Have you ever discovered that you’re no longer comfortable in your “comfort zone”?

It happens more often than you might guess.

And it can happen to teams, as well as individuals.

What worked before doesn’t work anymore, and ultimately, it can be a blessing.

The “uncomfortable in your ‘comfort zone’’’ realization can happen slowly, subtly…or suddenly.

As once-comfort becomes discomfort, the desire to change grows, too.

Then, when the disparity between what you have and what you want becomes high enough, you’ll move and change and grow. 

The process is not always easy, however (change rarely is).

When you stretch and grow by choice, though – rather than being forced into it by circumstances - you’re likely to feel greater control about the process, pace, timing, outcome, and many other aspects of the experience.

Here’s some of what you’re likely to feel when you disrupt the status quo:

1. Exhilarated

You’re likely to feel more fully alive, for starters.

That’s because you have to be more attentive, more engaged, faster to notice and act on signals from your environment when you’re in new situations where you’re not quite sure of yourself.

2. Exhausted

You’re in potentially very different surroundings, receiving feedback that you don’t quite know what to make of yet.

You don’t always react in these circumstances in ways you understand or expect.

It can be exhausting to take all the change in, without the comfort of familiar structures, decision processes, and other means to sort, sift, prioritize, learn and do, all at the same time.

Sometimes at about this point, your old comfort zone looks tempting.

Resist to urge to retreat, however. There are better times ahead.

3. Exposed

It’s sometimes frightening not to be able to go back to what you used to do, almost on automatic pilot, perhaps.

Depending on how much you’re stretching the boundaries of your comfort zone, the degree, or speed of change can even feel dangerous.

You feel raw, exposed, vulnerable, off-balance.

It’s part of the growing process.

And you will get through it, yes.

4. Energized

Ultimately, the increased energy that comes with new range, new possibilities and achievement is much of what keeps you going through the uncertainty of change and transition.

Keep moving ahead.

It’s well-worth the risk and effort to grow beyond the once-comfortable zone that now no longer satisfies or fits.

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Let’s say you’re running a company or team, and suddenly you need to add new employees.

Before you do, remember what it’s like to be new.

Everything is unfamiliar, uncertain, and yet, you’re trying your best to lose the “new guy” label by doing good work, and making a good impression.

A colleague shared the story the the other day that her son, a college student, had recently started a part-time job as a food server.

He’s learning MANY things.

And many are not what management hoped he’d learn.

For example, these are lessons he’s taken away from his first few weeks on the job:

1. Don’t get to know your peers too well because they won’t be here long.

2. Don’t tell customers the truth.

3. Lie on the timecard…and never, EVER say your worked overtime, even if it’s necessary to get your work done.

4. Don’t believe it when management says they want to hear what you think and need to do your work better and more easily.

As you know from your own experience, unofficial rules sometimes spread through a group more quickly and completely than do official ones.

Think back on your own experience of being new to a company, team or job.

- What were the official rules you were taught?

- What were the unofficial rules you learned?

- What were the differences between them? Why?

- How long did it take before you felt you were doing your best work?

- What helped you most to be able to learn and do the job well?

- If the job turned out not to be right for you, what was your first clue?

- How can you use your experience as a “newbie” to help you bring someone onboard quickly and well?

Try these ideas as you prepare to bring your next new employee or team member onboard:

1. Help them to feel connected to the company.

Share the vision, values, and plan of action…and where they fit in.

Let them know how their best work contributes to success for customers, the team and company…and their own success there.

2. Help them to feel connected to you.

New employees are often looking for solid ground, and a sense of connection to something, and someone.

If they don’t get that from you, their manager or team leader, they’ll find it somewhere else.

And remember those unofficial rules we discussed earlier in this article?

The likelihood that new employees will be guided by lessons you don’t want them to learn and use is far lower if they feel they can come to and count on you when they need to, as do other members of the group.

3. Help them to feel connected to each other.

For most people, part of the satisfaction of any job turns out to be people they enjoy working with.

Teams can be a force multiplier, positively or negatively.

Create a good experience for employees. Set them up to succeed, and to believe that they can.

