My manager doesn't make a decision!
Morteza Shokri PhD, PMP, CCP
Mentor | Senior Project and Program Manager | Senior Consultant | Enabling people and projects?
"It's a very good solution mate! We're behind you on this. Talk to you soon." says George my client before ending our phone conversation. I hang up the phone with a huge smile on my face. I have been trying to come up with a clever design solution for a long time, which also benefits the client. "I just need to properly present it tomorrow." I think to myself.
While leaving the project site, I bump into Raj, our Construction Manager. "How's your design solution going?" he sarcastically asks. After ten minutes of discussion, Raj gives a half-smile "Look! I'm not saying your solution is bad, but my version costs us way less money. It even tackles the environmental issues we currently have. Are you sure George won't like my solution?"
Finally, it's 10 am and we're all ready for the Project Director to arrive. I have my design ready along with an email from George that I printed to have a better chance of winning the discussion." I can see behind Raj a colourful plot illustrating how he and his team want to construct it cheaper. Our Commercial Manager connects her laptop to the projector. "Here we go! The magical excel spreadsheets again!" thinking to myself knowing that the Commercial Manager is only keen about design and construction variations. OHSE Manager stays quiet and keeps a funny smile on his face. The project director enters the room.
The Project Director leaves the room. The Commercial Manager is looking at me with her mouth twisted. "This is going for too long!!!" Raj's round face looks like a kettle ready to explode soon. "What was this? The fourth time we had the same meeting? I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to write to the General Manager about this." The usually calm OHSE Manager who is walking back and forth, stops "Look, guys! Raj's solution is not the best, but I supported it to end this discussion. I'm sick of attending all these meetings with no results." I stand up pretending to collect my design papers "Our Project Director is too soft guys. Why is he being paid the big bucks? To look at us and ask us to think win-win?" Raj shouts "There is no win-win. He has to make a decision. What a joke!" slams the door behind him.
Your Thoughts
Does this scenario look familiar? What is your preferred decision-making style? What piece of advice do you have for the Project Director? Is it possible that the Project Director doesn't make any decision on purpose?
I'd like to thank Amin Mousavi for supporting the creation of this article.
P. S. A summary of Kurt Lewin's three style model might be a good read.
Senior PMO Specialist | AIM Cert IV Project Management | Senior Scheduler | Leadership | Power BI | Primavera P6 | Microsoft Projects
4 年Thank you Morteza Shokri PhD, PMP, CCP and Amin for sharing this. I see several sides in this scenario: 1- A manager who doesn't make decisions (or at least doesn't make them in time) which definitely going have to end up in failure either from losing efficiency or valuable team resources. 2- Team members whom appear to be reactive to this situation rather than being responsive - e.g. utilising different strategies to present - read it: to sell - good ideas to a soft manager. 3- A decision that is made up on frustration just to end up a least desired situation. Personally I believe, by changing the presentation strategy, the team would be able to achieve a better result. Cheers, Payam
Risk | Assurance | Compliance | Governance
4 年Thought provoking article Morteza. When reading it, some questions come to mind: - What are the factors/constraints that are preventing Project Director from making a decision? - What attempt has the team made to understand the these factors/constraints? - How has the team provided solutions to these constraints to help the Project Director make a decision? - Is the team thinking only about their requirements and not the bigger picture? - Maybe their requirements create a larger problem for the Project Director that they are unaware of? - Is the desire to be right, impeding the ability to provide a plausible solution by the team? - Is the desire to be "perfect" proving to be the enemy of a "good" solution? Our frustration with leadership often interferes with our own ability to step back and see the whole picture. We need to lift our eyes, get out of our own little world and look to achieve the project's objective and not simply focus on the success of our tasks within the project.