Bring Work-Life Balance with Disciplined Project Management

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There seems to be early burn-out in IT professionals. Doctors are appalled at the heart-risks and related ailments; whenever a  young person wheeled into the emergency ward, the first question invariably is “are you working in IT?” why is it so? Job pressure, peer pressure, management pressure – the stress is too much. A number of factors collide and contribute to this havoc wreaked on youngsters. Heart attack in the forties or fifties doesn’t shock or surprise but in late twenties and early thirties psyches the physicians, who are perplexed dealing with the predicament. Such is the severity, and cut-throat the companies, employees either by choice or force end up staying late at their desk ‘burning the midnight oil’.

Does the number of hours clocked or the contributions  count? The misconception in the market is that one who spends long hours in the office is deemed ‘hard working’. Anything less and your talent is questionable or the workload is not just enough to justify your paycheck. So some just pretend to stretch or ‘kill’ time by indulging in other activity instead of freeing up bandwidth to take up additional tasks. “If I do this task or accommodate more chores in addition, will the amount in the salary credited change?” this reflects not just the individual lack of commitment, but reflects poorly on the leadership as well.

Devotion to work should be wilful, lest it leaves one dissatisfied and disgruntled. Once resourceful, now turned rebels are primarily due to poor people management. Long and late nights are part of the daily rigor of an IT Professional. Time consumed at office leaves with less for family. Everything ought to be balanced – including work.

A project manager, whom I used to report, will sit beside me and plan the ‘tasks for the week’ taking my inputs for the ‘hours allocated’ and sometime let me estimate the ‘number of hours’. Effort estimation is both critical and crucial. Bagging the project by heck or crook, and later slogging the days, night and weekend are typical signs of burnout. It’s like cutting the foot to match the boot. That’s not project management. Weekends usually act as buffer and my manager managed on the maxim of “if you can’t get the work done in eight hour, either you are inefficient or incompetent."  People also tend to procrastinate – another malaise with no medicine in sight. Hence there is no blaming the managers alone. Both sides suffer from their own shortcoming and apparently there has to be a middle ground.

The 40 hour week

Any project manager with appreciable knowledge and experience will not estimate more than 8-hours as man day in the project plan. How many hours does the team work is another question but for the record its 8 hours, and usually the weekends are not factored – and mostly serve as buffers. Remember time is money and hence any inflation in your estimation will have an adverse implication on your cost estimation. If the budget balloons, the project will slip out of your hands. It’s a typical trapeze act or skating on thin ice. So balancing the 40-hour and keeping the project within cost calls for a skilled and smart time management.

Performance and productivity

No matter how many hours you clock, you are most productive for the first 4 hours.  The body might be willing but the mind simply is not up to it. Exhaustion,and fatigue hampers performance. Your ability to concentrate ebbs with passage of time. There should be a reason why Henry For came out with the brilliant strategy of ‘weekend’ so as to boost morale, improve productivity and increase time spent with family.  Sources from public domain cite that working fewer hours increase productivity and thereafter tend to wane.

Work-life balance

“I am too busy at work” is the usual refrain. You start before the kids awake and return after the fast asleep. Many professionals itinerary falls in to this pattern. Genuine cases of work chewing and even gobbling time is a possibility but that can’t become the norm. Its not family first or work at any cost. One has to strike a balance to do justice to both – stakeholder management.  Your internal and external client included, family too is part of stakeholders. And its important to attend on everyone, and if possible satisfy.

A gallup study revealed that we work 47 hours – which is 7 hours more. What will all the dollars, incentive, promotions and perks amount when you compromise your health for career. Think about it.

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Forms of Business Communication

Communication is the cornerstone for the success of any venture. Preceding blog discussed about the importance of Communication in Project Management, and this post will draw your attention to the different forms of communication. Communication put simply is sending or receiving information. Be it person to person [one-on-one] or with multiple contact [one with many] or within contacts [many to many], the bottom line is effective and efficient communication will prove decisive in the success of business venture. Timely call and timely action underscores the indispensible need for communication.

The insights from PMI’s Pulse of the Profession™ In-Depth Report: The Essential Role of Communications are interesting in its findings. “Highly effective communicators are also more likely to deliver projects on time (71 percent versus 37 percent) and within budget (76 percent versus 48 percent).”

The methods and means to communicate are as important as communication itself.  It’s a difficult fact to digest that despite understanding the significance of communication at the required hour, there is still a struggle to keep concerned informed of the critical details and updates. 

To get everyone associated with the project on the same page, it is necessary to speak the language of business. Communication is often glorified as a dialogue or discussion between figure heads or ‘key’ personnel, especially decision makers, sponsors or business owner. The last person is counted whose views, opinions, suggestions and response matters. Communication is a two-way street when “we reach out by speaking and listening”.

Communication is of two types in the context of business: internal and external.

Be it internal or external, communication works mainly on the following methodologies:

Verbal

It’s the spoken word, which can be face-to-face, particularly individual to individual (one on one), or groups (conferencing) or one to many (interviews, stakeholder meet or client meeting). Verbal communication these days are empowered by employing media like phones (direct conversation) or radio and television (passive listeners).  Some stakeholders meetings in the Asian-pacific region are known to be held in football stadiums. Verbal communication is the traditional form and cuts out the clutter or confusion. Unless recorded, which can have legal implications, the verbal exchange can at best be captured as minutes or notes, which can be less accurate.

 

Written Communication:

Anything in the written format that include letters, memos, bulletins board, circulars, notice, posters, articles, magazines, and books. This method is chosen when communication is intended to reach multiple persons who are at a distance that voice can’t reach or in a different location. Before the advent of technology, this was considered as the predominant method of communication. For authenticity and authority, written format can best serve the purpose like offer letter, or user manual or business related correspondence like agreements, invoice and other legal documents. Also, records in writing serve as proof or testimony and in legal parlance as evidence too. The downside is the delay in delivery and failure in acknowledgement can leave the fate of the correspondence in hanging; too much of paperwork and hence housekeeping could be cumbersome and the adverse impact to nature by felling trees to make papers.

Electronic Communication:

Technology has revolutionized communication. Electronic Communication includes email, sms, social media, websites (enquiry and feedback sections), web conferencing, and online chats. Pen and paper are fad, other than signature or the occasional notes. With gadgets governing the order of the day, it’s electronic all the way because of the access, use, reach, convenience, comfort and connectivity.  The communication can be complete with a click of a mouse.

E-mail is the most preferred form of communication, especially in the written format. Technology enabling voice, it will not be necessary to type or key words, as the system will intelligent to input the words from voice software technology.

Web conferencing is where remotely located person or people can connect either face-to-face meeting take place on a secure connection. Web conferencing can be leveraged for instructor-led online training and alternatively a recorded session can become the course content for self-paced or e-Learning for training, lectures, presentations, workshops and the like.

Social media sites also act as good platform, especially for marketing and promotional activities with its vast network, they help to connect and collaborate in exchange of information. Such sites are also used in the sphere of learning where the learned impart their knowledge and thereby serve the community.

There are of course, online chats for customer service provided by any merchant put up a shop online or service provider offering services. As technology advances, newer ways to connect are created strengthening communication. There is always a downside to anything creative or innovative but the evaluation will always  be based on the pros and cons.