(People very quickly size up a new environment as one where, “I can be successful here,” or “There’s no way I can ‘win’ here.” They adjust accordingly).

Happier employees create an environment where good work can and will get done.

They also create an environment where customers are more likely to be happy, too…and to return.

4. Help them to feel connected to information they will need.

Show new employees how to find, access and use information and training they’ll need to do their jobs well, and to grow at the company, if desired.

5. Help them to stay connected to themselves.

New employees are trying to find a way to fit into the company and team quickly.

Yet, even as they’re trying to change, they need to stay connected to the best in themselves.

Your company and team will be stronger if each employee…including you…brings, and shares their best at work.

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“I want what I want, and I want it NOW!”

That sounds like a little kid having a tantrum, right?

It wasn’t.

That was me, 27 at the time, on a gray, blustery day in the new city where we were moving.

My husband…who’d just accepted a great new job we didn’t expect just then, but which he couldn’t turn down…wanted to push on as we looked for the next place we’d call home.

And me?

I just wanted lunch.

Well, that, and to be listened to.

I quietly worried about how we’d afford a second house while we tried to sell our first one (a house we’d only owned for four months) in a difficult Midwestern economy.

And I wondered what jobs the new city might have for me…again, in a very difficult economy.

I’d just started a new magazine for my current employer and had hoped to see it through its first important year of groundwork and growth.

Finally, in the wintry mid-afternoon wind of this not-yet-friendly city, I’d had enough of “making do,” being flexible, and not being listened to…by my husband, or, frankly, by myself, either.

I wasn’t being honest about what I wanted, up until that point.

“I want what I want, and I want it NOW!”

You know the feeling, too.

I know you do.

And you may know that feeling as the leader of a team or company.

When I think of this phrase applied to leaders I’ve worked with, I remember one client, in particular. He was one of the founders of a very rapidly growing financial services company.

I used to joke with him that what he REALLY wanted was to “defy the laws of business physics.”

In other words, he “wanted what he wanted” – major improvements in the way, and ease, with which work got done at his company – and “he wanted it NOW!”

He’d had enough waiting for change to move at a normal pace through his company.

If you and your team “want what you want, and you want it NOW!” but you’re nowhere near the point of having it, these may be some of the reasons you’re struggling:

1. You’re not listening to yourselves, or each other.

Speaking from my own experience in the situation I’ve just described, and also, as a team leader and team member, at different times, listening is where you should start.

Are you listening to yourself?

Are you listening to each other?

Listening well, and fully engaging everyone in a project – and keeping them well-informed throughout it – can be far more powerful than you would guess in terms of creating success.

2. You don’t really know what you want…even if you DO know what you DON’T want.

Sometimes you know what you don’t want.

It’s what you have now.

But instead of that…you want…what, exactly?

If not knowing what you want is a problem for you or your team, try this (really…just try it):

- Imagine you have a magic wand, and can make any change that you want, right now.

- Now, imagine using that magic wand, and being in the new situation.

- Describe it. What’s “most different” from the situation you have now?

3. You don’t believe you can have what you want.

Sometimes teams don’t believe they can really have what they say they want.

To be fully activated, and on board, it helps to “pre-experience success.”

One way to do this is to envision success in detail, and to imagine the process of successfully getting there…over, around and through barriers you may experience on the way there.

Your team may also need more coaching, feedback, and peer interaction as they adjust to the changes they are going through.

4. You don’t know how to get what you want.

Wanting something, and actually being able to achieve it, are two very different things.

There are many ways to figure out how to get started, once you know what your goal really is.

Here are just a few of them:

- Research the best ways of doing the job.

- Take training.

- Observe, and ask questions of people who’ve already achieved what you hope to.

- Practice.

- Experiment, then observe what happens. Adjust accordingly.

- Get coaching and feedback.

- Pause to refresh, and stay connected as a team, as you move forward.

5. You don’t know if you can maintain success when you achieve it.

Think of it this way: if you happen to get what you want, but don’t believe it’s “really yours,” you may not be able to handle having it, much less be able to keep it.

It’s like a lottery winner who doesn’t believe he’s worthy of the lottery winnings, and fritters the money away to return to the more familiar, less-moneyed state.

