The POWERFUL Motivational Tool Hiding in your Construction Schedule
You’re a professional motivator. ‘Motivational Leader’ may not be in your job description, but if you’re in the business of making things happen (and we know you are), then you’re a professional motivator. You motivate, lead and inspire your teams to do the hard work required to meet the milestones and many important deadlines in their construction schedule.
Your leadership helps your teams meet their milestones safely, efficiently, and all the while maintaining a positive attitude and collaborative work environment.
That’s hard work, and you’re good at your job.
Do you want to get better?
Keep reading for,
Aiming at milestones in your construction schedule is one thing
But your teams need more.
To hit their critical targets, your teams need to see precisely what they’re aiming at in great detail.
They not only need to focus only on the things that matter. But they also need to understand why those targets matter.
Maintaining that kind of determination and drive is exhausting, though. So, your team members also need to feel a personal sense of satisfaction when they achieve their schedule goals. Like they’ve accomplished something important.
Visual Performance Management (VPM) aids Solve This Problem
VPM cues provide detailed visual targets of high-stake objectives for your teams to aim for. Focused visual targets also help your teams achieve those objectives in a fast, efficient, and predictable way–every time.
And when done correctly, visual performance aids motivate people to work hard toward the achievable goals that get them to their ultimate objectives.
Properly implemented visual performance cues also provide a sense of accomplishment, rewarding your hard-working team members for a job well done.
Visual Performance Management works. And this is how you can put that power to use.
Visual Performance Management in your Construction Schedule
You and your teams need actionable feedback, and you need it at a moment’s glance. Effective visual performance aids do this for you following the 1-3-10 principle:
- 1 second to know if you are winning or losing
- 3 seconds to know what you are winning or losing at; and
- 10 seconds to know what action needs to be taken
In less than 30 seconds, you and your team members should know what’s working, what’s not working, and what needs to be done about it. Your visual cues should be eye-catching and colorful, but colored with intention.
Think:
- Green = All systems GO! we’re Winning.
- Yellow = Caution, this is something to watch; and
- RED = Needs Immediate Attention!
The clever use of alerts, daily reminders, linked documents and intuitive, easy to read dashboards add actionable details and assign responsibilities to ensure accountability too. Which is exactly what you want: Timely, relevant, actionable data that gets things done.
Spreadsheets and project performance dashboards are helpful, but not everyone on your team has access to them. And that defeats the purpose. So your VPM strategy needs to address three critical criteria:
- Accessibility: Who sees what level of information?
- Format: Is it intuitive? Easy to understand, and barrier-free?
- Frequency: How timely is the data? And when should it be checked?
The good news is, your Linarc construction schedule is already set up following those same critical criteria.
- Your schedule is mobile, so everyone on your team has access at the level you decide.
- The interface is intuitive and easy to use.
- And your data is updated automatically, in real-time, available instantly and at a glance.
So that means that your construction schedule ALSO holds the key to improving your team’s productivity, improving their motivation, and providing them with a sense of job satisfaction.
If you do it right.
Let’s look at the work breakdown structures in your schedule as an example.
WBS in your Construction Schedule as Motivational Tools
Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) are the cornerstone of comprehensive project planning, implementation, management, reporting, and tracking. They are the foundation of a successful project.
But they can also serve as a highly effective motivational tool.
Dr. Szu-chi Huang from the Stanford School of Business explains:
“We found that when individuals are initiating a goal and derive motivation primarily from the belief that the final goal state is attainable, the structure of sub-goals enhances the sense of attainability and therefore leads to greater motivation.”
“Conversely, when people are completing a goal and the source of motivation centers primarily on the perception that their actions are of value, a focus on the overall goal (rather than sub-goals) heightens the perceived value of the goal-directed actions and leads to greater motivation.”
-Dr. Szu-chi Huang, Stanford School of Business
As a motivational leader and project manager, the impact of Dr. Szu-chi Haung’s work for you is three-fold.
- First, your teams need to feel their targets are achievable. And to do that, they need to see their targets broken down into smaller, manageable tasks and sub-tasks–just like you do in your WBS.
- Then they need to see an appealing visual record of those accomplishments as they complete them. Simple, color-coded visual cues that tell the story following the 1-3-10 principle we discussed above.
- And finally, your teams need to feel as though their work matters. That their contributions are a critical factor to the success of the overall project. And since your WBS are the cornerstone of your project schedule, you already have the platform to reflect your team’s progress and its impact.
How to Make your WBS work for you
You can see how flexible, interactive, work breakdown structures keep your team connected, informed, motivated and productive.
The work breakdown structures in your Linarc construction schedule give you the ability to create deeper degrees of subtasks and assign those subtasks to specific people or teams.
So that means, by assigning accountability and providing your teams with specific, relevant, timely and actionable information following the 1-3-10 principle, your WBS becomes your secret weapon for happier, more productive and engaged team members.
And that makes you even better at your job than you already are.
Your WBS is your Motivational Superpower
To get a custom, deep-dive demonstration of how the Linarc WBS collaborative scheduling system can make your teams more connected in the field, more productive in their work, and happier as a result, book your free demonstration today.
