MAKING DELAYS GO AWAY
***
Almost. Enrique Hijuelos is almost finished implementing the
new 24-hour customer service hotline. But just as the operators'
workstations are being installed, the vice-president of sales, Marv
Brammer, calls and tells Enrique that he wants to reconsider the
procedures for taking orders.
"Why couldn't he think of this six months ago?" Enrique fumes
as he hangs up. With this delay, it's hard to see how anyone could
expect him to keep the project on schedule and on budget--but he
knows they will.
***
The best-laid plans of supervisors like Enrique are often
subject to delays caused by ever-changing minds, temperamental
equipment, absent staff, vanished data, and an assortment of other
obstacles. But by being ready to take on such ogres as they arise,
you can minimize the damage they cause. The following tips can
help you absorb delays into the process of efficient project
management.
1. Include Plan B in Plan A.
Follow the recipe for successful project preparation: specify
your goals, gain management and staff support, and schedule the
actions and resources needed for completion. Then, when you've got
a blueprint ready, study it for signs of what might go wrong. By
considering your options in advance, you'll save time when delays
occur--or perhaps avoid them altogether.
2. Get off to a fast start.
"Take advantage of the clarity and enthusiasm that go along
with starting new projects," says John Censor, president of New
York's Planning and Control, Inc. If you can get ahead of schedule,
you'll build up a margin of safety you can devote to troubleshooting
later on.
3. Don't take inaction sitting down.
Passively accepting a delay increases its impact on your
project. Find out the cause of the obstacle and do what you can to
remove it. For example, instead of waiting for Marv to re-evaluate
the ordering system, Enrique should ask him to describe his
concerns. Enrique may find he can relieve Marv's worries--or at
least propose the most efficient way to make any needed changes.
When you can't complete a task because you're missing a
crucial element, analyze how your project benefits the person who
can provide the missing element. Determine whether it's within your
power to help the delayer give you what you need. If Enrique finds
himself facing another delay when the director of marketing is slow
in providing some necessary statistics, he might offer to assign one of
his people to marketing just long enough to free up the department
to concentrate on finishing the figures.
4. Make progress somewhere else.
Sometimes mechanical breakdown or temporary loss of
personnel will stop your project in its tracks. When that happens,
change tracks. Most projects are complex enough to require action
on several fronts; don't let a slowdown in one area bring all activities
to a crawl. Encourage your team to do more research, or perform
training, or maintain contact with the project's end user. While the
order-taking issue is being resolved, for example, Enrique might
direct his people to focus on creating a database for following up on
customer complaints.
5. Find the upside to downtime.
Don't despair if your project gets temporarily bogged down; be
alert to the advantages delay can offer. Sometimes a pause gives you
the opportunity to reassess and revise a project's goals. A delay can
help you determine whether all of the remaining steps are genuinely
necessary. And even a prolonged delay can be valuable if you
analyze its causes and learn how to avoid them in the future.
The most frustrating delays are those that occur no matter how
meticulously you've planned--and those that remain no matter how
resourcefully you try to maneuver around them. But don't let them
keep infuriating you. If all else fails, walk away. Give the problem a
little time to work itself out, and yourself some time to calm down.
A slight delay of your own can restore the calm perspective
necessary to finally get over the hump and back on the way to
achieving your goals.
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