For Project Success, Ask Plenty of Questions

Tell me about your father and your mother. Did they feed you often? ... What were some of your other memories growing up? How about...


OK, so maybe we don't want to overdo it. But it's vital that we not hesitate to ask questions during preliminary project research, at status meetings, and behind the scenes.

This is one of the most frequently cited problems with rookie project managers. They hesitate to ask questions for fear that someone will think them incompetent, and as a result they appear incompetent.

In fact, I've noticed that the more experienced a project manager is, the more questions they tend to ask. I once knew a manager who purchased pens as promotional gifts for all of his staff with nothing but the company logo and a question mark on it, as a reminder for everyone to never stop asking questions. This really got the point across, and helped build the culture of a learning organization.