I had a coworker that worked in the company for 14 years. Since the day I started working, she did nothing the entire time but talk to other coworkers and sit on her phone. She had no communication and wasn't responsive to any reprimands. My manager would always ask me to give her an update of how she was doing because I worked on the same team as her. She would also cause problems with other coworkers. I personally believe that everyone deep down inside is good and has a good work ethic. It is tough circumstances in life that sometimes force some people to act the way they do. Some people have had such a hard life that they don't care about anything anymore. She was one of those people and nobody knew it. To deal with people like this, you have to "kill them with kindness" so to say. You have to be nice and genuine and caring with them and develop that personal relationship. Once you do that, they will enjoy working and not feel the burden anymore. This is how we handled her and she improved dramatically after doing so.
To cope up with the timeline for each and every member is necessary to avoid any unnecessary delay. For that a pin board should be kept attaching notes of all tge tasks. Not only that but also every update of task in between and completed so everyone can get updated and get a reminder whenever they pass by the board. This way every person will try to cope up the speed and would be knowingly clear about taks they have to complete. It will struck in their mind every now and then to stay on the timeline. Thus getting tasks and project completed on time.
Communication is a key aspect of both managing a team and operating as a member of a team. As the PM, having a member who is unresponsive and lacks either communication skills or the desire to make an effort to communicate can be detrimental to the progress made on the project. Ideally, everyone on the team has a specified set of roles and responsibilities. Someone who doesn't know what their responsibilities are, or who doesn't inform other people who are relying on them of their progress hurts everyone around them by not communicating. To answer your question of how it can be handled. To be honest, I don't think anyone who lacks rudimentary and essential communication skills should be an essential member of any product development team due to the negative effect it can have on others and overall progress. So, talking to said person one on one about what they need to improve in regards to their communication skills could remedy the issue, and if not it could be necessary to find a replacement.
Establish a communication protocol at the first team meeting. Communication is the most important aspect of teamwork, in my opinion. Being fair and appropriate to everyone's preferred method of communication while having clearly defined consequences is key to effective communication. Whenever there is an issue, you can reference the communication protocol that everyone agreed worked for them, and hold the individual accountable for their actions. That being said, people can get burnt out. Take your team out for lunch or to a team-building exercise. Allow your team the freedom to make mistakes and not feel scared to come to you about regarding it. Everyone has bad days and can get into a slump. Finding out what's going on with the person would be a huge step in the right direction of fixing the situation.
Communication being an important part of the entire project it would be of utmost importance to explain the need for an input from all the members of the project group. This would have been explained in the first meeting. Apart from this understanding and giving flexibility in the way of giving their inputs preferred by these members and making them feel comfortable in their way of responding would be needed. However, when there is an uncooperative member it is important to understand the reason behind the same but if it continues then there needs to be some sort of warning issued and a way needs to be figured out to make them realize hoe important the response is of each member of the group. Also making the member realize that he/she is not providing enough inputs is also important and expected of the PM. When all the members cannot make it for a meet it would be advisable to have a meeting when the maximum number of members are available and getting this done with all the members is where the true ability of the project manager will come into play.
A successful project manager lays out the communication requirements and how information is shared through the team before the start of a project. However, despite the effort of the project manager to enhance communication among the team members, there are bound to be some issues arising still relating to communication. For instance, inability to listen during meeting. Often you will see co-workers interrupting speakers or planning what they will say next instead of effectively listening. Other distractions occurs when team members are too distracted or have a short attention span. PMs might address this issue by stressing on the importance of listening, prior to the start of the actual discussion. PMs might also suggest to focus on the person talking and making note for possible questions, rather than interrupting the speaker and affecting the flow his/her ideas. Other problems due to communication have to do with the cultural dynamic of the working environment. The office has become a melting pot stocked with people of diverse backgrounds and cultural customs. People tend to “hang” with others familiar to their culture or habits, as a result, these small group dynamics might have a strong communication among themselves while omitting the rest of the team. Thus,PMs should emphasize the common goal that the project should be prevalent over individual accomplishment and "cliques". PMs should also try to mix people of various cultural background together to avoid the formation of these "cliques". Moreover, PMs should make that everyone contribute during brainstorming sessions; and if someone happens to be reticent, PMs should give them an opportunity to interact by asking them to for feedback on the overall session. There are so many little tricks that can be implemented as the ones mentioned above. By that themselves, those simple tricks might not show a noticeable effect, however, combined together , they can tremendously improve the overall communication of the team.
Within groups, there are many different type of people, where some people do not communicate with the rest of the group or not often enough. When this happens, most likely people are always going to be bothering the unresponsive member to see if their job is done and how long it will take. Many members will have to do this as well the project manager. Instead of the member checking in with the group, it will be the other way around. It might seem like this is micromanaging, but if the person who isn’t communicating where they are with their assignments, then weekly check-ins are required. Making sure where they are and if they need any assistance with their assignment is necessary. To make sure to the project moves along smoothly, it is important. If not, all members are able to meet to review where the project is at, those who can meet up, should attend and go over where everything is in the meeting and have someone create the minutes to send to everyone at the end of the meeting. Then the whole group will know where everyone is at and the members who were not able to come would make sure to meeting with the project manager and let them know where they are at, so that all the information is in the minutes for all the members to see.
