Helpful tips that project mangers can start using today.
1. Choosing Your Team:
A project manager has a lot to consider when choosing a team. Think of the show Charlie's Angels. I have to admit, this is one of my favorite shows and I absolutely love the movie! Now, Charlie, the CEO, sets forth the task at hand and Bosley, the Project Manager, assembles the team. Of course, Bosley chooses a team of three beautiful women, each with their own specialties. As a project manager, it is important to keep in mind that team building means a lot of team coordination, suggestions, and questions to be asked. This is something that takes place when you are choosing your team members, and ends in reaching your goal. While your team may not carry guns, karate chop the bad guys, jump off buildings, or escape exploding cars while wearing evening gowns and high heels, your team should consist of experts that are genuinely interested in the success of the project.
2. Project Goal Setting:
When you set your project goal, focus your team on the target. Create an agreement, commitment, and energy for the project goal. When you do something that you like, or that you care about, you will do it right. Talk and accept ideas from all team members. This creates a compelling vision of the project's end result and its value to the organization. Additionally, it begins to build a shared passion about the project that will drive the team's desire to get the job done.
3. Brainstorming:
This is an excellent way of developing many creative solutions to a problem. Ideas should deliberately be as broad and odd as possible. This process is designed to help you break out of your thinking patterns into new ways of looking at things. Group brainstorming can have better results than brainstorming on your own. When individual members reach their limit on an idea, another member's creativity and experience can take the idea to the next level. Once the brainstorming session is over, then you can explore solutions to overcome the problem at hand.
4. New Project Planning:
A well known adage says that the early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. This is something to keep in mind when we start a new project. Adequate time should be spent on planning the project in order to know exactly what needs to be done and to set specific stages that must be respected. This requires an identification of the objectives. After choosing the objectives and the stages, you must remember not to rush. A good plan always offers you enough time for completion. Should you discover that you are lacking in time and milestones are not being met, you need to go back and re-plan and re-evaluate your project objectives. When things go array, just take a deep breathe and think about the tasks you have to do next, prioritize them and begin working again.