(^138) 97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know
Communicating Is Key
Communicating Is Key
Gennady Mironov, CPM
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
ThE MoST CRITICAl KnoWlEDgE the project manager in any industry
should have is how to be a good communicator. The person may have many
different certifications and a list of titles and accreditations after his/her name,
but without the basic knowledge of how to collaborate with others, the work
of the project cannot be accomplished properly.
I strongly believe that when starting a new project, the good project manager
should meet in person with all of the stakeholders. Especially the client. The
PM should introduce him-/herself and discuss the project goals and all the
critical issues. If the stakeholders, client, and even the project team are not
located on different continents, meeting in person should not be a big prob-
lem, even during an economic recession.
We say in Russia that “it’s better to see it one time than to hear it a hundred times.”
From my own project management experience working on multimillion-dollar
projects, I’ve found I could easily solve problems with my clients within half a
day by visiting them in person.
On one project, we had a problem when our contractor was delaying the proj-
ect schedule by not supplying us with the required wireless base station. The
problem was that the contractor had outsourced this part of the project to its
own subcontractor, who was late with the power supply systems. Although
we spent weeks of calling and sending numerous emails back and fourth, we
could not solve this problem.