From time to time I tour the Internet, looking for things of interest. I found Dr. Estrella’s blog, of all things, via Twitter. It was part of a #FollowFriday recommendation.
I was not sure that would make a note of the blog here. It is interesting and concise but I was not sure how much new information it brought to me. Then I saw the entry labeled, How To Manage Bad News In Your Projects. It is a short entry, which I repeat here, linked to the original.
Three components precede bad news: target, trigger and tweak. By recognizing these components, you can easily manage most of the bad news in your projects.
If the monthly target is $10K and the expenses are trending toward $40K for the next three months, then the potential overrun is a trigger that should prompt you to tweak the situation. Inform the project stakeholders but be careful not to cry wolf.
If you’re able to steer the project towards a more favourable outcome, then you can report the good news. If not, then the bad news will not be a surprise to the parties involved.
Take a look at your current targets—budget, schedule or objective—and identity triggers that will give you adequate room to tweak the circumstances if needed. It is better to pre-empt than to be held in contempt.
I consistently preach transparency. Clients are never more angry than when bad news is delivered in the past tense. As the cliche says, forewarned is forearmed. It seems Estrella agrees, though I suspect we might have interesting discussions regarding actual use of trigger and tweak.
For that and other interesting entries, I suggest you check out his blog.
Tags: adequate room, bad news, blog, budget schedule, dr john, Estrella, favourable outcome, Online social networking, overrun, project management, project stakeholders, target, transparency, Twitter, Web 2.0
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on Friday, October 16th, 2009 at 11:39 and is filed under PM Reviews, Project Management.
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Carey, I would love to hear your take on trigger and tweak.
Next time include sources please =)