Today I had a frustrating yet humorous experience. This experience showed me that upper management is not paying attention nor communicating important project information with each other.
Earlier this morning, I received an urgent letter from the VP of our department about the status of one of my projects. I found this letter quite perplexing, because he and the other executives should be aware of the project status for the following reasons:
- Meetings are held twice a week and the department directors, managers and team members are in attendance.
- Prior to each meeting, I send an agenda that details all the completed project tasks and status of new and ongoing issues.
- After the meetings, I send out a follow-up of the tasks discussed and any new issues.
- All directors, managers and team members are included on the agenda, meeting follow-ups, plus any other issues that arise.
- A summary of this project is included in my weekly executive summary that is reviewed by the company VPs, President and CEO every week.
So, you could understand my surprise when my department VP contacted me with this urgent e-mail asking for status. Then to make things even more frustrating, my department director got into the act and started to ask for status about items that were mentioned in prior e-mails addressed to him. One of those e-mails was sent earlier that day. Also, this director has received all the agendas and follow-ups, plus attended some of the meetings.
This is one case where I know I have done all I could to keep people informed. I was so frustrated by this that I wanted to scream, “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE, CAN’T YOU READ!”
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