Engage early– good communication is two way With a vision in mind, an ethos of openness, and a readiness to ask ‘how’, rather than tell ‘what’, it’s at least possible to get everyone in the room. Do this early in the process and have the conversations on how best to get where you are going. As Richard from Impact says, “always consult more widely than you think you need to”. This message is amplified by Louise Marshall, infrastructure and shared services director at Brother UK, who explains how “kinetic team working” in the early stages of a project can really help.
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“When you have a large group working together, from different areas of the business, you get a wide range of personalities and opinions at all levels,” she says. “A line manager will be looking for technology to make their life easier. When you get someone at the coal face, for example, they will be more interested in the detail. Those two people will have different views on how the project needs to be managed and what the result needs to be. “Getting them together early on will deliver a much better result. If it’s done piecemeal, then people don’t always appreciate the challenges that others will have, and will only ever think about how it affects them.”