Good fortune, even if you’ve worked very hard to create it, won’t “stick” if you don’t know what to do with it, or how to maintain it.

Prepare to be successful.

Start to develop the beliefs, knowledge and skills you’ll need to manage success when it arrives.

6. You’re not clearing the decks to make success possible.

Many people want to achieve success, but they don’t free up the time, energy, attention and resources to actually do so.

What do you plan to stop doing so that you can start doing something new?

Make success possible.

Make the time and space for it.

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With one quarter of 2012 now complete, it’s a great time to do a quarterly review.

When you pause regularly – even briefly – to compare performance to plans and goals, you’re more likely to end the year having met what you set out to do.

Set the stage

First, set aside the time you need to be able to give this your full attention.

Second, get out of your office for a few hours to do the quarterly review, if you can.

Third, gather the information you need before you do the actual review.

You need a list of your goals for the year and quarter, if you set them at the beginning of the year (and if not, take the time to do that now for the rest of the year).

You also need information that tells you how you’re doing in the areas listed below, as well as others that are relevant to your business and situation.

Fourth, when you do the review, answer the following questions.

You can also cover the sections below, one per meeting, over the course of several weeks, if that works better for you and your normal work flow.

How are things with your customers?

1. How are things with your customers? How do you know?

2. Are they satisfied, overall? And are those results gradually getting better or worse? Why?

3. What are customers’ most common complaints or suggestions about how you can (or need to) improve? How are you using that feedback to improve?

4. Are there products or services they want that you’re not providing now? Where can they get those wants and needs met, if not by you?

How are employees, contractors and colleagues doing?

1. How are things with for the people who work for and with you? How do you know?

2. What’s their most common feedback as expressed:
- To you?
- To their managers?
- In public forums?

3. Are employees and peers positive, and feeling good about their work and the company? Or do they look discouraged, depleted or defeated?

4. Is the trend in employee satisfaction getting better or worse? Why? If you don’t know, how can you find out?

5. What’s the overall mood at your company now, if you were to describe it in a word or two?

How is revenue?

1. How are your sales, compared to your goals for this point in the year?

2. How are sales of specific products and services compared to what you thought they would be?

3. What’s selling better than expected? What’s not selling as well as planned? Why? How can you use the information to provide more of what customers want, and less of what they don’t?

Are expenses in control…and are investments allowing you to grow?

1. Are expenses what you thought they would be at this point in the year? What expenses are lower than you planned? Why? What expenses are higher than you planned? Why?

2. Are there expenses you’re delaying? Why? How will this be good for the business? How could delays hurt your business?

3. Are there expenses you don’t need to incur anymore? How can you phase these expenses out, or end them now?

4. Are there investments you need to make in the future that will help your company grow and improve?

What problems just won’t go away?

1. Are there problems you thought would be solved by now, but they just don’t seem to get solved, or go away (and stay away)?

2. Why is that happening? Are these just lower priorities than you originally thought? Or have you not yet identified what the problems really are, and what is causing them?

3. What information do you need in order to understand what the problems really are, and how to address them?

4. What do these problems cost the company in terms of:
- Rework
- Refunds
- Lost sales
- Lost customers
- Lost referrals
- Loss of opportunities to do higher-value work for customers
- Other costs of not getting it right yet?

5. Do you need to bring in new or additional resources to solve these problems?

And you…how are you doing?

1. What’s your overall mood about your work and achievements in 2012 so far? Why?

2. What’s going as well or better than expected?

3. What’s not going as well as you’d planned and hoped? Why?

4. What can you do to improve this situation?

5. Are there things you want to to let go, or delegate? What are they? How can you begin to do so?

Are you taking enough, and the right kind of breaks to do your best work?

1. Are you taking enough, and the right kind of breaks to refill and refresh? (Remember, your best ideas may come when you least expect them).

2. What is your main goal for yourself, and your worklife this quarter?

This year?

What else needs your attention now?

1. Are there other things that need your attention now, in addition to the issues we’ve discussed here? What are they? How can you begin to address them?

2. What are your top three goals for this quarter? For the rest of the year?

And while we’re at it…

Schedule your next three quarterly reviews for the rest of the year.

