Transparency - Part of a Program Manager's Survival Kit?
Keith MelvinSumaria Systems, LLCDayton, OH, United States
If you were to build a PM Survival Kit, would you toss Transparency into your backpack? I say ,"Yes!"
Transparency is becoming a new priority in my organization and specifically within our projects. We are currently building and using Electronic Dashboards that allow internal stakeholders and customers to stay abreast of Successes and Hiccups. From my perspective, the more we lean into transparency, I’m seeing a decrease in emails asking, “What’s the status on…”, a decrease in the time we spend in status meetings, and an increase in collaboration, both horizontally and vertically.
Do you have any tips ow to be transparent? How important is transparency? Saving Changes...
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Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Transparency is based on the ethical value of honesty and should be promoted.
It is different from dumping any information on all stakeholders. A design of dashboards is required towards the needs of stakeholders.
Then transparency morphs from a duty you gave yourself to a feedback mechanism that makes you better.
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1 reply by Keith Melvin
Nov 13, 2024 9:18 PM
Keith Melvin
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Thomas, well said. Trust is the cornerstone of any relationship...and transparency can be considered a keystone.
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Keith, very interesting questions. Transparency is a vital component of successful project management, so I would definitely toss it into my PM Survival Kit!
In fact, I do consider transparency to be one of the most powerful components for building trust, fostering collaboration, and ensuring alignment across all stakeholders.
As you've observed in your own organization, the more transparent a project is, the better the communication, the clearer the expectations, and the more efficiently the project tends to run. Saving Changes...
Responsible transparency is critical, Keith. Merely sharing all project information is irresponsible as some of it might be confidential or restricted to specific stakeholders only. The key is to understand what your stakeholders information needs are and to attempt to meet those within the constraints of information security.
Also, merely sharing data is useless - our role is not to be a project reporter. Instead, we need to provide the implications of the data we are sharing and any recommendations we'd make related to those implications.
In my opinion, implementation of transparency depends on the area that we focus on. For example, when we are to present reports or keep stakeholders in loop, the dashboards that you mentioned works Keith Melvin On the other hand, when it comes to communication, rather than having silos, it is better to have one central channel. When it comes to resource allocation discussion, it is better to have the necessary people in one meeting or group.
The main aim: avoid confusion and miscommunication
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2 replies by Bisharah Saeed and Keith Melvin
Nov 13, 2024 9:23 PM
Keith Melvin
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Bisharah,
I'm getting t-shirts made with the saying: The main aim: avoid confusion and miscommunication
Nov 14, 2024 3:07 AM
Bisharah Saeed
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Haha, that would be super cool! Would love to see it :)
Saving Changes...
Keith MelvinSumaria Systems, LLCDayton, OH, United States
Nov 11, 2024 1:52 PM
Replying to Thomas Walenta
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Transparency is based on the ethical value of honesty and should be promoted.
It is different from dumping any information on all stakeholders. A design of dashboards is required towards the needs of stakeholders.
Then transparency morphs from a duty you gave yourself to a feedback mechanism that makes you better.
Thomas, well said. Trust is the cornerstone of any relationship...and transparency can be considered a keystone. Saving Changes...
Keith MelvinSumaria Systems, LLCDayton, OH, United States
Nov 13, 2024 5:18 AM
Replying to Bisharah Saeed
...
In my opinion, implementation of transparency depends on the area that we focus on. For example, when we are to present reports or keep stakeholders in loop, the dashboards that you mentioned works Keith Melvin On the other hand, when it comes to communication, rather than having silos, it is better to have one central channel. When it comes to resource allocation discussion, it is better to have the necessary people in one meeting or group.
The main aim: avoid confusion and miscommunication
Bisharah,
I'm getting t-shirts made with the saying: The main aim: avoid confusion and miscommunication Saving Changes...
In my opinion, implementation of transparency depends on the area that we focus on. For example, when we are to present reports or keep stakeholders in loop, the dashboards that you mentioned works Keith Melvin On the other hand, when it comes to communication, rather than having silos, it is better to have one central channel. When it comes to resource allocation discussion, it is better to have the necessary people in one meeting or group.
The main aim: avoid confusion and miscommunication
Haha, that would be super cool! Would love to see it :) Saving Changes...
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