{"id":1090,"date":"2008-06-27T05:07:28","date_gmt":"2008-06-27T05:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/2008\/06\/27\/a-pms-toolbox-tour-tray-3-bottom-of-the-box\/"},"modified":"2019-08-07T14:34:50","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T21:34:50","slug":"a-pms-toolbox-tour-tray-3-bottom-of-the-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=1090","title":{"rendered":"A PM&#8217;s Toolbox Tour: Tray 3 &amp; Bottom of the Box"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"113\" alt=\"Toolbox Tray3\" src=\"https:\/\/svapm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/toolboxtray3.thumbnail.jpg\" width=\"133\" \/>\u00a0I see no point in reinventing the wheel: I prefer to accessorize!\u00a0 So to make the most of what I&#8217;ve learned already, I keep a basic set of templates and checklists in the toolbox, along with the inevitable expectation that they&#8217;re a starting point for adaptation and customization.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Because customization can be so varied, I embed lots of possibilities in templates: questions, exercises, activities, links to other formats or related templates, etc.\u00a0 This makes the modification easier and, more importantly, reminds me to consider the perspective of others who will be involved.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The templates I rely on most are for things I do frequently that can be done in a wide variety of ways, like meeting agendas.\u00a0 \u00a0I keep a generic meeting agenda and specialized versions for focused meetings like chartering, planning and retrospectives, etc.\u00a0\u00a0 For example &#8211; the generic agenda:\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Review\/modify agenda (<em>always<\/em> the first item for <em>every<\/em> meeting)<\/li>\n<li>?? &#8211; introductions needed<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Basics + 1, 6-word memoir<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<li>Review stated meeting purpose and expected outcomes<\/li>\n<li>?? &#8211; include <em>participant<\/em> purpose and expected outcomes<\/li>\n<li>?? &#8211; is a decision-making or other group process needed<\/li>\n<ul>\n<li>Thumb vote, secret ballot, Dot vote<\/li>\n<li>Brainstorming, 1-sentence Go-Around<\/li>\n<li>Sticky-note affinitization<\/li>\n<li>Rolestorming, Analogies,<\/li>\n<li>Temperature Reading, Reflection<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<li>?? &#8211; are there certain people\u00a0that must be in attendance to do what&#8217;s needed; what to do it they&#8217;re not<\/li>\n<li>Review outstanding action items<\/li>\n<li>Next steps<\/li>\n<li>Action items for next steps (who does what by when)<\/li>\n<li>Next meeting date<\/li>\n<p>An excellent book for planning different types of meetings (and creating templates) is <em>The Art of Focused Conversation: 100 Ways to Access group Wisdom in the Workplace<\/em>, edited by Brian Stanfield.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I also maintain templates for the documents I think are critical for project success (Charter, Communication Plan and Interim Retrospective in particular). I&#8217;ve noticed that there&#8217;s often a difference between my version and an organizationally mandated version, and that sometimes the organization doesn&#8217;t use the document at all.\u00a0 If for no other reason than cover-your-behind, as PM you need to document whatever you think is important&#8230; and<em> make sure the right people read and initial it.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Last, and by no means least, the bottom compartment of my toolbox is full of questions.\u00a0 For several years now I&#8217;ve made it a point to make note of interesting questions, many of which, though not specific to project management, have a useful effect when inserted liberally into the work.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Look for opportunities to ask questions, embed them in templates and checklists, and select a few for every time you&#8217;re going to meet with someone.\u00a0 For instance, when working with a person whose role is to provide you with direction or requirements, ask provocative questions like:\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What puzzles\/surprises you about: ?\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>What does that allow you to do?\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>In all your experience with : , what is the most important thing you&#8217;ve learned?<\/li>\n<li>What do you wish you didn&#8217;t know?<\/li>\n<li>What things do you assume will never or always change? \u00a0<\/li>\n<li>What other questions should I be asking you?\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The answers are good to have; the <em>conversation<\/em> is better.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nQuestions are a wonderful tool and can be tricky: the whole context needs to be considered before asking.\u00a0 &#8220;Whose legs are you dancing on?&#8221; or &#8220;How old are you right now?&#8221; can leave you looking like a genius or a complete fool.<\/p>\n<p>Ainsley Nies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0I see no point in reinventing the wheel: I prefer to accessorize!\u00a0 So to make the most of what I&#8217;ve [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[297,351,85,338,265,375],"class_list":["post-1090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","tag-creative-thinking","tag-facilitation","tag-meetings","tag-project-management-tools","tag-questions","tag-templates"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1090"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14014,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090\/revisions\/14014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}