Suggestions on keeping the implementation team motivated on a loooonnng project?
Anonymous
Ideas on keeping the team/focused and movtivated on what was originally a less-than-one-year project, and is now a 3 plus year project? Thanks. Saving Changes...
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Ian NobleParents And Children TogetherReading, United Kingdom
Here are a couple of ideas:
A 3 year project must contain some key milestones along the way (e.g. delivery of design specifications). These can be used in 2 ways to focus and motivate the team:
1. They give short-term goals to focus on than the overall 3 year project
2. Completion of these key milestones should be celebrated in whatever way is appropriate for the organisation/team (maybe get some thanks from the project sponsor/board ?)
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Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
I have just completed a 4 year project. We had small milestones along the way, and these were tracked and made public. We also had annual targets for completion and the goal each year was to work towards those. We had a kick-off meeting at the beginning of each year, a June/July meeting to check on progress and to regroup, and a end-of-year celebration, which I got the team to organise. I also tried to get them to do other small projects instead of focusing directly on this for the duration: think about what you can offer them in terms of career building skills and training, as one of your other issues will be keeping the same people with you for the duration and not losing them to other project teams or other companies. Saving Changes...
Randa SpellerMarketing Specialist / Chair PM Community of Practice| Union Gas Limited; EnbridgeChatham, Ontario, Canada
I agree - we often use project tracks, each with it's own milestones and durations, and celebrate "wins" along the way. In some projects, where the team seems to be open to it, I'll introduce light hearted awards, like "hero of the day" - a quick certificiate to call out someone who has solved a tricky issue, or discovered a great way to move a track forward. Status reports can also be used to show progress in a way that keeps the team motivated, with an easy to interpret graphic representation of progress toward ultimate project end point. Saving Changes...
