In
today's multitasking world project managers are often running three or more
projects. These may be small in nature but like a juggler with many balls in
the air you need to keep an eye on them all. You cannot focus on one or two to
the exclusion of the others.
How do
you do it?
The
Orientate part of the OODA loop (Observe Orientate Decide Act) has to have
constant feedback from the Observe part of the loop. You have to be regularly
reviewing each of your projects to ensure nothing gets missed. This
particularly important when a more pressing task is superimposed on your
regular workload. The tendency is to focus intently on the urgent, the
immediate, at the expense of the overall picture.
One
method to counteract this tendency to over focus on the immediate is to mind
map all your projects every week. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map
) Create and re-create all your projects on one big mind map. The very task of
drawing all your projects and their tasks - high level - will act as an
antidote to project myopia: A condition we all can suffer from, particularly
when under pressure from our leaders.
It's a
sad fact of life that when a juggler drops a ball we don't marvel at the four
still in motion, we focus on the one sitting motionless on the floor. Mind mapping
won't make managing your projects any easier, but it will give you an early
indication if you're about to drop the ball. Then you can Orientate to that
problem and decide what to do. Even it's only to tell your boss that a ball is
about to drop. A juggler who passes out the ball to his assistant before it
drops is considered skillful, so is a project manager!
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