Dear Ammar,
The company I work for just instituted the role of the project manager to oversee projects’ successful completion. There are three of us so far, responsible for the company projects which are implemented across the different organizational departments. The setup is relatively new and many department managers are disgruntled with the project manager role due to a perception of trespassing on the department managers’ role. However, management seems to be happy with the improvements in projects performance.
Throughout the planning and monitoring effort, team members keep complaining about the number of project meetings they have to sit in. Also, department managers are raising this as an issue to upper management and requesting that we limit project management meetings to a minimum. Accordingly, management has asked me to limit my meetings with team members. AS a result, whenever I call for a meeting, nobody shows up. Due to the amount of pressure we are under as project managers, we cannot push on them too hard.
As a result, I am not able to get clarifications from team members on the status of project tasks and accordingly cannot properly do project reporting. Also, I am left in the dark about risks and issues that are affecting project success and I am unable to proactively deal with them due to lack of information and support from the technical team.
I raised this issue to management but they were not much help. They said that it is my responsibility as a project manager to get the information.
Almost everyday now, people are complaining that the project is in disarray and they are holding me responsible for not being able to keep it under control.
I am not sure how to deal with this. Please help.
Regards,
Frustrated PM
Dear PM,
What looked like an issue of having too much meetings has turned into a bigger problem jeopardizing project success and more importantly, the new project management initiative.
One of the biggest problems facing project managers’ in today’s business world is the lack of management support. While managers might claim support and commitment to a project, this does not mean much if their actual behavior does not reflect that support. For example, the meetings that you are holding are needed for proper project planning and control. Even if they were excessive, the answer should not be a flat out ultimatum to you to “cut down” on meetings. This is siding with the department managers against you as a project manager, which is sending a message to the rest of the organization that you do not have upper management support. For a project manager, this is very dangerous.
Management needs to go back and undo the damage they have already done to your project by stressing their full support to the project manager function, and requiring team members and their managers to provide you with the information and support you need in a timely fashion for your project to succeed.
Then, it becomes your turn to meet with the department managers and team members, to devise a communication plan for determining how information will be exchanged in the project, the frequency, escalation rules, and the level of detail required. Work with them to find ways to provide this information in the most effective and efficient manner that will best meet the project stakeholders needs and objectives. Secure commitment to this plan using your negotiation and communication skills, always working towards a win-win outcome.
There are guidelines that will help you make your meetings of more value and less of a burden. I will talk about that in future articles. However, it sounds like the meetings are not the issue. They might be used as a way to vent about the insecurities everyone is having due to the recent changes and the new organizational setup. There seems to be some form of passive resistance from team members and their managers to the new project management setup. Passive resistance is when people resist through their actions and statements, but not directly showing their resistance to the effort. Management should take that into consideration when dealing with future complaints.
Also, when team members are having troubles with their tasks or facing a major issue, the last thing they want to do is to have a meeting. Not because they are too busy, but more because they hate to admit that they are having a problem. This makes it the more important to actually have the meeting. The earlier problems surface the better for the whole team.
Accountability is a combination of both authority and responsibility. Without granting both to the project manager, it would be shortsighted of management to hold you accountable for the problems on your project. after giving you back the authority you need, thenthe meetings issue can be dealt with.
It is amazing the domino effect that management behavior can have on employees and projects. Your case is a great example of that. Management are not providing their project managers with the support they need to successfully complete the projects. So, the solution starts with management.
Good luck
Ammar