Also, take notes about what you learned during this review so you can create a regular review process that works well for you and your company or team:
- What was most valuable about this exercise?
- What would you do more of, and less of in the next review?
- How will you use what you learned through this process to improve your business, and company, this quarter? For the rest of the year?

There’s more you can do with quarterly reviews, but this will get you started.

Reviewing performance to goals (and new opportunities, as they emerge) can be an eye-opening, engaging and very powerful process.

If you found this post valuable, share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish. Sign up for the newsletter here.

Change brings many emotions, often strong ones. Each one packs its own kind of power.

Harness and use the energy of emotion, whatever it is.

These are some of the emotions you may experience during change, and ways you can use them to move you forward:

- Excitement

Use excitement to drive you ahead, ever closer to the desirable future you imagine…and through the sometimes unnerving, sometimes exhilarating process of not quite knowing how something new will work out.

Focus on the benefits of the new circumstances to pull you most powerfully forward.

- Fear

Use fear to help you anticipate things that could go wrong with the change process, and then to plan and take actions to prevent those circumstances from occurring.

Fear can direct you to a safer path through change than you might take if you did not heed its cautionary call.

- Patience

Use the power of patience to summon your ability to attend to planning and the details of implementation.

Use it, also, to increase the confidence and focus of those around you who aren’t seeing the change process as charitably as you are, at the moment. (You may need them to return the favor later).

- Impatience

It’s going to be there, so use it.

The power of impatience can help you delegate or sweep away low priority tasks, so you can focus on what is most essential.

Impatience carries a lot of power…which can be destructive if turned on the people around you, or can propel you forward rapidly, if channeled in positive ways.

- Discouragement

Discouragement often means that plans were too aggressive, or that not enough time was factored in for periodically recharging, regathering energy, and renewing focus.

Or maybe plans for the change process assumed that everything would go like clockwork…and that’s not happening (it usually doesn’t).

Use discouragement to pause and step away for a bit, if you can. Refresh, renew, even if briefly.

Then remind yourself why the change is being made, and how you may benefit from it in some way.

- Confusion

This can occur if the purpose or path through change is obscured, or was never spelled out well in the first place.

Sometimes uncertainty can’t be completely cleared away, of course…it’s just part of the change process…yet there are things that can be done to reduce it.

Focus on the goal, set interim milestones and concentrate on reaching each one. And celebrate in some appropriate way when you do.

- Bargaining

The desire to bargain (and before that, maybe, the desire to yell or complain, if we’re honest) can occur if you feel you’re not being heard.

It can also occur if you’re concerned that plans are not realistic, or the resources needed for change are not being provided.

Express openly, honestly and respectfully what your fears and concerns are. Listen with an open mind. Negotiate or renegotiate agreements, if need be, and if possible.

- The desire to give up

Don’t fight it. This feeling will probably occur at some point, and maybe at multiple points, in the change process.

Just knowing that quitting is an option can take the pressure off, and you realize that you’ve come too far, made more progress than you realized, and really don’t want to turn back, after all.

The uncertainty and energy required for change will clear eventually.

You may even find you’re bored when certainty does return, believe it or not. There’s a lot to be said for the growth that occurs for almost everyone during a change process.

- The drive to keep going, no matter what

Use this drive to push over, around, or through barriers that appear as if they could prevent you from reaching your goal.

And use this powerful energy, if need be, to prove that it’s possible to do what naysayers said couldn’t be done.

This short list has covered just a few of the emotions that are likely to occur at some point during the change process.

Did I cover the emotions you’re most familiar with during the change process?

If not, make your own list, or add to this one.

Consider how you can use each emotion when, and if, it arises during the change process.

Just by anticipating what may occur as you go through the ups and downs, highs and lows, successes and failures that accompany change helps you to prepare for, and be able to make the best of it.

Harness the energy of change to help you move forward.

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The finish line.

When you read those words, what do you think? And what do you feel?

Do you imagine, or recall, experiences of:

- Soaring across a finish line?

- Struggling to cross it?

- Missing a finish line altogether, despite your best intentions and most dedicated preparation?

If you’re like most people, your experience with finish lines – and goal achievement – covers the full range from exuberance to missing the mark at times.

