Team Communication

Project managers spend a lot of time walking around talking to people. They don't spend much time at their desk working. Probably these days the bigwigs use BlackBerries.

Me, I don't have a BlackBerry. I don't even have a budget. I spend almost all my time working. My project seems almost an afterthought. The team assigned to my project can't dedicate time to it.

All that, and I'm pretty typical. Except for the budget and the BlackBerry, my experience mirrors most others.

I found out recently how communicating with a team works, both the good and bad.

I try to treat my folks like adults. They can show up or not show up to meetings. If they don't show up, I chalk it up to workload.

Two people decided they didn't want to be on the team. Fine with me, we have enough bodies. But they didn't tell their sponsor.

(In my situation, the sponsor is a manager/supervisor.)

When the sponsor found out, she hit the roof. She read them the riot act. Then she came and found me.

Why hadn't I told her? she demanded. Why didn't I communicate my expectations? How was she supposed to know her role? Or the role of team members?

I pointed out that I treated people like adults. I blamed her staff members for not communicating.

Which is true, as far as it goes, but what about me? Don't I have an obligation to lead the team? As a leader, shouldn't I have done better?

I thought I was being transparent and open. But apparently there needs to be something more.

More walking around. Talking to people. Cluing them in on where we're at.

Management by walking around. That's like the key to your corvette if you're a project manager.