How to keep project members in line with YOUR planning
During the last big project I was leading, finished few weeks ago, this question has been haunting me for about one year. I had to change systematically the planning’s and the action plan’s document formats to keep people using those.
Even though all the actions were done, not always on track, not always the way wanted, they were all done. The reason for changing the document’s format was to usually attract some members’ attention on a specific deadline or task. Every time I was just thinking “Hey, I’m just changing the format of the same old document, with same content ! How come this guys doesn’t like this one? Last time it was the other guy who made me change the document before he accepts to read it!”
At a very critical moment of the project, a manager in charge of half of the project members and I decided to have a monitoring tool to be filled by members of his team regarding when they will perform the tasks they have defined themselves. We tried to be very democratic, not to ask them to write down any specific task not to share the documents outside the team, we tried not to boss anyone and give them time to fill the document and review it every week, with as much necessary time dedicated to do it. Those review meetings quickly became nightmares ! At the pic moment (just before we stop it), 2 of the people were systematically late 30 minutes (not 5 minutes), didn’t prepare anything, filled the documents or even didn’t do the tasks they defined themselves. The worst moment was when one member was presenting his document and in the meantime, the 2 others were updating the document of the previous week. The previous week they were already updating the document while the same guy was presenting.
How is it possible to be more fair and democratic? What did we miss?
I’ve been studying Process Communication model for the last months and even though I feel like, it answers much more to the question: “What you should not do in that case?” instead of “what you should do in that case?”, it was incredibly interesting.
The main thing to understand is that, everyone has his or her own personality and the communication process may be efficient only if it fits his or her needs. Among the 3 project members participating to the nightmare meeting, 2 of them were not satisfied with the communication way. Not because they didn’t want to communicate their works, or couldn’t be in line with the global schedule. They were just incredibly not comfortable with the way to communicate what they do.
The mistake was to try to satisfy to our (their manager and I) needs. I believe being a democratic person, seeking for agreements and compromise, trying to have an official planning for everything, shared with all my colleagues so that they have all necessary information from me and about me. I’m maniacally organized.
What if they’re not? At the beginning I thought that it was more valuable to have a low-efficiency team member who is monitored, than a high efficiency member whose achievements are kept secret. I was wrong. There is nothing to compare here.
Now I understand that the only person who was filling the document and improved his efficiency was comfortable with it because we have the same personality. The 2 others, they don’t and this has no link with their efficiency. They had periods of surprising high efficiency, without any monitoring tools.
Trying to be democratic and transparent with people not needing it but needing something else is dangerous.
Provide to people what THEY NEED so that they are on time with YOUR schedule. They want to have a table to fill with their task ? Fine for those who want it. They need to have intimacy to define their tasks ? Fine for those people! provide it to them. They need to be monitored, boosted regularly with review of their task? Fine for those people.
Trying to manage all the people the same way because it really feels fair and honest is usually not appropriate. Some of them need something different. Trying to be directive or democratic with everyone is not appropriate. Some need to be directed, some need not to!
The manager’s job is to deal with each person providing him what he needs. Therefore he will be efficient and fit the planning YOU defined and update. Finally this is the only document you need in order to monitor people. Nothing else. Don’t ask people to fill monitoring document if it’s only for your personal needs. If they don’t need those, it will destroy there efficiency.
Tags: Buiness, Management