How's the weather?
Michael Hammer's Harmer's new blog suggests that project managers report the weather: Nerdherding for Beginners: Good project managers tell us about the weather
One of the things a project manager should do for her team is to tell them about the weather. Is it sunny (we're running to schedule with a happy client and a good product being produced), cloudy (a bit behind schedule with a happy client and acceptable product), stormy (behind schedule, unhappy client) or has an asteriod just hit?
Project managers and leaders need to help the team understand what is happening wiht the project from a number of different perspectives. This "weather" view is a non-threatening version of what is happening on the project that can help the team see what is happening.
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» Embedded knowledge from Knowledge Jolt with Jack
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I believe that making the project team members aware of the "project weather" is benefitial for the following reasons:
- People like to know all the details of the projects, and are very interested in those to which they don't have access normally.
- The more information team members have, the more identified they feel with the project.
- If cloudy weather is comunicated early, some good ideas might come to light.
Something that should be taken into account is the cost of not sharing this information. Hiding important information about the project environment makes people feel not important for the project.