Leadership Skills for PMs: Edition 8 – Organization
The organizing that great project managers do goes way beyond maintaining comprehensive to-do lists. They arrange their personal activities efficiently and make sure their projects are always in good order. Here are the primary ways successful project managers stay organized.
- Centralizing and categorizing project information. Data is stored in one place and catalogued well, so it can be tracked down quickly and easily. It’s also diligently maintained, so older versions of documents aren’t mistaken for the latest and greatest version. This project data includes the charter, scope statement, schedule, decision logs, change requests, lessons learned, and more.
- Track communication beyond standard planning. The best project managers go beyond what’s defined in a communication plan. They track their interpersonal communications beyond what’s outlined in the plan. They know who they’ve spoken to informally and what each key stakeholder knows about the project’s status. With this knowledge, they keep stakeholders engaged and supportive of the project.
- Triage new risks and issues conscientiously. Every day in the project world brings new challenges, such as changes in stakeholder desires, business conditions, and technical glitches. These events raise new risks and issues that must be dealt with quickly and intelligently, which requires an organized mind to absorb the situation, determine who should manage the issue or risk, and provide the necessary guidance.
- Manage time attentively to direct daily activities. Things come at project managers at a fast and furious pace. Projects managers must avoid distractions and ensure time is allocated to important activities (as opposed to attention-grabbers like answering a phone call). This calls for an understanding of short and long-term objectives that only well-organized thinking can manage.
- Facilitate meetings carefully. Relevant agendas guide efficient meetings with engaged attendees. Conversations that wander from the agenda are limited and steered back to the intended topics. Someone is assigned to create, review, and distribute minutes, including clear to-do list items, their owners, and status information.
Everyone has their personal favorite organizing tips. One of mine is to name files consistently and include the date in the filename in the format yymmdd. That way, you can sort files in chronological order. If you have a favorite tip, share with us in the comments section.
Coming Up
Chris Croft and I just finished recording a course where we use role playing to show how to solve common project management problems. Look for more about it soon.
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