How-To: Keep Employees on Task

When the cat's away, the mice will play.  That's a tacky way of referring to employees.  Nobody want to think of themselves as a lowly mouse, under the watchful eye of their boss - the cat.  Its a little demeaning, but the general idea has a measure of truth.  When bosses don't keep a watchful eye on business, it slips.  Entropy happens.  Without a source of energy, matter tends toward disorder.  Business is the same way.  This article offers some advice for keeping employees on task, executing projects efficiently.

Good Project Management
This article assumes your employees are working on projects.  They may even have a weekly timesheet to fill out, allowing managers to check their progress.  Maybe there's even a project schedule, listing all the tasks for each employee.  Well if so, that's a good start.  A list of tasks and an employee timesheet is the first step to keep people on task.  People can see the tasks they are assigned to, and know their responsibility to complete them.  But, there's more.

Huge project plans with hundreds of tasks and multiple project breakdowns can be intimidating, even to the authors of such plans.  Employees know that each one of those tasks represents work, and summation becomes overwhelming.  Don't even think of flashing a plan like that around the office.  You'll scare off all your good help!  A better approach would be to introduce the major sections of the plan, without showing the actual tasks.  In fact, don't bother enumerating the tasks for each section until you complete the one before it.

Employees need to know that each section of a project plan is achievable.  The group-dynamic is also a strong element of successful project execution.  Sprinting to a meaningful goal - together as a team - can be a very invigorating experience.  Each employee has his own goals, and wants to achieve them so the team will win.  They don't want to be the reason the project fails.

The Sprint
Sprinting consumes an enormous amount of energy.  It exhausts all your resources in a short burst.  And, it feels terrific!  But can you do it indefinitely?  No.  Sprints are always shorter races than marathons, right?  The goal is very close, very attainable.  The question is, who will get there first?  Projects can be structured that way too.  Project tasks can be carved into tiny goals that are obvious to employees.  Under such conditions, the employee turns into a machine, smashing out work without thought.  They know they'll reach the goal, its just a matter of how fast.  If you can get all the employees in this same project sprint mode, you've got a winner.

Project Status
During the sprint, employees need to track progress.  Use a timesheet like Standard Time to keep track.  This automatically records several pieces of pertinent information: Actual hours worked, percent complete, and under-allocated tasks.  Hold a very short daily meeting to remind employees to ignore everything except their tasks, and to complete them within the sprint period.

The Finish Line
Every sprint has a finish line.  Its usually only several meters away.  When you hit it, you drop to the ground in exhaustion.  All your energy has been expended.  The feeling is indescribable, and you immediately begin thinking about your next race.  But, you definitely need a rest first.  Use this time to give employees a little break from the project schedule.  Don't schedule any heavy tasks.  Consider switching focus to light research.  But, employees should know that more project tasks will be assigned.

The End Game
After several sprints, and several goals, your project should be nearing the final completion.  You will have tracked a lot of valuable information that you can use to analyze new projects in the future.  You'll know how accurate your projects are because you'll have actual hours to compare with forecasts.

Standard Time
Standard Time helps with all these items.  It allows you to build a list of project tasks, assign tasks to users, and record actual work hours in the timesheet.  You will need this information to manage future projects.  Good luck with your projects!