Projects encompass many different types of tasks across their lifecycles, some of which people are eager to tackle and others that aren’t as enjoyable. Your team may look forward to project kickoff meetings with stakeholders who are engaged and excited. Processing an extensive list of vendor invoices for payment approvals, however, might be something you dread. But whether it’s a pleasant task or not, it still needs to be done. We put together a few tips to help you maintain enthusiasm in project teams, even if you’re facing an un-fun project activity.
Schedule it. Teams sometimes leave tasks off the master project timeline if they feel they’re routine—sending surveys to end users for feedback on a recent office move, for example—or something that will be completed “offline,” like reviewing the responses from those surveys. When a task has a vibe that puts it outside the project’s core focus, it can be difficult to work up much passion for it. Conversely, activities that are reflected in the timeline, with connections that show the value and importance in the project’s overall success, are often viewed as more worthy of attention and energy. Be sure those un-fun tasks are included on the schedule to help sustain the intensity even if they aren’t your favorite part. Having a clear target completion date for the task can also give you some much-needed motivation to push through an activity you don’t enjoy.
Understand what the activity gives you. Some tasks may appear less than exciting because you haven’t historically pulled the maximum value out of them. If your team only pays lip service to the responses of a mid-project end user survey, then reviewing those surveys will likely feel like a waste of time. Weekly budget discussions are a slog if you know that the people who approve your funding requests never show up, or if it’s obvious no one reads the variance reports you send. Take time to identify the real value of the un-fun tasks and focus on that. Commit to acting on the most frequently mentioned issue in those user surveys, whether that means scheduling relocations further out so people have more notice of an impending move or holding additional lunchtime presentations on the project’s progress so workers feel more involved in the process. For elements where you don’t have the same level of control—you can’t make budget approvers read your weekly summaries—look at the value your internal team gets out of the activity. Are you able to spot and address budget issues earlier because you have an established review cycle? Is communication better internally due to the frequent collaboration between the various functional groups? Let those benefits drive a mindset shift about un-fun activities.
Look ahead to what you’re doing next. Some tasks are going to be dull or unpleasant to execute and there’s no way around it. In those instances, you can maintain your enthusiasm by looking beyond the activity you’d prefer to bypass. If you’re dreading a review of end users’ survey responses after a buggy software rollout, review the timeline to see what’s after it. Perhaps you can look forward to an upcoming focus group that promises to be engaging and filled with positivity. You may even see if there are opportunities to sustain your motivation by bringing a few of the more delightful tasks forward to intersperse them with those you don’t enjoy as much. By keeping an eye on where your project goes next and looking for additional flexibility in task sequencing, you can work through those less-than-exciting tasks without losing your momentum.
PMAlliance, Inc uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project portfolio management.
