Is Your Team Hustling Backwards? - Part 1

Have you ever been on a team at work and thought to yourself, "Is it just me, or are we not making progress here?"  If you answered 'yes', odds are you probably weren't the only person on your team who felt that way.

Sometimes it's easy to confuse activity with progress.  That is until a crucial deadline is around the corner; and the reality sets in that all of the hustle and bustle hasn't exactly equated to forward movement.

These 5 indicators will help you determine if your team is moving in the wrong direction:  

1. The entire team is not on the same page:  One of the greatest and most common challenges across project teams, regardless of the project itself, is keeping everyone on the same page. Deadlines; project goals; productivity...these are just pretty words if there is an absence of cohesion among your team.  (Hint:  If you think you're team isn't on the same page, they probably aren't.)

2. Recurrence of similar issues/problems:  No team is immune to problems.  They are bound to occur.  Even the most proactive and experienced managers/team leaders can’t anticipate everything.  However, if your team is running into the same issues or the same types of issues, there is a fundamental problem that could be impeding the overall progress of your team.

3. Too much time spent being reactive:  I’m no physics expert.  But, I’m pretty sure it’s impossible to move forward and backward simultaneously.  If a significant amount of resources (i.e. time, budget, employees) have to be allocated toward correcting mistakes/fixing errors, those resources aren't available to help move your project forward.



4. Redundant work efforts:  Overlap is an annoying  that teams sometimes find themselves in,  Repetitive or redundant work efforts can result from a lack of communication across the team.  When there's a lot of different things to do, the last thing you want is multiple team members doing the same work.

5. Progress isn't measurable or recognizable:  If a reasonable amount of time has past since productivity initially began on your team, and it's difficult to determine how much progress has been made; or what has been made - then real progress hasn't been made.

*Stay tuned for part 2, to find out what actions you can take to resolve these issues!*