Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Motivating the team

Once Bas De Baar posted a question on his 'Project Shrink' blog "What Is The Best Way To Motivate Team Members?" I feel exuberated to say that my answer won the prize, which was his book: "Surprise! Now You're A Software Project Manager".

I thought I should elaborate it a bit further here.

I believed "Everyone wants to get noticed, and everyone wants to grow. If their leader assists them in achieving their goals, it makes a great positive impact on their motivation". Well, to be frank, this applies to a majority of people, not all. I wanted to toy with my ideas to see how many of them really fall in this category. I took the following approach:

When I started my weekly meetings, I asked my team-members to take up some responsibilities voluntarily. The identified 'projects' were to manage some leisurely things like Birthday celebrations, weekly outings, picnics, trainings etc. The basic intention was that, people would pick up the tasks that look interesting to them. I wanted to 'make everyone capable' of 'managing'. The experience they would gain while takling these would help them 'grow' in a way. While managing these tasks, they would interact with people that they have never interacted with, before. They would learn to manage their resources, they would learn the knack of negotiations, they would be able identify (from the feedback) the areas where they need to put-in some more efforts. The list is virtually endless. The confidence that they would get at the end would urge them to take up the responsibilities that are 'accountable'. I had made it loud and clear that 'with responsibilities, you also get the releavant authorities'.

After observing for a couple of weeks, I threw a surprise pizza party in recognition of the efforts spared by those who picked up the responsibilities. Everyone enjoyed the surprise party. (I feel the more enjoyable thing was the 'surprise' factor)

Well! I got a considerbale success with this idea. But as I said, there were STILL a few of them who were hesitant/shy in coming forward. I had to turn my attention to this lot now.

In the next weekly meeting, I declared that now onwards, the ones who haven't assumed any responsibilities during the given month would be the ones to (jointly) sponsor the next party in the appreciation of those who have assumed responsibilities. And if, in a given month, every single person has some kind of a responsibility, then I'd be the one to foot the entire bill. It was now, that some of these 'seemingly passive' members started to ask questions to me like: "I don't think I am good at doing the things that are already identified, can I identify some tasks that I can do better and take the ownership?". Voila! Isn't this what I wanted? The team is showing improved signs of motivation! I'm happy!

The story doesn't end here. Now, I needed to walk the last mile, and motivate the last bunch of people who are STILL lagging behind. What needs to be done? These are the ones, who are absolutely passive. I'm working on this lot and getting success to some extent. But, I'd like to hear from you.

What do you think, how would YOU motivate this lot of people?

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If any of the resources is still passive what i think either
-they are among those who is looking for a project/comp change and dont want to put effort anywhere else (probably you can identify such ppl if they were active earlier and quite now or with some of your own experiences with them).
Secondly, this ppl are the ones who need real motivation, may be they will not come up in meetings , we have to catch them , need friendly talk with them to know their exact problems and do some sort of counselling for them.