Fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of becoming unpopular with sponsors and executives—fear in all its forms can be a significant hurdle for project teams and the sponsors who support them. The problem only widens when people are working remotely. Some groups don’t have strong communication channels, a necessity when it comes to…
Project Team Communication
Remote Project Management: 5 Keys to Maintaining Accountability
Accountability is a fundamental concept in project success but keeping your team accountable can become more challenging when part or all of the group remote. Along with leveraging healthy communication channels and focusing on strong engagement, PMs can also employ some targeted actions to maintain accountability. We’ve put together five key steps to ensure your…
Embracing the Omnichannel Movement in Project Management
Between continuous technology innovation and an increasingly global marketplace, many companies are rethinking their business strategies. Add in changing workforce and supply chain dynamics, and project teams are also taking a fresh look at the supporting processes they use to engage stakeholders and maintain strong connections across multi-discipline groups. Expectations around communications have changed in…
Is Your Project Team Running Out of Energy?
The fast pace of project planning and execution can sometimes take a toll on team members. Nonstop communications, coordination across multiple stakeholders and cross-functional groups, the expectation of real-time data availability and analysis, and driving several projects through different lifecycle phases simultaneously—it can drain your team’s energy if you aren’t careful. By keeping an eye…
Get Your Executives on the Right Project Track
Sometimes an organization’s senior staff hinders, rather than helps, an important project. They may take their time approving the final budget for an urgent initiative or they might pressure the PM to change or expand the planned deliverables mid-stream. These kinds of issues aren’t just disruptive—they have the potential to drain your available funding, delay…
3 Things Project Teams Forget
Between hectic schedules, stakeholder requests, and the competing priorities that surface when juggling multiple initiatives, it can be difficult to keep track of everything that goes on within the project team. PMs need to maintain awareness of progress, budget status, and potential schedule deviations, ensuring tasks don’t fall through the cracks and that everyone knows what needs to…
5 Signs Your Project Communications are in Trouble
Good project communications are a fundamental component of project success. Formal memos, meeting agendas and minutes, quick question-and-answer sessions in the hall—they all contribute to moving your project forward. Your stakeholders need to know what’s happening and what’s scheduled. Your sponsors and the organization’s senior leadership team expect regular updates on progress and notification of…
For Best Project Results, Listen to Your Team
Savvy project managers are always looking for ways to improve their project results and performance and make their processes more efficient. One strategy that’s simple and effective—but is sometimes overlooked in favor of flashier approaches—is to listen to the team. The people working on project activities, whether it’s planning and executing tasks or handling support…
When Project Task Assignments Go Bad
Proper project task assignments serve an important function. By formally making an individual responsible for an activity, the team knows that someone with the necessary skills and expertise is carrying out the task. When assigning tasks, PMs can also monitor workloads so key activities aren’t delayed by other priorities. The entire process sounds straightforward enough,…
The Soft Skills Needed for Project Success
The project management competencies required to successfully plan and execute an initiative are well known, but does your team also have these soft skills that will help them get your next project to the finish line? Being able to collaborate with a wide range of stakeholder groups. Though teamwork is already a priority, as far as…