Sep 1, 2006
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Why Politeness Can Kill A Project
Good communication is a key factor in successful project management, particularly when it comes to scheduling.
This applies to project managers, team members and business managers.
Sometimes people can be vague or non-committal when asked about their time or scheduling expectations. There are responses phrased to show flexibility or eagerness like “let me know what works for you.” There are polite, deferential answers like “don’t move things just for me.”
However they are phrased, these answers aren’t helpful. They usually result in someone’s time being squeezed and the schedule being in jeopardy. They also breed frustration and resentment.
For sure, people should take care in what they say, to make sure they aren’t hurtful or negative. But there’s an important difference between giving someone “space” in your communications and not giving accurate information at all.
- A project manager needs to know a person’s availability and time constraints.
- Team members need to know the time table to which the project manager would like them to adhere.
- Business managers need an accurate assessment of a project’s feasibility and status. Business leaders also be specific in their expectations of timing and resource use for a project.
People and projects are best off in an environment of honesty and transparency where reality is prized above delicate phrasing.
I think you have correctly hit on communications as the key to why projects fail, but I’m not sure that “politeness” per se is the problem. I believe that as a project manager, it is essential to be polite, but it is also essential to be direct and specific (and to require your team members to be direct and specific). Vague answers do not help … unless you count “helping to avoid blame”. Ditto for letting “consensus” determine due dates.
Jim Collins wrote a great article for Harvard Business Review a few years ago entitled “The Triumph of Humility and Fierce Resolve”. He was addressing executive leadership, but I think the title could easily become the motto of a successful project manager. Even a polite one.
The very human propensity to avoid conflict and difficulty is at the root of many project failures. Unfortunately, the desire to avoid facing tough issues leads to denial, which is frequently part of the composition of failed projects.
Thanks for writing about this important project management issue.
Michael Krigsman
http://projectfailures.com