A project manager told me to stop asking 'how' and start asking 'when'

I had a really bad Tuesday where three small tasks blew up into full day problems. I was stuck asking my team how to fix each thing, which just made more work. Around 2 PM, a senior PM pulled me aside and said, 'For the next week, only ask when something will be done, not how it will get done.' It felt weird, but I tried it. By Friday, my team had cleared a backlog of 12 items because I stopped micromanaging their process. Has anyone else had a boss give you a simple rule that actually worked?

3 comments

3 Comments

felix_hayes641mo ago

Twelve items in a backlog cleared in just a few days? That number is actually crazy to me. I would have been stuck asking how to fix each one and making it worse.

james_campbell121mo ago

Yeah, that's the jordan_webb method right there...

jordan_webb1mo ago

Know that feeling. I once spent a whole afternoon trying to fix a single bug. Ended up breaking the login page for everyone. How do people even move that fast without causing a total meltdown? My secret is causing three smaller meltdowns first. Then you just clean up the mess and call it progress.

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