Delegated Projects

[Anonymous]

I have quite a few projects delegated to members of my staff. How should I track them in the GTD methodology?

The next actions all belong to the staff "owners" of the projects. My own next actions with regard to these projects is "get update", which I set up as agenda tasks.

Should I be tracking these as Projects? Or just stand-alone agenda items. What's the best practice out there in GTD land?

Thanks
DC

 

[Frank Buck]

If I understand your situation correctly, you have delegated entire projects to others and your involvement is to receive periodic updates. Here is what I would suggest:
1. Meet with each delegate and decide on a schedule of how and when they will update you on each project.
2. Make a task for each project. The name of the task will start with the name of the delegate, followed by something descriptive, such as "Update on the XYZ project."
3. In the note section of the task, I would include notes from meetings or calls with the delegate regarding the project as well as a statement of the "successful outcome" so that there is agreement between you and the delegate on what the "target" is.
4. Assign a category of "@Waiting For."
5. During the weekly review, you can see is behind schedule in giving you an update. At that point, you can either a) pick up on the phone, write an e-mail, walk down the hall to see the person right then; or b) change the category (maybe to @Calls) to serve as a reminder to follow up.