Attached is a simple template for capturing action items that I've honed over the years while trying to balance diligence with simplicity. Several of my clients and managers have found this helpful so I thought I'd share it along with some thoughts on action item management.
Download Visular-Action_Item_tool_v05
The most critical elements for effectively managing action items are: the action item itself being clear, one accountable owner, a due date and regular follow-up. This may seem like complete common sense and it has become pretty normal for people to capture action items at the end of most meetings, but so often this fundamental management technique is improperly done rendering it useless or worse - driving bad behaviors.
I think it's natural to want to wrap up meetings quickly and that makes us think that simply stating action items is enough. But even key steps such as documenting and distributing them to the team are sometimes skipped at even the best companies. No matter how many complex projects or large teams I've managed I still find that I have to remind myself to follow the rules on this one to be sure action items truly do what they are intended to do - focus the team, drive ACTION, and get results. Be sure of four very important factors every time you capture them:
Action Item - Clearly and concisely capture this in terms everyone can understand. Even someone who wasn't in the meeting should know what it means. For example: "Product Guide" is notan action item. "Create the Product Guide" is, but is that really what you want? Or is it just "Create the Outline for the Product Guide" or "Determine if we need a Product Guide" much different tasks? I know this sounds like a no-brainer, but I've found myself and other experienced managers producing some pretty convoluted Action Items at times that no one understands the next time we look at the list! If it's worth the time to capture, it's worth making it clear. Remember, as a leader these are your marching orders to your team, and your team's time is valuable. On the other hand remember this is a learning thing and you'll get better at it over time. Don't slow down so much or get hung up on perfect wording to the point of beating an action item to death or dragging on a meeting forever.
Owner - There should be only onenamed owner. Not "all" or "team" or an entire department. Who's butt is on the line for getting this done? You can capture other key contributors in a separate column if they are going to work on something together, but be sure one person is accountable.
Due Date - The biggest step I've seen skipped by even experienced managers is "When will this be done?" Clarify it with the owner right there at the end of the meeting or even when the AI is first brought up.
Follow Up - This is the second biggest miss I see with action items and the real killer. Putting a due date is worthless unless you're going to have regular reviews where the action items are checked and updated. In these meetings you can sort the list by due date and see where everyone is on getting their tasks done. Otherwise you'll be seen as a manager who doesn't hold people to their commitments or follow up - which is probably the very worst management behavior I can think of.
You can capture many other things related to Action Items - Priority, Status, Effort, Contributors (other than the owner). You can even create categories to group them into to make the list easy to digest. I sometimes highlight related items with different colors. But all this is just bonus. If you get the first 4 correct you've got it nailed. Also, don't be afraid to close or re-word action items that don't make sense in your reviews.
In the attached tool you'll find a template for capturing action items and an instruction tab as well. Feel free to customize as you see fit. The sheets are formated to print landscape - one page wide. As always, any feedback or suggestions for improvement are appreciated. I have a more advanced version of this tool that I use for complex projects with separate tabs for Issues, Risks, Key Conclusions, and Deliverables (all of which are different from Action Items and can be easily confused at times) that I'll post under a separate heading.
Agree with the tenets of this article, these fundamentals are critical to successful execution and management of action items. One thing to add - it is sometimes helpful to have a fifth factor, labeled 'metric' or 'deliverable', to define the specific output of the action item and/or measure the results. This may seem self-evident depending on how the Action Item is defined, but it can add value to define the measurable outcome of the action item in detailed specifics, so that the expectations of the manager and the action item owner are congruent. For instance, in the example above, the action item 'Create the Product Guide' can be interpreted as a 1.5 page document or a 10 page document - this can be ironed out during follow up meetings to gauge progress during the action item's execution, but it is most efficient in some cases to define the details up front before work commences.
Posted by: kadunnell | April 21, 2009 at 12:16 PM