Organizational values, project boundaries, and performance expectations are all important areas that exist within every organization with varying degrees of thought and implementation behind them.
I’ve had several opportunities to work in project management roles across various industries in sectors such as computer manufacturing and localization. These roles not only provided me first-hand experience in how organizational rules and norms are presented and communicated to employees and project team members, but also in how they can be interpreted, or at times, unfortunately, misinterpreted.
While the PMBOK highlights the importance of establishing ground rules for projects, I find that it is just as important to develop them at an organizational and department level. Organizations that haven’t taken the time to document their ground rules may provide their team members this information by email or verbal communication in a piecemeal manner. Worse yet, they are communicated only when a situation or project goes wrong. In either case, this can lead to team members potentially becoming disengaged from the organization or project.
In my experience, defining and documenting ground rules at an organizational and department level provides the team with much-needed clarity and quickly helps team members become familiar with the norms and requirements of the organization and department. The structure and content of the actual ground rules will vary by organization and department; however, as a best practice, I recommend using the organizations core values, mission statement, and quality policy as the foundation. This is especially impactful because it allows the project manager or department leader to illustrate the relationship between your department rules and how they sync up to the organization's values.
The utilization of ground rules is of particular importance when onboarding new employees or project team members as it provides immediate clarity into organizational and department values, boundaries, and expectations. Lastly, this is also a significant benefit to project managers and departments that have remote team members.
With this in mind, I’ve provided an example of ground rules for the teams I work with for reference. I hope it will inspire you to think about how you develop and communicate ground rules with your departments and teams.
Department Ground Rules
Department KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and quality policy. The department has the following KPI’s and are measured as follows.
Communicate actively, often, and be prepared to provide solutions. Clear communication is essential to properly manage any task or project. Don’t delay in bringing up concerns that may affect your task /project or those of your colleagues. Keep in mind that any issues raised also need to have a potential solution drafted for review/validation. Ensure to check in with the client on a weekly if not daily basis to ensure all stakeholders are updated on task/project progress.
Be proactive not reactive. Avoid unnecessary roadblocks by identifying issues quickly, creating solutions, and raising flags as needed. The majority of issues encountered can be avoided by actively monitoring the task and addressing concerns as they arise.
The idiom of where there is smoke, there is fire is frequently referenced and should be adopted by all members of the department. If you perceive there’s a problem occurring on an account or project, investigate, confirm, and work on creating a solution.
Plan in advance. Whether you are working on a new project or an ongoing operation, plan as much as possible for the task/project. Provided below are possible questions the department’s coordinator or manager should address before going into production:
· Have all stakeholders been identified and documents?
· Requirements identified and documented?
· Project plan created?
· Are the instructions for the task/project clear and actionable?
· Is everything set up correctly for production?
Actively manage during production. Review any issues that may negatively impact the delivery of the project and ensure that a solution is provided or the request is routed accordingly for resolution. Below are potential questions an organization’s coordinator or manager should address while in production:
· Is the project on schedule?
· Do resources need to be moved/assigned for this task?
· Do we have any technical issues that need to be addressed?
· Are there any open questions from the team that needs a resolution?
· Are we under/over budget for a specific task?
· Is an extension necessary?
Escalate accordingly. Before escalating any issues, all options should be explored and exhausted. When escalating, provide details of the concern as well as potential solutions to the problem for review and validation. If escalating a client complaint, do so while in process and not when the request has been completed.