Goal-setting and goal achievement is, of course, on the minds of many people now, as the year begins.

If you’re setting goals for this year, try these steps:

1. Think back on your greatest achievements.

Recall what helped you see your way through to achieve them. Was it:

– Setting a clear vision of what you wanted to achieve?

– Seeking customer feedback, whoever the customers were for your work at the time, and letting that guide you forward?

– Following a thread of promising results, wherever they led?

– Concentrating on team or individual development so you’d be well-prepared for a future challenge?

– Did you use some other approach or strategy? If so, what was it?

2. Based on what you discover, what does it tell you about what may work best for goal-setting now?

– Do you need to create a clear vision of your goal, or a strong “felt sense” of achieving what you want now, and next?

–  Do you need to seek customer feedback to guide goal-setting?

–  Do you need to focus on what’s working well and use that to guide you to what’s best for you in the months ahead?

–  Or do you need to concentrate on developing skills or those of a team you lead so that you’re primed for a bigger goal in the future?

–  Is there yet another strategy that would guide you best as you prepare to achieve well in 2012?

Speaking for myself, when I do this exercise, I follow several approaches.

First, I create or refresh the vision that guides my work over several years.

Then I look at what worked well the prior year, and what I need to improve.

I use that information to set aggressive, yet grounded goals for the year ahead.

Next, I create a few annual performance measures to monitor and manage progress.

Finally, when it works best, I convert those annual measures into monthly and weekly measures. I use these to focus and produce steady progress.

These more frequent measures provide me almost instant feedback so I know if I’m on pace, and on-track to meet my goals, or if I must adjust my processes, resources, or perhaps the goals, themselves.

If you found this post valuable, share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish. Sign up for the newsletter here.

“I’m afraid of what I don’t know,” the CEO of the rapidly growing company said to me.

“And I’m afraid of what I can’t see.”

He feared dire circumstances could wipe out his thriving company.

This CEO was worried enough that he longed for an early warning system…if there were a way to create one.

So I did. It was like solving a high-risk puzzle, or providing an action-oriented dashboard that would guide them through improvements, gradually.

And then we made sure the decision-making and prioritization framework would serve his company.

Do you, too, long for a sense of command in otherwise challenging and unpredictable circumstances?

Do you ever wish for an early warning system such as this CEO had?

If so, here are the basic steps we used to create this busy company’s early warning system:

– Start with your fears

We called this the “edge of cliff” analysis, and started with the CEO’s greatest fears.

He had lived with heavy but ambiguous worry for some time.

He hadn’t yet articulated his fears clearly, so that he could turn them into something positive and actionable.

– Turn them into scenarios

We considered his worst-case scenarios and the probable consequences of each for his clients and company.

We also considered best-case scenarios (they are so much more fun to think about…and we needed those for a bit of relief).

And then we considered what would happen if the best were even better, and the worst were even worse than we imagined.

This stretched our sense of what the early warning system needed to accommodate, and flag for preventative, or adaptive action.

–  Make your early warning system goal clear

Identify what you want your early warning system to do for you.

Then consider who will use the information, and what they will do with it.

Check in with the future users of the information to see what they need to make the information readily usable, and actionable.

– Gather external information

I had to find a proxy for customer satisfaction and frustrations, in lieu of talking directly to customers.

I looked to see what promises were made or implied to customers through the company’s marketing and advertising materials.

This told me what processes inside the company had to work flawlessly, under all different circumstances, no matter what was happening outside the company.

– Synthesize

Working with the leadership team, I verified and clarified which processes had to be top-notch in order for them to continue to thrive.

We mapped this to the most likely scenarios they might face, and identified which processes put them at highest risk, if they were not strengthened and improved.

– Organize and communicate

We organized and simplified the work, making it easy to understand and use.

We had no interest in creating a system that just looked good on paper. We wanted one that would be successful in real life and real business.

We then trained people, helping them see what valuable part they played in making the early warning system work successfully.

The early warning system turned out to be a combination of crystal ball, fire drill, and strategic change management system all rolled into one.

If you need an early warning system, and would like guidance and support as you do so, let me know. 

If enough people are interested, I’ll create a class to teach and guide you through the process.

