No Hiding Place

[satisfactionuk]

Reading the book 'Project Management (a managerial approach) by Jack R Meredith and Samuel J Mantel, Jr explained in the first chapter of the book the need for project managers to use politicking and their powers of persuasion in order to maintain good will and keep the project on track.

I believe that this necessity comes about because those involved in the project have a feeling of anonymity and non-accountability for their inefficiencies and in some cases downright blocking of the project for personal reasons.

When studying Project In A Box it occurred to me that the reporting section that logs all activities in relation to the project is in fact a fantastic controlling tool. This tool in effect tells every member of the project team that 'Your actions and more importantly your non-actions or late actions are being recorded in real time and you will ultimately be held to account for your failures'.

I believe that all team members should at least under go the one and a half hours video training course on the Project In A Box website to become familiar with the products capabilities. In conducting the training, a smart project manager could very discretely bring the reporting tools to the attention of the team and equally discretely mention that everyone’s activities are automatically monitored by the reporting tools and will ultimately be used to find out exactly why the project failed or did not achieve its goals. S/he could also highlight that these tools would be used in a major way to track down the root causes of specific problems that may be affecting the efficiency of the project.

In short, the project manager may not have direct authority and control over certain members of his or her team, but with Project In A Box's reporting system s/he certainly does have a fantastic and somewhat formidable performance enhancer or motivator depending on how you look at it.
Regards

Stephan Toth