Track Project Work

This section deals with your overall involvement with the project team as work is being done. Your goal here is to gain a better understanding of what is going on and how the work is being done. Through this you will gain insight into the real state of the project. You also may uncover more issues.

In communications the emphasis is on informal contact. Never have team members come to you. Always call them or go to them. This shows that you care enough to get out there. Try to go to team members unannounced frequently. If you always announce your visits, then people will change to show you and tell you what you want to hear. This is like Potemkin villages in the days of the czars in Russia. The czarina, Catherine the Great, wanted to see how the people lived. The officials were aghast. Potemkin came up with the solution. The czarina would take a boat down the main river and she could then see the villages and talk to people. Potemkin arranged for a model village to be created so that wheels could be attached to the houses. During the day the czarina saw a happy village which was very clean. As she slept on the boat, the village was moved down the river and changed. The same scene was repeated for several days—a small, but interesting project.

You will encounter some difficult personnel situations. People may not get along with each other. A team member is not doing work in the project even though you have talked about this repeatedly. How do you handle situations such as these? Begin to contact them more frequently. If they see you coming or hear from you more often, they will begin to realize that their work is really important to the project. If you fail to do this, then they may feel that there is no big problem. Remember it is what you do that is more important than what you say in project management.

Even after visiting them repeatedly, nothing happens. Then what? One of us has adopted an extreme approach. You move in with them where they are working. Now the pressure is really on. In one case, this took a long time to get across. It finally worked, but it was an ordeal. The person was quite dense.