Collaboration within a project is crucial for its success and peace of mind for the team members involved. Often a diversity of opinions produces the best results because everyone’s past experiences are different. They bring their own unique perspective to the situation.
For example, while working as a project coordinator on the HHS 2020 project for the State of New Mexico, I was able to provide insight into a situation and in turn provide a solution.
While in a meeting, the project manager (PM) mentioned several team members were not completing an assigned task. Team members were asked to update a file created in Microsoft Project to track their progress on the project. This was important to keep the project on track and on time. If we don’t know which project milestones are complete, it’s difficult to keep the project moving forward.
After viewing the file, I could guess the issue at hand. At first glance, the file looked daunting, but the team members were only responsible for a portion of the large layout. From personal experience, I know Microsoft Project is difficult to navigate. I mentioned this to the PM and suggested training the team members on the platform. I recommended that we demonstrate only the part of the file they were responsible for updating and how to complete the tasks asked of them.
The PM took my suggestion and broke down the areas of the task. The provided training was successful, and the team began updating the Microsoft Project file. I was able to use my personal background with Microsoft Project to problem-solve for our clients and make everyone’s jobs run smoothly.
Collaboration is key when working on any project and sometimes it’s a good idea to get another perspective. This can be accomplished by taking a step back, taking a break from the project, or getting ideas from another team member. I hope to continue to assist the netlogx and business teams by bringing my point of view and experience to the project.
