Technically Speaking

I read a great article this morning over on TechRepublic about try vs. do. The article got me thinking about how things get or don’t get) handled when it comes to commitment.

Being a one person IT shop, I am responsible for many tasks that need to get completed, and try to hold myself accountable to those tasks, but as time goes on, the less critical non-business stoppage tasks fall off the sheet until they surface again.

Partially due to a lack of commitment to see them through to fruition and partially because they aren’t mission critical tasks. Changing the tapes everyday is critical, skipping weekends and holidays, but needs to get done whenever there is new data to store. This gets done daily, with a few exceptions, and is very routine.

What happens though if I forget, or am so busy fixing a critical problem, that it moves on to the backup and cannot proceed because I did not get the tape changed? That is a problem. I am only to hold myself accountable for the success or failure of the task, but business could suffer in the long term (or in the short term if the network or infrastructure fails) and there is no one to blame but myself.

Everyone forgets things, even master list makers, but tying oneself to the accountability of the task with some means which could be painful if the task is missed, which was a key suggestion in the article, is a great motivator.

No I am not going to fork over my entire paycheck to the local food pantry if I fail to change the tapes, but perhaps a check for fifty dollars if the task isnt accomplished. Just enough to feel it if you miss your deadlines. Perhaps start a lunch fund for your team, put a bit of money in there to get it going, but then monitor outcomes of tasks within your team. When a task is not completed by its deadline, the person responsible has to commit 10 dollars to the lunch fund. Or perhaps each team member puts money up and when the task is missed, it gets in the lunch kitty, and the responsible person then puts up new money.

This might motivate those who tend to miss tasks to get them done. If members of your team like to goto lunch and miss things on purpose, consider using the money to send the accounting staff or sales team out for steaks courtesy of the missed deadlines fund. That will surely change the motivation.

As a leader, getting yourself and your team to stick to tasks and deadlines can help you improve both performance and morale among your team. This will be something management notices, maybe not right away, but they will catch on sooner than you think.

Check out the original article for more.