Improve Workforce Performance Through Better Task Management

 

Have you seen action items that look like this in meeting notes or on formal action item lists?

• Need planning info from ops team
• Tell architecture about issue
• Change date to match sponsor's

During discussions, all of these made sense. But later, will people remember what each meant? It's the documentation that is lacking. This inadequate quality appears in hastily written or typed notes or just through bad habits. Unfortunately, written action items like these may lead to tasks that are not completed on time because workers did not know

• who was to complete the task
• exactly what to do
• when the deadline was to complete the task.

You are a project manager who wants to ensure a high-performing workforce, so don't allow bad task documentation to get in the way. You have a lot of control over this, especially if you maintain a single compiled list of action items from all meetinhgs and discussions that many in the project contribute to.

Your objective is to enable someone to complete the task easily from the information documented.

First, make sure you get the basics documented every time. Everyone should make this a habit. Obtain these components:

Description . . . A clear, full statement of the task/goal. The trick here is to specify when it is truly done. That is, what exactly is the result desired. The three examples at the beginning do not do this well. Capture details here or expect problems.

Task Owner . . . The individual (not a team or group or role name!) that will ensure the task is completed. This person can delegate or get help, but is still responsible for getting the task done. The owner does not have to be at the meeting, so the clear, complete description is then even more important.

Date Started . . . You need this to track those items that are taking too long to complete and to have a record for future audits or lessons learned. There is another advantage that will be covered in the next post.

Due Date . . . This is important to create a sense of urgency in the owner. In addition, you can sort on due dates to bring attention to those that are due soonest. Sometimes Due Date is avoided because it is not clear at the moment what the due date is. The date can be so far in the future the date is not able to be specified. In these cases, would you put something like "N/S" or "TBD"? Don't do that. You need something to help manage your list of action items better. Instead of a particular date, you can put something like

• "Prior to Build Phase"
• "Before requirements document is complete"
• "Before scheduling onsite visit"
• "During close out activities"

These date alternatives provide a better tickler system when managing a longish list of action items. 

It is difficult to be complete and accurate on action items if you wait for the end of a meeting and have to cram everything in, so define the action items clearly as they arise in discussion and think of what the task owner has to know. Get everyone in the habit.

If your project team reviews action items every week, you should maintain this kind of rigor. You as the project manager, or your project coordinator, can review the action item list proactively to find basic documentation gaps that should be filled before or during the next task management meeting. Sort on due dates to see which items to discuss first. I recommend this approach over reviewing by the order in which they were created. 

Even with these tips you still have more productivity to gain. I'll provide more tips in my next post. Count on it - it's on my action item list.