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What is one small change you tried on a project that unexpectedly improved the outcome?

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Gwenola Michaud
Community Champion
Project Manager & Advisor| Geosciences & Monitoring Consulting Milano, Italy

On one recent project, we started ending each week with a 5-minute reflection.

Just two questions:

• What worked well this week?

• What should we adjust next week?

At first it felt almost too simple. But something interesting happened.

Team members began raising small issues earlier.

Ideas surfaced that would never have appeared in formal reports.

And importantly, the team started adjusting continuously instead of correcting late.

The unexpected result? Better decisions, fewer misunderstandings, and a stronger sense of engagement as a team.

Sometimes improving the way we work starts with creating a space for reflection and curiosity.

I’m curious to hear from other project professionals:

What is one small change you tried on a project that unexpectedly improved the outcome?
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Syed Ashir Riaz
Community Champion
AI-Powered Social Media Strategist
Switching from weekly status emails to a simple three-line daily update; done, next, blockers, eliminated most "just checking in" messages, and surfaced issues days earlier than before. Such a small shift, but it kept the entire team aligned without adding a single extra meeting.
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Francisco Matheus Chagas
Community Champion
Project & PMO Manager | Research & Enterprise Mentor| GFB Holding South America, Brazil
Develop an IDP (individual development plan) for key team members to help them grow and take greater responsibility for their self-improvement.
I faced amazing surprises, some accelerated and became better professionals faster, and I mapped the ones that only act when required. It helped me map the ones self-manageable.
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Luis Branco CEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, Ldª Carcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
This is a great example of how small structural shifts can influence how a team learns.

Your weekly reflection works because it creates a simple learning loop inside the project.
Instead of waiting for formal reviews or retrospectives, the team adjusts while the work is still unfolding.
That small space for reflection often allows early signals and minor issues to surface before they grow into larger problems.

In one project I experimented with a similarly small practice.
At the end of each week we briefly asked the team to identify one assumption we had made during the week and question whether it still held true.
The discussion usually took only a few minutes, but it often revealed emerging risks that formal reports had not captured yet.

What these small practices seem to share is that they introduce lightweight moments where teams can think together, not only report progress.
In complex projects, that habit of continuous reflection often improves decisions long before problems appear in the dashboards.
Your example illustrates that principle very well.
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Lissette Indhira Pimentel Sosa
Community Champion
Program Manager| HARPER SRL Santo Domingo / Distrito Nacional, Dominican Republic
One small change that helped in one of my projects was adding a short decision recap at the end of meetings. Before closing, we quickly confirm what was decided, who owns the next step, and any assumptions behind it.

It takes only a couple of minutes, but it significantly reduced misunderstandings and follow-up clarifications later in the project.
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Gwenola Michaud
Community Champion
Project Manager & Advisor| Geosciences & Monitoring Consulting Milano, Italy
Thank you for the great feedback and inputs. The key take aways are:
  • Daily message with done, next and blockers
  • Individual Development Plan is a such a great way for the team member to cultivate their unicity.
  • Such practices are valuable as revealing potential risks, maintaining space and time for continuous reflections
  • Short decision recap at the end of meetings to summarize and anchor decisions and responsibility
Thank you!
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Damian Berghof Head of R&D Compact Hydraulics| HAWE Hydraulik SE - Munich München, Germany
We’ve experimented with many approaches, and not all of them succeeded.
What truly works for us is keeping things simple but consistent: short, frequent (daily) stand-ups to track progress and address blockers, especially when leadership can resolve issues quickly.

A strong feedback culture keeps everyone aligned, and regular weekly meetings ensure we stay on track. I also make time for deeper technical discussions with the team.

But at the end of the day, nothing replaces face-to-face interaction. Being in the office, talking directly, and reading each other’s reactions still makes the biggest difference.

Small, consistent efforts add up to a huge impact.
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Syed Ashir Riaz
Community Champion
AI-Powered Social Media Strategist

A small change I tried was starting daily 5-minute check-ins focused on quick wins and blockers. It helped surface issues early, improved team communication, and allowed faster adjustments, leading to smoother delivery and higher engagement.

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