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Having a place to post this is seriously the only reason I spun up a new blog. If I could have one single idea take hold in tech management it's to stop talking about project updates in 1:1s. https://twitter.com/codingsans/status/1337833096159383560
Let me be clear though. You need to talk about project updates. In fact, you probably need to talk about them more often. I see a lot of places where they are locked up in short 1:1 conversations. Change your process so you are hearing them all the time in other venues.
Get project updates out of 1:1s and you'll have room for much more important conversations with your individual direct reports. If your org is stuck in update mode, it will take some time to make this shift. But you will be glad you did.
There are a few steps here. First, move to group project status meetings. They suck, but they're better than having several 1:1s and trying to piece things together. But soon after that, put updates into documents that people are expected to read. https://twitter.com/jkru/status/1337840336513740810?s=19
Project status is important. But it's not really the goal. The goal is to understand *change*. You wanna know how you can help the team adapt to problems. Are things blocked? Are people going on vacation? Do they need to communicate with another team?
Once you start to level up your process, set your sights on de-emphasizing "status" and emphasizing active project planning.
The team meetings are centered on a different question: "Do we need to change anything about this plan in order to increase confidence in success?"
The team meetings are centered on a different question: "Do we need to change anything about this plan in order to increase confidence in success?"
Once you get here as a manager, the job gets a lot more fun too. You get to help people understand what a good project plan looks like. They build better skills around estimating and anticipating problems. It starts to feel like winning rather than being reactive.
Good eye. That is one of the questions. But asking your direct report how they think the project is going is not the same as asking them “what is the status of the project”. You’ll have to nudge them past the habit of answering the second question instead of the first. https://twitter.com/ideasasylum/status/1337877581585113088
