Spending lots of time doing the work and little time communicating the work?
"He talked to the team several times about communicating and the need for him to stay 'plugged in' to what we were doing. 'Keep me apprised of what's going on with the project,' I remembered hearing him say. Yet I was knee-deep in the details, with data and reports still to be read, evaluated and vetted. I dribbled out a general sentence or two into the status template, hit 'Send' and then turned my attention back to work. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the 'Status Call' reminder notice pop up in Outlook. I knew then there wasn't a snowball's chance I'd make the benign conference call and finish the work on time. I ploughed ahead."
The project manager was on the status call and heard the round-robin updates as each person provided color commentary on his or her part of the project. Only one person was unexpectedly missing from the call. "Out of earshot but not out of mind," the manager thought. "Where is he? Is there a problem with his section?" No one on the call could cover for him, so no one knew the status of the work.
The project manager scanned the status template until he found the entry belonging to the missing team member. He read the update. Twice. "This can't be the full story-it just doesn't hold together. Thanks for the chicken scratch of an update," he thought.
When you skip the communication step, what goes missing is
you: you own the back story, the nuance, the interplay and emphasis that helps the team choreograph their next moves. Taking time to communicate what's going on with your work frees up time in the long run. Updates can reveal cracks, coordination points and craters that more experienced ears can decipher. The team gets to know you better, too. Seeing how you size up situations, handle roadblocks and work with others helps them determine if you can be trusted to deliver. Those benign status calls are important for knitting project teams closer together. When you show up, everyone benefits.
Communicate. It's part of doing the work.
