We use a project management system that assigns tasks and displays who is accountable to take care of each responsibility. Yet, at the end of the day I continue to see tasks are not done in a timely matter. When I approach my team about the delays, I continue to hear excuses that there isn’t enough time. We’ve discussed time management, we put them on a schedule of what to take care of first thing in the morning, and considering to do a retraining. I am open to other ideas and suggestions.
Filed under: Business Process Management | Tagged: staff management
This situation reminds me of what I posted here: http://managementheadaches.wordpress.com/2008/03/28/leaving-tasks-idle/#comment-7
To further elaborate:
Is your team COMMITTED to incorporate the new protocols into their day to day?
Have you set an example of following protocol?
Have you provided some time for your team to adjust to the new processes?
There is a learning curve for everyone to understand how to use web software and getting in the habit of how to use it according to the new protocols. Through out this process encourage your teams’ feedback, ideas, and suggestions. Everyone has different and varied perspectives that each are important to consider while streamlining your operations.
Instill a place for everyone to submit their ideas and questions to so you have a consolidated place to review. This opens the lines of communication to allow everyone to feel they are part of the continuous change needed to improve the business process. Through this process you will find the need to fine tune some processes and then retrain. Sometimes the training will require a one on one. Other times, you should invite the group that’s affected by this process. Together, through collaboration, everyone will discover the best way to work effectively.
In this article I provide some suggestions when addressing these suggestions: http://valeska.wordpress.com/2006/07/06/first-steps-to-build-an-effective-work-environment/ but what’s most important is TAKING ACTION after this information is submitted AND do not wait too long before addressing it.
We posted your concern in this blog, http://tmdefinition.wordpress.com/2007/02/06/the-10-basic-tenets-of-technology-management/#comments, and received some feedback:
on time and resource management, assigning a task is not enough to make sure the task will be completed on time, as there are dependencies on tasks and the competence of the resource needs to be aligned with the task – ergo continuous learning.
Dear ManagementHeadaches (love the site!) – you bring up an excellent point of conflict. Sounds like your reader thought he/she was doing everything right and yet they run into (consistently!) time snags that leave staff complaining and executives scratching their heads.
A few thoughts:
1. They are NOT estimating time well at all to begin with and should focus squarely on this discipline. Managers have to be able to estimate time based upon their past experience and observations.
2. They are not controlling scope creep, competing agendas, other priorities or supervision well. A project manager has to identify which of those is contributing to the problem.
3. They are NOT holding their people ACCOUNTABLE. This is a big one. Even honest, well-meaning, hard-working people require supervision and they require Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). If a team is regularly late, there need to be consequences. Usually, it’s their team-lead that needs additional supervision.
4. The executive needs to clear a straight path toward completion. Remove all the barriers and hold people accountable. Large-scale, mission-critical projects are mandates. Mandates are not generally very negotiable. Planning is one thing. Read up on the importance of EXECUTION. Good intentions are not enough in this economy folks!
Lastly, it’s not uncommon for people to miss milestones because they lack resources, expertise or task/role clarity. It’s important to address this asap. Which is it? Be honest about lacking critical skills and expertise. Hire a consultant to fill in where you’re weak (no organization has everything it needs). Then OBSERVE & VALIDATE!!! It’s not enough for people to complain and think they have an answer. As a leader, get busy and observe first-hand and validate the data (did I mention KPIs?!)
Hope that helps your reader.
Patrick
http://workflowiq.wordpress.com
http://www.kapalign.com