Gallup recently reported that engaged employees – those who feel involved in and enthusiastic about their work – are at a record high. That’s good news, right? Well, not really. You see, that record high is just 23%. Less than one in four employees feel engaged at work. If that’s your organization, your leaders should be terrified. We need to learn to give skilled people the opportunity to succeed.
A lack of engagement drives poor productivity, low quality, and high turnover. All factors that damage return on investments, stall innovation, and hurt the long-term success of a business. And if that level of engagement exists in project teams, it can be fatal. That’s because failed projects result in failed goals and objectives, and that doesn’t result in positive outcomes for the business.
The Power of Empowered Project Teams
The good news is, this is an issue that is relatively easy to address. Although it is a cultural shift, not just processes and policies. There is increasing recognition in the strength of empowered, autonomous project teams to drive engagement. That’s what progressive employers are embracing.
These are project teams with strong people leaders in the project management role. They focus on delivering solutions that align with the business benefits they need to achieve, not just the defined requirements and specifications. They have the authority to modify their solutions and the approach they are taking to meet the business’s needs.
Creating an Environment That Encourages Engagement
This environment specifically encourages engagement by putting the people doing the work in positions where they can make decisions that benefit them and the business. This in turn drives productivity and quality. The closer decision-making is to work delivery, the faster teams can make decisions, and the better those decisions are likely to be – as long as the project manager and team have the information they need.
That’s the key to success. It’s not simply about giving your teams more freedom, it’s about ensuring that you have the right people in, and leading, those teams; that the teams are given an environment where they have access to all of the information that they need; and that they know that they will be supported by leadership, regardless of how their decisions turn out.
It’s about creating an environment where highly skilled people can succeed. It requires competence in your people, confidence by those people that they will be supported, and access to timely, accurate, complete information. None of those things happen overnight, but organizations are getting better at hiring and developing the skills that they need to build and lead empowered teams. Leaders are also getting better at providing real, supported autonomy – creating teams that believe that they can make key decisions without fear of repercussions if outcomes aren’t optimal.
Why Access to Complete and Accurate Information is Critical
The piece that is often still missing, well, that’s the complete, accurate, timely information. Without that, teams are operating blind. They’re not empowered, they’re abandoned. They aren’t going to want to engage, they’re going to actively disengage. And it doesn’t have to be that way.
World-class project portfolio management (PPM) solutions such as Sciforma’s provide the ability to consolidate all planning information in one solution, while integrating with team-level work management tools. Project teams can use whichever tools work best for them, and still have the context for why work is being done, how it contributes to goals and objectives, etc. This, combined with strong stakeholder relationships, helps ensure that your project teams have everything that they need to make the best possible decisions that, in turn, generate the best solutions. That drives return on investment for your organization and creates an environment where teams and individuals can, and will, engage.
If you’re not there yet, we’re here to help.