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In this, the third and final part of my series, I cover two more personality types and how to motivate them

Motivating the Influence Oriented Colleague
The influence oriented colleague is constantly on the lookout for an opportunity to display his skills and abilities, such as in multi-site project management, in hopes of being recognized and increasing his status within the organization. This colleague eagerly connects with people of influence and recognizes the need to compromise to get something done, should the alternative be not getting it done at all. To motivate a colleague like this let him know that you have communicated his strengths and recent accomplishments with his boss, or other influential people of the organization. This way he knows that his efforts are being recognized and will be motivated to work further.

Motivating the Goal Oriented Colleague
The oriented colleague is motivated by achieving things. He is focused on targets and likes the challenge of setting and reaching goals. Such a colleague refuses to fail. And although he may often be a poor communicator, he gets things done. Congratulate this person on meeting past goals. Let him know that you can count on him to complete future goals, such as POS rollouts, multi-site rollouts or software rollouts, and that his ability to meet goals has kept projects on target. Giving positive feedback gives his pride in his work and will lend to quality produced work in the future.

Contact BigWave today to eliminate the chaos and streamline your multi-site project management.

In this part of the series I discuss motivating colleagues that are people oriented.

Motivating the People Oriented Colleague
The people oriented colleague is most concerned by building and maintaining the relationship between himself and those with whom he comes in contact. He wants everyone to get along and believes that teams and positive interaction are critical to achievement. With terms like ‘we’ and ‘us’ at the forefront of his vocabulary, he tends to have excellent business, as well as personal, relationships. A people oriented colleague is probably organizing the next social event, and has more than likely gathered a group to organize it with him. To motivate such a person, focus on the team aspect when speaking with him. Stress the importance of his place in the team, giving him the sense that the team would not complete its goal without him. Let him know that the team is relying on him for support and guidance.
Contact BigWave today to eliminate the chaos and streamline your multi-site project management.

Because people differ so drastically from each other, the ability to motivate them in such projects as multi-site rollouts, POS rollouts, or software rollouts can’t be written in a formula. Motivation is in fact an art that is composed of a number of factors including technique, understanding and creativity.

Technique, understanding and creativity are motivational factors based on the idea that people are motivated by different effects. As a project manager, it is important to recognize what your colleague is motivated by, and to then play on that as a means to propel him further. For example, if a project manager presents the need to finish a goal to someone who feels unaffected by the completed goal, the project manager may not achieve the desired results. Thus, it is important to recognize what it is that your colleague is motivated by. The following are three motivational categories that people typically fall under, and solutions for motivating them. In this three part series I will discuss three different personality types, and how to motivate them.

BigWave can help you manage multi-site IT projects more efficiently so you can collaborate and communicate quickly and effectively both on and off site. With BigWave, project managers can focus on what they do best—managing projects.
Contact BigWave today to eliminate the chaos and streamline your multi-site project management.

If you are working with a group, identify individual roles such as:
•    Who will make the decision
•    Who’s support is required in making the decision
•    Who has interest, but no influence in the decision

Focus on those whose support is required in making the decision. Ask them if there is any other information they may need, and when they will be talking with the decision maker to make the decision. Be sure people understand the implications of making a late decision. Make it clear. Put it on the schedule if you have to.

Lastly, when a decision is close to being reached, agree on a date and time that the decision will officially be made by. If you followed the above advice, the decision should be made under budget and on time.

BigWave can help you manage multi-site IT projects more efficiently so you can collaborate and communicate quickly and effectively both on and off site. With BigWave, project managers can focus on what they do best—managing projects. Contact BigWave today to eliminate the chaos and streamline your multi-site project management.

Project managers find that many people don’t want to make decisions. There are a number of reasons for this, and a project manager must be aware of them, so that they may best approach the reluctant decision maker. Reasons include:
• They can’t distinguish between the pros and the cons of the possible decision
• They fear making the decision and feel they do not have the authority to do so, or fear the consequence of making the
wrong decision.
• They just don’t like to make decisions and would rather be led than lead.
• They may not make a decision unless they know that it will help promote them within the organization.

Project managers must learn how to work with these reluctances. For example, if they have someone who doesn’t like to make decisions, they can lay out the process in advance and then have the decision maker create a list of questions that need to be answered and then go and seek out the answers themselves. If they are dealing with someone who is willing to make decisions only if it will help to promote them, first convince them that it will indeed help their career and that a wrong decision is not career limiting.

When involved with multi-site rollouts, or software rollouts, project managers are often faced with the difficult task of getting an individual or a group of colleagues to reach a decision.  This task runs the risk of causing projects to come in over budget or behind time. However, there are a number of steps that a project manager can take to avoid that unfortunate outcome.

Project managers should start the process by noting decision making points, which could include: when the project should proceed to next stage the scope of the project, and acceptance of variations. They also need to create a process for making decisions. By setting guidelines, such as where a decision should go depending upon the variable, the project manager streamlines the process.  Please note that how you make your decision is just as important as what decision you make. In this three part series, I will continue to provide advice on how to make decisions effectively and efficiently.

BigWave can help you manage multi-site IT projects more efficiently so you can collaborate and communicate quickly and effectively both on and off site. With BigWave, project managers can focus on what they do best—managing projects. Contact BigWave today to eliminate the chaos and streamline your multi-site project management.

We have all heard about how important customer service is to a business. We have all also experienced bad customer service. Far too often people share the bad experiences. I’d like to share a good experience we heard about from one of BigWave’s customers recently.

We sent an email to one of our customers letting them know that during our routine error monitoring, we noticed that an error occurred for them. We sent them a patch as quickly as possible to resolve the error. The response we received back from them was:

“That sounds great!! Thanks for the EXCELLENT customer service!! [In general, customer service] is sure lacking these days, and so I definitely appreciate [it] more than most people. Excellent customer service is the one sure way to expand your customer base. You guys rock!!”

It is nice to hear when you are doing something right. Customer service is very important to us at BigWave, and we will continue to make it one of our top priorities. You can find out what more of our customers have said on our testimonials page. If you would like more information about BigWave, contact us today. We can not only help make your multi-site project management life a lot easier–we will also provide exceptional customer service.

The third attempt at RAD is team-based and was designed to ensure business user involvement. The team-based method creates a flexible team with few core members and several periphery members from business and IT who come and go as their skills are needed.  Success with the team-based approach relies on communication, designation of roles and responsibilities for each member, as well as a clearly defined goal for the team to achieve. In a team-based environment work is carried out in short extensive bursts in an effort to retain focus, an understanding that the team is working under a fixed timeframe is given, and training is implemented before the start of the RGP. Another advantage of the  team based approach is that it can be used in multi-site project management, POS rollouts and multi-site rollouts.

After you have provided your team with the tools and guidelines it needs to successfully gather system requirements, look at your project and make sure that the RGP  involves business users, has executive management support, a clear statement of requirements, proper planning and realistic expectations.

BigWave can help you manage multi-site IT projects more efficiently so you can collaborate and communicate quickly and effectively both on and off site.