Project Communications - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (3 of 3)
We have all been on projects where an understanding different stakeholder groups becomes a ‘touchy-feely’ process. You have a gut feel for their tolerance for change, commitment, ability to influence and what they view as important. Most of the time we are wrong but if we had some real data for these areas, then we could establish effective communications and begin to understand what challenges faced us during our project time line.
Project Communications - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (2 of 3)
In part 1 of this blog, we talked about not all communication events were pushed out to the project stakeholders. Let’s look at some different types of communications interventions that represent the information, ideas, topics and subject matter that flow to and from the stakeholders through formal communication channels.
Project Communications: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly (1 of 3)

Mediocrity: Caring Enough to Give Your 2nd Best
Project Planning:
Point 10 - Deming in Project Management
No Slogans or Disingenuous Pep Talks
This point consists of two elements as I see it. (1) Walk the talk, and (2) hold systems accountable.
Walk the Talk
Slogans are phony. The word slogan has a connotation of something that is not real. It sounds like an advertisement, and not something you can really trust in. In a project management organization, it is much better to have published guidelines and a vision that defines your philosophy and practice. Train your project managers and teams on the methodology. Then, let them execute within that framework, and put a system in place so that the practitioners can revise the process and make it better.
Point 9 - Deming in Project Management
Break Down Departmental Barriers in Pursuit of a Common Goal
Many processes are cross-functional. The same is true of projects. {mosimage}This point is about dissolving the “us versus them” scenario that so often exists in one form or another within organizations. In most projects that I work on, there are individuals from departments such as operations, central services and other support functions, MIS, IT, Service Engineering, etc. The “us versus them” attitude comes about when project managers and project team members look at their own interests at the exclusion of others, and instead of working towards a common goal, work towards their own separate and distinct goals.
Why Do Developers Contribute To Open Source?
Bas de Baar, ProjectSociology.org
Whatever your take is on projects, at the end of the day it is just a bunch of people working together to achieve a certain goal. To laugh, cry, pull pranks, play dirty tricks and show all other kinds of behavior towards each other. If you are lucky they even work to reach the final goal. If you take everything away, and put people in the center of what a “project” is, you will see a group of stakeholders interacting with each other, just like any other group of people would do. As a Project Manager it is your goal to herd the project crowd toward the required end result.
Point 8 - Deming in Project Management
Drive out Fear and Create Trust
Fear encourages short-term thinking. One of Deming’s classic stories was about a foreman who didn’t stop production to repair a worn-out piece of equipment, because he feared that stopping production would mean missing his daily quota. Instead, he let production continue. When the machine failed, it forced the line to shut down for 4 days.
Deming's 2nd Point in Project Management
Adopt a Philosophy of Cooperation Where Everyone Wins and Teach it to Everyone
Often, projects can become battlegrounds where the project manager and team are at odds with the sponsor and other stakeholders. These conflicts can arise when the project environment is not conducive to a win-win approach.
In project planning and initiation, clearly define the WIIFM (What’s in it for me) for everyone on the project.