• Products
    • Demos
    • TaskMap Standard
    • TaskMap Pro
    • Capture for Excel
    • TaskMap Central
    • Upgrade
  • Downloads
    • Trials
    • Templates
    • Free Role List
  • Training
    • Self-paced Tutorials
    • Online Seminars
    • Calendar
  • Solutions
    • ITIL Suite
    • SOX Expert Suite
    • SPM Roadmap
    • Consulting
    • Process Conversion
    • Process Templates
  • BPM Blog
    • Process Mapping
    • Process Discovery
    • Process Analysis
    • Improvement
    • Change Management
    • Articles
  • Support
    • Product Support
    • TaskMap
    • FAQ's
    • Contact
    • Self-Paced Tutorials
  • About
    • Contact
    • Partners & Resellers
    • Background

  • About the BPM Blog
  • BPM Blog Sitemap

BPM Blog

BPM made simpler

« Handling problems in a project
BPM Blog-Weekly summary of Postings »

Listening for problems in your project

Feb 26th, 2011 by TaskMap

Listening is defined as “hearing with attention”. I like that definition, because some project managers hear but don’t listen to what is being communicated. In some cases the individual may also be nervous about bringing this news to you, and may therefore emphasize certain parts of the problem and not others. This is one reason why an initial reaction to the issue should be avoided if possible.

For example, a team member may let you know that they are going to miss an upcoming deadline and that the primary cause of this is another person or vendor not delivering what they need. After you listen to the issue and examine all factors, you may find that the problem is more like half the vendor’s problem and half the other team member. If you immediately react to the message the vendor is late, the fact that your team member did not provide them with an earlier deliverable may have caused the problem in the first place.

This is an important point in project management, if your team members know that you react badly to bad news, they will try and avoid delivering it to you. My earlier point of shooting the messenger applies here. As a project manager, you want all the news about the project, both good and bad. This is needed to take the necessary action when issues arise.

Once the problem is known, then take the necessary time to assess its impact on the project. By determining the severity of the issue, the action plan that will result may differ considerably.

Excerpted from Finish What You Start by Michael Cunningham

Tags: bad news, deliverable, important point, initial reaction, necessary time, project management, project managers, severity, team member, team members

Posted in Change Management, Process Improvement, Project Management

One Response to “Listening for problems in your project”

  1. BPM Blog-Weekly summary of Postings « BPM Blog says:
    February 28, 2011 at 12:09 am

    [...] BPM made simpler « Listening for problems in your project [...]

    Reply

Leave a Reply to BPM Blog-Weekly summary of Postings « BPM Blog

Click here to cancel reply.

  • Archives

    • March 2012 (1)
    • February 2012 (3)
    • January 2012 (4)
    • December 2011 (11)
    • November 2011 (16)
    • October 2011 (17)
    • September 2011 (20)
    • August 2011 (21)
    • July 2011 (21)
    • June 2011 (22)
    • May 2011 (22)
    • April 2011 (23)
    • March 2011 (26)
    • February 2011 (28)
    • January 2011 (31)
    • December 2010 (31)
    • November 2010 (20)
  • Recent Posts

    • Business Process Modeling
    • Education
    • The issue of organizational culture
    • A VERY SHORT HISTORY OF PROCESSES
    • Process Dashboards: Identifying and flagging risk levels
    • Process Dashboards: Analyzing timeframes
    • THE CASE FOR PROCESS DASHBOARDS
    • Is 2012 the year that version control finally takes hold?
    • How to listen carefully to your team–Reflective listening skills overview (Part 8)
    • How to listen carefully to your team–Reflective listening skills overview (Part 7)
    • How to listen carefully to your team–Reflective listening skills overview (Part 6)
    • How to listen carefully to your team–Reflective listening skills overview (Part 5)
    • How to listen carefully to your team–Reflective listening skills overview (Part 4)
    • How to listen carefully to your team–Reflective listening skills overview (Part 3)
    • How to listen carefully to your team–Reflective listening skills overview (Part 2)
    • How to listen carefully to your team–Reflective listening (Part 1)
    • TaskMap Update: version 4.0.5
    • BPM BLOG Summary for week ending 2 December 2011
    • The Tutorials are coming … the tutorials are coming
    • The psychology of spending and how it can help BPM ;-)
    • Happy Thanksgiving
    • BPM Blog–The need to refine
    • Processes as instruction tools
    • BPM Blog Weekly summary 11.18.2011 with video blog
    • Project and Processes (responses to the questions)
    • Projects and processes
    • Thinking things through
    • Happy 11.11.11 and BPM Blog summary
    • TaskMap Automated tutorial: TaskMap Capture for Excel
    • Customizing fields in TaskMap 4 Professional
    • Prioritization in your life
    • The need to refine
    • Happy Anniversary BPM Blog: A good first milestone
    • Training the trainers
    • Power
    • BPM Blog summary for week ending 28 October 2011
    • Customized process mapping
    • Agile methodology: The case for a blended Agile
    • Additional displays: Are they worth the money?
    • BPM Blog summary week ending 21 October 2011
    • Thoughts matter: How thoughts affect our actions in everyday life
    • BPM Summary of automated tutorials on the TaskMap menu
    • Automated tutorial—Save as process folder
    • Automated tutorial—Task Links and how to use them
    • Automated tutorial for Task Details
    • TaskMap Tutorial—Save as PowerPoint
    • Check my TaskMap
    • BPM Blog summary week ending 7 October 2011
    • Renumbering Tasks in TaskMap
    • Customizing roles names in TaskMap
    • Adding tasks to a Page–add task to page Dialog
    • How to add tasks to pages using the auto connect feature in TaskMap
    • BPM Blog Summary Week ending 30 September 2011
    • Towards Perfection
    • BPM in the Legal Profession
    • BPM BLOG SITE MAP
    • Rigor and our business processes
    • BPM Summary Week ending 23 September 2011. The Case for a Blended Agile
    • The Case for a Blended Agile: Part 4-Agile Stepping Stones Approach
    • The Case for a Blended Agile: Part 3-What a blended approach looks like
  • RSS Get the BPM RSS feed

  • Posts by category

    • Change Management
    • Compliance
    • Law Processes
    • Legal processes
    • Org Charts in Visio
    • Process Analysis
    • Process Discovery
    • Process Improvement
    • Process Mapping
    • Project Management
    • Uncategorized
  • Tags

    best practices bpm budget business analyst business process category change change management computing group dashboard decisions discovery discovery phase efficiency flowchart flowcharts goals and objectives governance harvard job management change management project map methodology mike cunningham milestones personality process documentation process improvement process mapping process maps project management project managers quality standards return on investment risk role names sox compliance target task library team members technorati time and money timeframe Visio willingness

Home • Products • Downloads • Templates • BPM Blog • Training • Contact Us • SiteMap

Copyright © Harvard Computing Group, Inc., 1994-2011. All Rights Reserved. TaskMap is a registered TradeMark of Harvard Computing Group.
Harvard Computing Group, 225 Cedar Hill Street, Suite 200, Marlborough, MA, 01752, USA Tel: 978-800-4590