The Social Project Manager

Here’s a buzz word for you: social project management. Most of the stuff you’ll find on the web about social project management relates to social media being used as project management tools. But simply using a social media tool doesn’t mean that you’re practicing social project management.

Social project management is an approach to managing a project. It’s about letting go of the top-down control of traditional project management. It’s about empowering and trusting people. It’s about an open-book policy that motivates people to perform.

Here are a few key attributes of the social project manager:

• Trusts the Team. Social project managers empower the team by allowing them to define their own approach and deadlines (given the project constraints). These bottom-up plans become the project plan. This means that the project manager is freed from being a task master and can focus on removing roadblocks and ensuring quality.
• Enables and Encourages Collaboration. Social project managers create an environment that facilitates communication between team members and teams. This may include daily scrums, collaborative software, paired task assignments, etc. The key to creating value and productivity is that each social interaction has the context of work.
• Focuses on Qualitative Data. The social project manager knows that there are infinite shades of red, yellow, and green. While some project managers focus on %complete, social project managers target the human element in a status report that reveals obstacles to be removed, opportunities to exploit, and the true state of the project.
• Broadcasts the Project. Social project managers believe that one of the best ways to engender stakeholder trust and to motivate performance is to make the project publicly accessible. Raw, transparent accessibility to project work and progress is frightening to the traditional project manager, but fundamental to the philosophy of social project management.

Some aspects of social project management resonate with traditional approaches, like relying on expert input to create the plan. Other aspects like broadcasting the project are hard for traditional organizations to swallow — for various reasons. It’s hard for some project managers to give up so much control. Further, some executives, given such granular visibility, can’t resist the urge to micromanage.

Introducing social project management is more than using a wiki to store threads and documents. It’s a cultural change that is felt from the executive level all the way down to the individual contributor. On the one hand, executives and managers will need to be more trusting of those in the trenches. On the other hand, team members need to step up to the plate and take on the accountability that such transparency demands.

Being a social project manager means changing the way you look at your team, your project, and yourself. Your role becomes more of an enabler than a controller. It may not be for everyone; but if done right, it can unleash the power of the masses toward the success of your project.