I'm a new project manager and am having trouble figuring out how to clearly communicate roles and responsibilities with a team member who is on multiple projects that I manage.
This person asks me constantly if I will be handling x or if they should handle x. As a team, we've developed RACIs for each project and this person agreed to the things they are responsible for. I keep referencing the RACIs while I answer the question (ex: "Well, according to the RACI, you're responsible for x so if you could go ahead take care of it, that would be great.") None of my other team members have trouble understanding their roles and responsibilities.
This is driving me bonkers! Any suggestions on how I might get through to this person? Saving Changes...
Like Keith says, there are many tools that I will use as a PM - such as a RACI matrix. However depending on the project and environment, I may keep this as a "personal" document which I put together for my own use and for posterity - but then I will take the concepts from these documents and use them informally with the project team members. A stakeholder may not need to understand what a RACI matrix is and how to use it - all they may need to know is that it is their job to perform certain tasks on the project, so I will communicate that informally in a way which makes sense to them individually.
All projects and companies are different, but I frequently find that stakeholders tend to be unfamiliar with PM tools which are second nature to me, and that it's a waste of time to make all stakeholders familiar with my tools.
(Granted, a RACI matrix is not strictly a PM tool - but my overall point is about the general case where frequently I do not rely on stakeholders to understand documents or other aspects of how a project is managed, with which they are not familiar nor do they need to be for successful project completion.)
This is an interesting scenario and I can feel your frustration. Seems like fancy tools won't work with this team member. Good old fashion 1:1 time with this person to figure out where the gaps in their understanding reside should help. Perhaps the tasks they are assigned in the RACIs aren't granular enough for him/her. Good Luck! Saving Changes...
I think this person requires more attention from you and coaching. Maybe, he is not familiarized with the tool, or the RACI is not available easily to him to review when some doubts come out.
Also, try to design using visualization by level.
Roles and responsibilities contain many organizational levels. Maybe you should simplify the graph to facilitate visualization and searching. Saving Changes...
It might be good to create a map of all the projects with specific areas of work such as planning, day-2-day tracking, meetings, reporting etc and then use RACI to make the person understand in 1on1 discussion, on the areas of responsibilities & accountability. Saving Changes...
