12.7 Ownership

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12.7 Ownership

Work ethic varies from person to person. As a committed project manager, one of your biggest frustrations is that without your intervention, a lot of the grinding, annoying work will not get done because it lacks glamour. Even after 20 years in the business, I sometimes find myself playing clerk, courier, meeting scheduler, and caterer. Getting people to pitch in can be difficult. Although you are in the middle of the scrum, it may appear as though the others are having fun watching from the sideline while you run around like an overstimulated gerbil.

What particularly annoys me is that most tasks take less energy to complete than people spend avoiding them. As the old saying goes, "If you want something done, give it to a busy person." Tasks that often fall into this bucket include:

  • Meeting tasks. These tasks include scheduling rooms, coordinating everyone's schedules, catering, taking and publishing minutes, and following up on action items.

  • Procurement tasks. These tasks include chasing down missing documents or shipments.

  • Customer or beneficiary tasks. These tasks include creating effective presentations extolling the financial, logistical, or technical benefits of your project.

  • Picking up dropped balls. These unwelcome loose ends usually center on documentation for training and operations.



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Complex IT project management(c) 16 steps to success
Complex IT Project Management: 16 Steps to Success
ISBN: 0849319323
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 231
Authors: Peter Schulte

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