How to handle the doubting Thomas?
This was selected as Best Answer Peter, very often it depends on where you are in the project life-cycle. As you know, projects are the life blood of companies and thus are very critical. Under the best of circumstances projects can be delayed or even fail so you don’t want any more “issues” than any good PM needs to handle. The important thing is to set the project team for success. One way of doing this is by managing distractions directly. Some of my suggestions may seem harsh and I don’t make them lightly. Given the importance of projects to a company’s top and bottom line, we can’t take material distractions in due course. Project Managers must make bold and aggressive personnel decisions. Failing to do so puts the project at risk. To the extent that the ‘doubting Thomas’ can provide constructive criticism or even skepticism during critical brainstorming or planning sessions, they can add value…if they are invested in the project. If they are not invested in the project (either
