Creating Decision Space

Many times the road to ruin begins with the phrase “I was just thinking we could…..” it at this point that the desire to please coupled with not wanting appear to be unable to cope that Project Manager just agrees without understanding the implications the project.

The best way to get out of this habit is to answer any of these questions or additions with the important phrase “I will get back to you tomorrow”. Creating the space give the time to map out the effect of the change and the results it will have on the current project.

Once you understand that its the accuracy of the answer more than the actual answer to any question that is important. It becomes easier to balance the speed with which you have to respond by the value, impact and urgency of the issue.

This means that from experience and a quick analysis on the spot you can make a decision on the speed of response and the depth of analysis that is required. For a simple low risk issue it might only take a hour to be confident of the effect and reach a decision with out much documentation.

The most important thing is to always be comfortable that you have gathered and analysed all the relevant hard and soft information to form a solid opinion to feed back to the client. At this point you can outline the effect and real implications and between you make a decision that will not end in the phrase “what do you mean that its not going to be delivered on time”.

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