Often, with under-performing teams, it is the people aspect that needs focus – not necessarily the processes.A typical fix though, is to review processes and perhaps whack a few more in the hope that things will start working …. After all processes imply structure and if there is structure then someone must know what they are doing …. But no one knows who that someone is …. So everyone just ties themselves up in knots, trying to interpret the documented processes …. Making a difficult situation even more complex !
So what is it that will help your delivery become more efficient? In my over 20 years of program/project management experience, this is what I have seen work well:
1. Use processes as a guideline. A process is to support you to find your way – not a shackle to cause you pain and weigh you down to the point of inaction! Don’t get me wrong – having clear processes is very important but it is not the only answer to every broken delivery’s prayer
2. Collaboration. Ensure you make relevant people part of the process. This achieves two things:
A. People who are impacted get the opportunity to contribute. If they have helped shape the outcome, they will be invested in ensuring success.
B. People in an organisation have come from different backgrounds with different experience. Collaboration ensures you get the best outcome – a combination of collective knowledge.
3. Clear objectives. Does your team understand their goals? Are they clear on what you expect from them?
4. Adequate governance frameworks. Do you have a good planning and tracking structure in place?
5. One team. Is everyone working towards a common goal? Or are there lots of silos -each working towards a goal – however the individual goals don’t necessarily fit together to meet the organisational / team goal.
6. Verbal conversations. The focus is too often on documentation. While documenting key messages is super important, supplementing it with a conversation is even more important. Quite often one conversation is all that is needed to avoid endless trails of emails.
7. Capability. Last but perhaps most important – ensure you haven’t placed square pegs into round holes. Ensure that the people hired to do the job are qualified and are set up for success.