One of the points I should have made in my previous post on leadership was that you grow your replacements by setting stretch goals for them. Setting stretch goals does not apply only to leadership roles but also to all project team members.
Planning and estimating are activities that many would love to offload onto the PM; the problem becomes how do you train the next PM? Here are a few examples of stretch goals around planning and estimating:
- When a new Request for Proposal (RFP) is received; distribute it to a few potential or new technical leaders or project managers. Give them a reasonable but not generous amount of time to individually derive a list of deliverables and a WBS.
- Convene everyone to compare, organize, and harmonize the results of the WBS round. Give everyone a reasonable amount of time to individually derive a list of tasks and efforts related to the deliverables identified in the harmonized WBS.
- Convene everyone to compare, organize, and harmonize the results of the task and effort round. Give everyone a reasonable amount of time to individually set constraints and dependencies for the tasks identified in the harmonized task list.
As you go through the exercise observe every participant’s behaviour. Look for signs that individual participants appear to be lost, uninterested, or not participating in meeting. Address issues as they come along, offering help and encouragement as needed. Do not allow participant to give up on the exercise.
You can expect wildly different outputs from each individual at each step of the exercise. You may reveal hidden talents and you are almost certain to foster a feeling of commitment in all participants.
What do you think? As always questions and comments are welcome.
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