The Money Files

It’s very easy to talk about continuous improvement, but if you’re anything like me, it’s a lot harder to build the actions into the workflows and processes you use to ensure that the improvement actually happens.

OK, perhaps that is an exaggeration. There are some simple activities that, once you realise, are easy to change and within your sphere of influence. Those are the improvements we can make simply and with minimal effort, and that everyone appreciates.

But the world of work is increasingly more complex, more VUCA, more intertwined, and changing one thing has an impact on other things. We’re not talking about updating a document template to add a new section, but rewriting workflows within project management tools, or changing how benefits are owned, tracked and reported on across the company. Those types of continuous improvements warrant projects of their own. Projects that often we don’t have the time put aside to deliver on.

Continuous improvement in project teams

What do we actually mean by continuous improvement? In my experience, when people talk about it in a project management environment, they mean the ongoing effort to enhance processes, increase efficiency, and drive better results. Whatever that takes. Like I said, it could be small tweaks or organisation-wide transformation of how projects are run in the business. And frankly, that makes it kind of hard for the average project team to effect any major change.

Still, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. So, if you want to create an environment where people have the opportunity to raise their voices when they see things that can be improved, here are some suggestions.

Set the right example

If we want to foster the right culture, people have to believe they are already in a culture where their suggestions will be listened to. So we want to demonstrate:

Leadership commitment: That’s leading by example, speaking up and suggesting improvements, pointing out where things could be better and encouraging others to do the same whenever we hear them mention a good idea.

Communication: Unsurprisingly, communication needs to be taken seriously and you need to create the time for it. If everything is rushed, they won’t feel that they can share feedback and lessons learned (outside of structured conversations or retros). Create feedback loops or ask about improvement ideas in regular check ins.

Recognise the wins: Celebrate improvements and suggestions, even if they don’t turn out to be implementable – you’re recognising the fact that an idea was brought to the group. Hopefully this will encourage others to do the same and to feel that their ideas are valued.

Make it easy to suggest improvements

People need to feel empowered to suggest improvements and to act on them. Granted, most organisations don’t have dedicated ‘innovation’ time or slack in the calendar where people can work on their own projects. But you can remove the barriers to making suggestions.

Let people work their own way: Encourage ownership on the project and let people run their area of the project the way they feel best. If they find ways to improve or change the process, let them.

Suggestion schemes: In the olden days we used to have a box at work for suggestions. These days there are forms online where we can submit ideas. If you think people would be more open to suggesting ideas anonymously, make sure these systems are in place.

Incentivise innovation: In my very first corporate job we had a scheme where we sent in suggestions and got cards back. If you matched the cards to make a picture, you got a prize. Or something like that. It was a long time ago, but there was an incentive scheme for pointing things out. What could you do that’s similar?

Build in creativity training

Building problem-solving and creativity skills is a… skill. And we can train people on skills. Find some time for training on problem solving techniques, process improvement methods, creative thinking and so on. The Six Sigma training I did in my early career was so influential in how I approach problems today. But let’s just say I’m not naturally someone who would whip out a control chart.

Something else that’s easy to do and within your control is cross-skilling team members. Cross-functional learning and an appreciation of what other people do in their job helps people see the project from different perspectives and find improvement opportunities that way.

This is an interesting topic for me and I think there’s more we can cover, so next time I’ll look at tools and techniques for continuous improvement. Watch this space!

If you’re role is anything like mine, sometimes being a project manager can be a little bit lonely. We don’t spend much time with other project managers, because our focus is on the team and the people we work with there.

So how do project managers learn from each other? We’re great at learning from project experience: you’ve probably got retrospectives and project lessons learned meetings in the diary for the next quarter. But when do we get to hear what our peers are up to?

Here are some tips for fostering a culture of knowledge sharing in project management teams.

Use your team meetings

If there’s more than one project manager in your department, chances are you have team meetings. Make knowledge sharing a regular agenda item.

Have someone present about their current project. Or have someone share the top lessons learned from within a project. Have someone share about their experience of using a process or making a new connection in a different part of the business.

Use Shu Ha Ri as a way of packaging up your lessons.

Schedule project management coffee chats

Sometimes it’s nice to have chats with your peers. This can work well if you haven’t got many project managers in your direct department, so you can’t invite them to a formal meetings, but there are others doing the same role elsewhere in the business.

Build an informal community of practice. You don’t have to call it that, but you can set up a shared mailing list or have your own ‘directory’ of project managers across the organisation.

Share resources

Model the behaviour you want to see by sharing resources. If you’ve got particularly good feedback on a steering deck or a business case, share it with the team. Invite others to do the same, perhaps start a ‘good documents’ folder on your shared drive so that everyone can upload examples of docs that have worked well for their purpose.

If you don’t have a knowledge repository already, set one up. Establish a central location (e.g., a shared drive, intranet site, or dedicated software) where other project managers can store and access documents, best practices, lessons learned, templates, process flows etc.

Leverage technology

You’ve probably already got collaborative tools like wikis, Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Confluence. Set up a channel for knowledge sharing and collaboration to support your community of practice. Make it a place where people can ask each other questions, so you can help each other out in real time.

Reward sharing

If someone is supportive of knowledge sharing, recognise that and thank them. You don’t have to be their line manager to nominate them for an internal recognition award. Drop a note to their manager and say how much you appreciated their input. 

Feedback from conferences

This is something that has worked well for me in the past. If someone has been to a conference or some other kind of professional event, get them to do a short brief to the rest of the team. They can share their key takeaways, talks they enjoyed, thoughts and reflections on the event. It might encourage others to go next time.

If you hear about free webinars or other training opportunities, why not share them round with the people in your community of practice? Afterwards, meet up and discuss your key takeaways. You could even watch the webinar as a group – host a watch party!

How do you foster an environment of knowledge sharing in your team? Let us know in the chat below!