If you found this post valuable, share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish. Sign up for the newsletter here.

As year-end looms and you work to meet the year’s final goals, here are two of many possible scenarios:

You’re:

- Good for the finish line.

You have the right time, money, energy, attention, skills and other resources you need to get the job done.

- Hoping miracles are real…because you need one now.

In this case, resources may be limited, or poorly aligned with your goals.

Priorities may be unclear, or absent.

Skills, knowledge and experience available to get the job done may be less than what you now know are necessary to be successful in the way the year has worked out.

If you’re in that hoping-for-a-miracle situation, well, remember that you’re not alone.

Many people and teams are discovering the same thing at this point in the year, like it or not.

Sometimes circumstances and priorities in life get all tangled up. And when a deadline is looming – like year-end – the situation only seems worse.

You can improve next year’s plans.

You can improve next year’s implementation.

For now, focus on doing the best you can in the situation you have.

What, then, can you do to untangle the knot and get as much done as possible, as well as possible, before the end of the year is here?

Here are a few ways to tighten your focus and increase your chances of success:

1. Remember – or get clear about – what your goal is.

2. Recall who you’re doing your work for, and what they consider success to be.

3. Get out your map (or, more likely, project plan) leading you to to the finish line.

4. See if it still makes sense, and if not, adjust it so it will work in present circumstances.

5. Figure out where you are on that map or project plan.

6. See and take the next most natural, most obvious step.

7. Repeat as needed.

And all of that is easy to say…but sometimes hard to do.

Wires can just get crossed, and the primary target lost in the confusion, disarray or shuffle.

When that happens find ways to go back to square one to review and recharge, renewing your strong sense of your target, purpose and path there.

Let extraneous things fall away.

Focus your attention, resources and energy on what’s most important.

Here are just a few simple things that may help you regain perspective:

- Take a drive.

Sometimes when you see your office, home or city in the rear view mirror, perspective “magically” returns. Distance and movement away from present circumstances can bring much-needed perspective.

- Take a walk.

The same perspective-gaining principle applies here, except that you’re getting the big picture from nature, and immersion in it, even briefly.

- Review your vision.

If you have a vision of your desired outcome – in whatever form you recorded and saved it – review that.

Pre-experience it, and imagine achieving it, in great detail.

- Listen to satisfied customers.

Remind yourself why you do the work you do.

Review reminders of the great work you’ve done for customers in the past, and are doing in the present.

Listen to or read customer testimonials and review customer feedback.

In easy but effective ways, remind yourself once again why you do the work you do, for the people you serve through it.

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It’s harvest season.

That’s true for people who make their living from the land.

And it’s harvest season for you, too, no matter what business you’re in.

These six weeks from mid-September through the end of October can be golden, and one of the highest productivity times of the year.

That’s because, among other things:

- The pressure’s on if you have annual goals that you still need to meet (and most of us do).

- There’s still time to adjust to the lessons you’ve learned this year, for better or worse.

- It’s a perfect time to work ahead and prepare for a better year ahead.

- The clock is ticking to get things done before attention and energy are diverted by end-of-year holidays.

Here are just a few ways you use the golden days of September and October to bring this business year to a good close:

1. Do a business tune-up

Check the effectiveness and ease of use of your key business processes.

2. Problem-find

Ask people in the company to provide feedback, anonymous or otherwise, about what problems they see. And prepare to be surprised. There may be some big frustrations and aggravations lurking in your company that you may be completely unaware of now.

3. Cause-find

Identify the root causes of problems you already know you want to, or must solve.

4. Create an action plan

Create an actionable and realistic plan to make changes you haven’t been able to get traction on yet. This may be a clue, too, that the root cause of some problems isn’t what you thought it was.

5. Get rid of low-hanging problems

Take care of some of the aggravating yet relatively easy to solve problems at your company.

6. Do a vision check

Check and/or update the vision that guides your company or team. Start with these questions:
- Is it still accurate?
- Does it address the customers you serve now?
- Is it compelling?

7. Get customer feedback

Update your knowledge about your customers and what they want and need from you. Use surveys, interviews, onsite observations or meetings, or a combination of tools.

