When asking a manager to define this what their top mistake might be I’m sure that it would get various responses. I happen to agree with a book I read several years ago, Peoplewareby Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister, which states that wasting peoples time is the “ultimate sin.” This is an excellent resource for managing productive projects and teams. Most projects these days are not only being pressed for time, but also being pressed to stay on budget. Loss of productivity will affect both of these variables.
To keep your team from unnecessary time and productivity loss, make sure that your team members have clear and accurate description of what their roles are on a project. If needed, over-communicate. For instance, I get several e-mails a week sent to a group of recipients. Usually they list a number of items to be completed, but it never clearly states who is responsible for each item. We use to have an old saying “If you want to make sure nothing gets done, send an e-mail to as many people as possible.” This does not imply that people are lazy, it means that everyone looks at who an e-mail is sent too. If there is a long list of recipients and the e-mail does not clearly state who is responsible for each item, most likely people will assume someone else is doing tasks unless stated.
It is quite common to send shorter emails and phone calls in order to keep up our fast paste lives. However, do not cut corners when it comes to communication in order to avoid the pitfalls later in your project.
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