Before a project even begins or a team undertakes a task, it is important for the entire team to be on the same page by setting expectations for how the team will communicate, share information and navigate setbacks. These are all important parts of managing a team as if everyone is one the same page at the beginning, then if one team member goes astray, it will be easier for the PM or PA to take the proper actions necessary. If expectations are set and the team member is being negligent, then the PA can escalate the issue or remove the member from his team. But if they are not set, then the team member can turn the ambiguity of what is to be expected of him/her as a team member against the PA or PM.
From as early as the mini sim we were told to consider outside factors such as vacation times for inspectors when planning a schedule so we don't get delayed unnecessarily. Because the job of a PA is group centric and requires the cooperation of many other people, how do you suggest dealing with unresponsive members or members who don't communicate as often? As the PA you need to keep track of peoples activities to make sure we are on schedule but since we aren't supposed to get too caught up in micromanaging, what do you suggest a PA does when there is an uncooperative person? This can be that guy who has been a the company for 25 years and is getting ready to retire, or that person who differs all their work to their subordinates. What do you suggest doing when all members cannot meet at a single time to bring everyone up to speed?
I think meeting with that individual one on one would be the best way to approach this. Although they may seem unresponsive and difficult to work with, there may be an explanation for their behavior. Maybe the project you're working on with them is not their highest priority and they are overloaded with other more important projects, and they've been instructed by their manager not to devote as much time to this particular project. Having clarity on their behavior and lack of responsiveness may help explain things and maybe you can work out a shift in their priorities so they can focus more time on this project. If after speaking with them though, you realize they are just being lazy and not completing any of their work on time, that is probably when you would escalate the situation to their manager to make sure the work is getting done in order to complete the project on time.
From as early as the mini sim we were told to consider outside factors such as vacation times for inspectors when planning a schedule so we don't get delayed unnecessarily. Because the job of a PA is group centric and requires the cooperation of many other people, how do you suggest dealing with unresponsive members or members who don't communicate as often? As the PA you need to keep track of peoples activities to make sure we are on schedule but since we aren't supposed to get too caught up in micromanaging, what do you suggest a PA does when there is an uncooperative person? This can be that guy who has been a the company for 25 years and is getting ready to retire, or that person who differs all their work to their subordinates. What do you suggest doing when all members cannot meet at a single time to bring everyone up to speed?
I think the best way to handle this situation would be to meet with the team member alone. To speak to them and ask them why they are being unproductive. I would also ask if maybe they are being uncooperative because of the other team members. Sometimes people do not work well together and this could be bad for the overall project. I also think implementing online methods of communication to make up for not being able to meet up in person. Everyone has a phone and using messaging or online video chatting methods can make up for not being able to meet in person.
As many of the posts above stated I agree that a lack of communication within a project team can be detrimental to the team's progress. That's why I also agree that establishing the expectations for communication in the beginning of the project is important - for instance, how often are you expected to provide a status update to the project manager? If you have a question or issue, do you bring it to the project manager's attention immediately, or try to solve it among your team members first? Discussing these guidelines off the bat can eliminate a lot of ambiguity on how/when to communicate with the team.
However, even if this is done it is still possible to find an individual member just isn't responsive or pulling their weight. If this is having a negative impact on the team's ability to accomplish work then I don't think it would be considered micromanaging for the PM to follow up with them one-on-one and get an understanding of what their situation may be and remind them of their expectations. Micromanaging would be persistently asking for updates when the team is already running smoothly and is not having issues with deadlines.
Well after the obvious of calling them, emailing, texting, google hangouts-ing, and pretty much trying the appropriate ways to reach the person, I would say to just keep records of every time you try to reach out to the person. Emails are great for this. You need someone from the risk management team to sign off on something for your boss but they dont work in your area? Email and call them, and after you've been waiting long enough and your boss asks why didn't you get your task done, you can show them records of your effort and the other employees negligence. Besides that, the previous response wrote it very nicely, to "kill them with kindness". After all, if you are rude to people no one will ever want to help you.
I agree with the previous posts on emailing/calling the unresponsive team member, since this allows for clear records. Additionally, I believe it is important to gather everyone's schedules before the start of the project, to make sure everyone has enough time to put in the commitment to the project, and have them sign off on their agreements. Of course, emergencies are understandable, since they cannot be predicted. Furthermore, there should be back-ups, just in case one team member drops out of the project. There can be possible replacements listed for particular tasks. I believe that if a member is consistently uncooperative, that member is not fit for the job and should be warned or fired. As for the example where the member is about to retire and is being uncooperative due to lack of interest or care, then I think it would be smart to start training a new member, since the more senior member is about to leave anyway. Lastly, when all members cannot meet at a single time, I think it is important to have online calls, or if everyone can't gather at the same time of an online call, then break the group into two sections, with the PM on both section's calls, to update both group sections.
Effective communication is crucial component for making goals reachable. It helps to maintain efficiency under a variety of circumstances and conditions. It makes accomplishing goals and meeting projections seamless, leading towards in a right path. Responsiveness is one of the important factors in a team; as unresponsive person may cause delay in meetings and disrupt project schedules.
Communication is one of the most vital things when working with a team and if a team member/team members fail to communicate, then there will be a risk of causing a delay or future issues. If the team member does not communicate first hand, it is important to contact this individual to prepare updates on their current work and how up to speed they are in terms of project deadlines. If after extending your hand to try and communicate with them fails, then it is important for the you as the PA to relay your concern to this individual and remind them that communication is important for any project to get done and if they continue to avoid communication with the team I will let them know that they have been removed from the team and be replaced.
