Project Managers Use Too Much Paper

Image via Wikipedia

"I acted like I could care less while my thumb was pressed to the paper." - Little Dragon, Scribbled Paper

Visio diagrams. Schedules. Gantt Charts. Dashboards. Project Summaries. Notes. Notes on notes. Calendars. Calendars with charts. It never stops. As I spent a good 30 minutes just going through the mounds of paper strewn across my desk, I couldn't help but think, "we've got to do better than this."

I'm a culprit, too. For me, it's the PowerPoint Deck. I make decks all the time. I fill them with pretty pictures and fancy transitions and I like making them and so I want to see them in print. I want others to print them. I want folks to refer to them in meetings so they become these physical goods that, for most, are immediately disposable and I should really be ashamed about my lack of green thinking in this regard.

I am.

So, I'm making this commitment to myself -- I'm going to limit the print-outs. For meetings, I'm going to try my darnedest to get things up on a screen. I'll send out digital copies after the fact. With notes and everything. In the event of lack of A/V materials in a room, I'll bring my laptop and we can crowd around a small screen. Maybe you'll have to squint and get close to your neighbor but that's better than all this wasted paper, innit?

I'm also going to start looking for PM collaboration tools that allow us to get better as a group. Maybe it's just as simple as an edict -- More PDFs, Less pretty print-outs. Because SharePoint right now doesn't seem to be doing the job.

Suggestions?