If it’s not on the list, it doesn’t exist

No one ever likes to have a project go late or over budget. That’s especially true in tough economic times. I’m therefore going to give you my number one key to managing projects successfully. For all you project managers, I know I’m oversimplifying. For everyone else, I want you to learn my mantra:

If it’s not on the list, it doesn’t exist.

Say it three times. I’ll wait.

Let me explain. Consultants are rarely called in unless there’s a problem so I have a somewhat warped view of the universe. Still, I’m guessing that many of you are working on projects which are behind schedule and/or over budget. You see a lot of activity but no real progress. It can be any kind of project — a new reporting system, a software upgrade, or new POS registers in the field. In every case, you’re not sure who’s done what or where the hold up is. You ask people what’s going on and you get responses like these:

“Didn’t you read the e-mail?”
“He didn’t respond to my e-mail”
“I left her a voice mail. Haven’t heard back”
“Yeah, I guess he was supposed to talk to me last Friday. I’ll double check.”

If you’re a business person, you may think people are hiding some major technical problem. That’s almost never the case. People are the problem. People who think cc’ing an executive who gets 500 e-mails per day is effective communication. People who complain but won’t quantify. People who always have other things come up. For all these people, I have my mantra:

If it’s not on the list, it doesn’t exist.

Here’s how you solve the problem. You get every one in a room and you write down every single issue on the project. You take every issue from that software patch that the vendor hasn’t delivered to the training room you need to book and get it in “the list”. This list will be your bible. You assign dates and names. You review weekly. You let every one on the team know:

If it’s not on the list, it doesn’t exist.

Where you keep the list doesn’t matter. I like Excel but if you have the time and see the value of Microsoft Project, go ahead. People can still use e-mail, voice mail, or signal flags if they want to. They can even talk face to face. But each week, they need to know that problems only exist when they are on that list. Further, problems are only resolved when the list says so.

If it’s not on the list, it doesn’t exist.

It sounds simple and it is. Further, I acknowledge that there are certainly other reasons projects fail. But if you do this one thing, you’ll be surprised how many issues that have been open months or years will be closed in weeks. Try it and let me know how it turns out.

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