8. Innovate

Brainstorm new product and service ideas for your current customers and markets. Or brainstorm new markets you can serve with the products and services you already have.

9. Clean sweep

Simplify, streamline, or do a good fall “housecleaning” of your offices, inbox or email stream.

10. Experiment

Experiment your way to a solution for a problem you haven’t been able to solve yet. Or start learning a new skill you know you will need in the future through a learning experiment.

These ten ideas are just a few ways you can create even greater yield…and enjoy it more…during the golden weeks of September and October.

Put harvest season to work…for you.

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“How do you make sure people on your team are working on the group’s goal, and haven’t veered off track to work on their own?”

That was the surprising question a long-term client asked me in a planning meeting recently.

She sees this as a common problem for project managers…the drift of a team, which can happen for various reasons.

I listened, and smiled in recognition.

It reminded me of a question a software developer asked me at a well-known high tech company a few years ago.

I was part of a team introducing a division-wide self-assessment project that was based on the Baldrige National Quality Award criteria.

Our work with the software development team followed successful division self-assessments throughout most of the rest of the company.

“Does this mean we can’t do our own thing anymore?!” the developer asked, seeming a bit put out, a bit perturbed by this prospect, and this project.

“Maybe!” I said with a bit of a laugh.

I had the impression that he felt almost completely untethered, unburdened and unbound by any goals for his work other than his own.

This occurred at a time when the company was experiencing multiple rounds of layoffs, and still had several more rounds to go before clearing the chasm of perhaps going out of business.

This company has since rebounded – quite spectacularly, in fact – and did so only after they figured out how to turn the innovation process into a productive flow of highly successful, highly profitable  new products.

If your team drifts…or you fear it might…how can you make sure it stays focused, dedicated, and working together on the group’s goals?

Here are several things to try:

– Create a one-page project summary

Write an easy-to-read-and-use one-page project summary, if your team is likely to prefer a written document.

Summarize the project, purpose, customers, primary goals and key milestones, and team members, among other things you might want to include in a high-level project summary.

If your team is more visual, you may find a graphic version of a project summary is more successful for them.

I have used both approaches successfully -
written one-pagers and graphic portrayals of a project and goals – with client teams and other teams that I’ve led.

– Review goals and progress regularly

Post the project goals and your team’s progress in a place where people will see the status regularly.

Discuss the one-pager and team status regularly in a simple, consistent, but substantial problem-solving (as need be) and progress-reinforcing way.

– Take real or virtual field trips

Sometimes the best way to unify, energize, improve, integrate, activate and inspire a team fully is to look outside your own borders, and to learn together from others.

Visit customers to learn how well your product or service meets customers’ needs in actual use, and how it could do so even more fully in the future.

Visit or research and report on benchmark companies to learn how to do things better, and to be inspired by high standards and achievement.

– Tell stories

Build a reservoir of stories about the challenges you’ve faced and met, and the purpose and positive impact of your work together.

Share stories after field trips to customers or benchmark companies.

Share stories after meeting key milestones, or facing down and meeting big challenges.

Pause to do the same when challenges not-yet-met seem overwhelming. By realizing you’re in the same boat, you can reinforce the fact that none of you is alone in a very challenging pursuit.

– Create personal connections between team members and team goals

Have each person take a bit of time to reflect in a simple, relaxed way about why this project and team are important to them…if they are (and if they aren’t, that’s the problem you need to address in some way).

Take the time to periodically pause, notice, and record or share team members’ experiences with the project. Discuss, as well, at some point the learning that each will take with them when the project  is done.

– Put the right measures in place and use them

Create customer-focused project performance measures to focus action and direct the use of limited resources.

Use measures that tie the work of individuals to that of the team, and the company, as well.

The six ideas I’ve shared with you here are just a few of the ways you can get your team back on track if it veers off-course.

You can also use these ideas and tools to prevent team drift from happening if you use them right from the start of your work together.

Keeping a team together, and working well, is not always easy.

And it’s not always fun…far from it on some days.

A few well-chosen tools, well-implemented, can do much to get the job done…and as enjoyably as possible.

If you found this post valuable, share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish every Tuesday. Sign up for the newsletter here.