on project changes or detailing scope
scalebacks from diminished resources.
“You have to manage your clients
and team by providing communications between the two,” says Seng
Rimkapone, owner of Production On
Demand, a commercial production
company in River Forest, Illinois,
USA. “Team frustration comes from
lack of direction and clarity. My job is
to protect the team. My team doesn’t
care if we’re charging the client more
money. They just want a clear direction and the freedom to finish their
project without constant picking and
changing.”
Project managers need to sit down
with team members and figure out what
can realistically be done by the deadline. Then, she says, go back to the
client with some options and a starting
point for collaboration.
And sometimes it helps to put it
down on paper.
“Everyone’s spinning their wheels
because everyone’s trying to get their own
goals met,” says Andrea Infelt, counselor
and executive coach, Challenger, Gray &
Christmas, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
“You’ve got to check your key members
carefully and spend a lot of time
upfront talking about what you’re trying to accomplish. We’re not trying to
boil the ocean here. I try to get everybody to concur on a written agreement.
It sounds formal but it usually isn’t.
Once you put something on paper,
there’s more accountability to it. We
specifically spell out the things that
we’re not trying to do in order to keep
the project focused.”
4
THE ISSUE: ENERGY-ZAPPING, SOUL-SUCKING UNEXPECTED
DELAYS
Whoops. Some little planning
glitch has managed to push the project
off schedule. Team members are starting
to lose their cool and turn on each other.
It’s getting ugly and someone better do
something fast.
