jonathan@researchcomputingteams.org
This resource first appeared in issue #84 on 24 Jul 2021 and has tags Strategy: Project Management, Technical Leadership: Other
Guiding critical projects without micromanaging - Camille Fournier
However, as a senior manager, at some point you can make it harder for your managers to succeed when you give them very little structure to work with. It’s tempting to say “I don’t care how you do any of it as long as it gets done.” But that doesn’t help people figure out what is important to you, so they have to guess at what they share, when, and how.
It’s tough to strike a balance between being involved enough and not being too involved in any major effort. The fact is, if a project is important enough to be your radar as a manager (at any level) radar, it probably involves multiple people reporting to you. At that point it is part of your job to make sure the necessary coordination is happening, and that the objectives of the project are being met.
Fournier started having monthly status meetings on a major project:
First of all, this was a chance for discussion. I got to ask hard questions, and the team leadership got to show off. The team was forced to reach some agreement on the status before showing it to me, and my questions could reveal disagreements that they may not have resolved fully [….] And my presence was good for all of us, because it forced a group that didn’t all share reporting lines below me to get on the same page, and gave each the opportunity to highlight disagreements with the others in real-time when they didn’t feel aligned.
While this comes up all the time in projects, she points out that can be useful in other areas too where there are opportunities for misalignment, or changes are happening that require guidance from someone who sees more context and can share it. In those cases, where there’s no project (and thus no clear end), she councils that it’s important to remember to end the meetings when there’s no longer need for them.
