subject line of your emails clearly so the purpose can be easily spotted and mentally-logged for a response by your colleagues with the most-overflowing inboxes (e.g. ‘AGENDA FOR WEDS 10AM: Project ABC’ – or – ‘QUICK QUESTION, PLEASE: Tuesday’s report’).
2. That said, do schedule regular team check-ins. Having an agreed routine of scheduled check-ins (calls or in-person) allows your team to focus on sharing their insights and new ideas amongst themselves, discussing the most important things together, and reaching a consensus on anything important, such as planning your next steps on complex activities or tasks. It also offers your team a ‘parking lot’ for day-to-day project issues that arise and require wider discussion, instead of trying to resolve them in massive ‘War And Peace’ email or chat chains with everyone and their dog copied in for good measure.
3. Whenever you round off a project conversation, make sure you’re clear with your team about the responsibilities for the next steps. This includes who’s completing any follow-up actions and when by, as well as understanding what’s involved in achieving a particular milestone or deliverable (e.g. knowing what your ‘project product’, such as a final report or presentation, should look like well in advance. Is it 5 pages or 50? Is it a Word document or a Powerpoint? Do I need to send it to you for comments or can I just send it directly to the Committee Manager?). This way everyone comes away from a conversation clear about who’s doing what next and can be held accountable for delivering their contributions. Ultimately, everyone needs to know where you’re all trying to get to from the earliest possible moment in a project. Part of your role as project manager is in translating and understanding what is happening next in order to achieve that – helping to nudge things along the way and not letting them roll back down the hill.
4. Update your own rigorous and highly-detailed project plan religiously – but also create and make daily updates to a very simple, jargon-free, one-side-of-A4 summary timetable, and then point your colleagues at it. Some people want the details, while others in your team will only care about the headlines and what affects them. As the project manager, you need to know all the details, but you can help your teams by pointing them at the specifics that just affect them.
A simple ‘one-sider’ project timetable allows people to casually dip in and out on a project timeline at their own pace, helping them to spot what’s really going on and when in very basic terms. In your one-sider timetable, try to keep things really simple. I recommend a straight-forward table – just including the week, the tasks to be completed in that particular week, and who’s responsible for delivering them, excluding all jargon and the infinite levels of detail that sits behind it. Tick-boxes are also helpful to include, so everyone can visualise team progress (and benefit from that occasional warm fuzzy feeling we get when items on a list are ticked off).
5. So, we now have our detailed project plan, our summary ‘one-sider’ project timetable, our emails for quick discussions, our regular team check-ins for extended discussions, and we have a set of follow-up actions and deliverables that we’re individually responsible for. This is great! So, what’s left to do? One of the hardest things I often find is to then just leave your people to get on with it. Once your team knows what needs doing, and when it needs doing by, a project manager should feel able to trust people to complete their work and achieve the deadlines within the parameters that have been agreed.
As a project manager, with a bird’s eye view of your project’s world, this can sometimes feel like you’re watching a cartoon train crash in slow motion. However, knowing when to step in and offer your support to the team or an individual (rather than leaving people to crash and burn) requires intuition, nous and a ‘spider-sense’ based on your inside knowledge of your team’s preferred ways of working and what helps them each to succeed. This understanding often improves over time and from having delivered other projects successfully together, especially where trust already exists and knowing that you can rely on each other if someone needs a hand. That said, if you manage to find shortcuts for developing your own ‘spider-sense’, please tell me how! :o)
Hopefully these ideas may help you in developing your own unique and tailored approach to proportionate project management. It’s worth remembering that there is no one single fixed way or methodology that is replicable for every project environment you may find yourself in. If you succeed in implementing any of the suggestions above and they make life a little easier for you, then congratulations!
Some final thoughts: as project managers, we aim to achieve the delivery of a project’s intended outcomes as best (and as painlessly) as possible within the resources we have available to us, reacting to changing circumstances as they arise and adapting as swiftly as possible. It can be reassuring to remember that no project is ever going to progress without some kind of unexpected hiccup or challenge along the way! Your firefighting skills will be put to the test on an almost daily basis and adjusting your original meticulously-planned approach will require you to draw on all the tools you have to hand in your super-hero project manager utility belt.
So, good luck to my fellow project managers – I wish you patience, success and a plentiful supply of caffeinated drinks! White, 2 sugars for me, please.
