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7. Keeping others in the dark? Communicate plans with stakeholders. The cooperation and
engagement of stakeholders will be crucial to achieving your plan’s objectives. Identify your key
stakeholders. What are their interests and needs? How much information do they want? What
vehicles of communication do they prefer? At what frequency? Develop and follow a communication
plan to stay in touch with them. Communicate the overall aims, approach, and time line of your
project. Include meaningful milestones, such as when you need their input on decisions or for
approvals. Let stakeholders know what’s progressing according to plan and what is not. If you
anticipate problems or delays, inform those who will be affected as soon as possible and determine
workable solutions.

Want to learn more? Take a deep dive…
Harding, C. (2010, January 14). Project status reporting process. Project Management Online.

Lavoie, A. (n.d.). Ignoring this issue could ruin your company. CEO.
Mekšs, D. (2012). 30 Greatest online project management and collaboration tools for easy
communication! 1st Web Designer.
Merrett, R. (2012, July 31). Want project success? Engage stakeholders. CIO Magazine.

8. Not tracking details closely enough? Monitor progress against the plan. If a leader or
stakeholder asks an important question related to the status of your project, could you respond
quickly and accurately? Could you estimate time to completion? Provide a budget update? At the
outset of the project, develop a system for tracking time lines and measures that are meaningful to
team members and stakeholders—cost and quality control, scheduling variances, scope changes,
resource usage. When in doubt, return to your objectives. What are you trying to do? Review success
criteria regularly—have a dashboard of these metrics within easy reach. Periodically distribute
executive summaries to all parties. Supplement the summaries with additional information relevant for
specific groups. Give everyone involved in implementing the plan progress reports. When you reach
milestones, share updates related to achievements, decisions, potential risks, and next steps.

9. Not anticipating potential roadblocks? Envision the plan in process. Take time to picture what
could go wrong from the start of the plan to its completion. Discuss potential scenarios with
colleagues who have diverse vantage points. How might things play out? What’s the worst-case
scenario? What other setbacks or glitches might occur? Rank the potential problems from highest
likelihood to lowest likelihood. What will you do if the highest likelihood things happen? Create
contingency plans for each. Take steps to prevent problems and monitor warning signs. Pay close
attention to the weakest links. These are usually groups or elements you have the least interface with
or control over (perhaps someone in a remote location, a consultant or supplier). Stay doubly in touch
with the potential weak links. Things can change quickly, so at various milestones, go back through
your mental checklist. Anticipate and have Plan B ready.

10. Overly optimistic when developing plans? Plan for the unplanned. Many use “best-case
scenario” formulas when making initial plans. They’re eager to please the customer. To deliver top-
quality results quickly and affordably. Stretch goals are admirable. But overpromising isn’t practical or
smart—it can lead to execution problems and fallout from unmet expectations. It can also make the

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