Pushing Control Down to Teams with a Consultative Approach (Part 2 of 2)

Joe Wynne is a versatile Project Manager experienced in delivering medium-scope projects in large organizations that improve workforce performance and business processes. He has a proven track record of delivering effective, technology-savvy solutions in a variety of industries and a unique combination of strengths in both process management and workforce management.

 

In Part 1, you were forced to come to grips with your fear of losing control of teams. We agreed that your career was at risk, certainly, but that minding the minutia of project activities was not a solution. Instead, the groundwork must be laid for teams to feel responsible and comfortable with solving their own problems. And they must come to you for consultation, rather than resolution. Now for some shock therapy.

The project is in progress. There have already been some delays and confusion in certain teams. Sharda, the experienced team lead for the developers who were working on some fixes for problems with an existing system, has reported that she will miss deadlines.

You don't know exactly what is going on yet, because you are not monitoring the details of the team activities. Stakeholders, newly afraid and potentially losing trust in your project management abilities, are trying to schedule meetings to put you under the hot, bright lights. Perhaps the rack will be involved.

How are you feeling? What are your tendencies? Are you ready start having Sharda give you details of what they are doing and what went wrong so you can start managing the "restoration" to normalcy? Have you lost faith in the team's ability to produce according to plan?

Keeping Your Cool

Whoa!

That may have been your previous …

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.