You have invited for a meeting, but the people don’t show up! This was the problem that James, one of the readers of tacticalprojectmanager.com, faced in his project.
Here’s what he wrote to me:
There was something I really liked about the way James dealt with this unpleasant situation. He could have just fired messages of blame to his colleagues and conclude that it was their fault.
But that was not James’ style. He was introspective.
As you can see in his email he first brainstormed for possible root causes:
- Maybe they are busy and trust my capability?
- Maybe they think that it’s not value added with nothing to contribute?
- Maybe they don’t like my meetings, and I need to find the root cause for self improvement?
Notice how James is dealing with the situation in a humble and analytical way.
This is how you become a great project manager.
If you’re working with teams of people, communication is always a two-sided affair. What I mean is: You may have good intentions and you may know what you want, but if the people you’re communicating to don’t understand what you want from them, the best intentions won’t help.
Or maybe the people simply didn’t have time to attend.
Anyway, James was asking me for advice what he should do.
Watch die video I recorded for him with my suggestions:
In the end, it was just a unique circumstance with ill timing, and James managed to find out about this by talking to a few of his team members and asking them why they did not come.
If you have a problem in your project you’re stuck with and are looking for help, send me a note (BTW: I only share it on the blog with your consent).
