When people compete, they get an answer. They either win or lose. For competitors, what it means to win is straightforward and objective. They know quickly whether their effort, preparation, and strategy have paid off. After a loss, they can redouble their efforts to capture victory at the next contest.
We are a hybrid development team. Relatively small so we can still sync up a couple times a week to talk about priorities for the day... and what we accomplished yesterday. But we have been missing the mark on the “winning feeling” part. I think we will try reframing our questions and see what happens.
I used to support a manufacturing site. They had a lot of daily/weekly/monthly metrics and goals. But the one that stood out to me was, Attainment. They defined it as - How many things you completed / the amount of things you committed to completing during the designated time period. I've been thinking a lot about this metric recently and how it reflects my character, especially around personal discipline. If I say I'm going to do something, then I damn well better make sure I meet that commitment. I continue to fail daily (I over commit), but I'm starting to see some improvement.
It's something I've got to work on. We use a team version of Todoist to track major projects, tasks/subtasks. There is the possibility there - to set a Most Important Task for today them leave a comment when they completed it. We also use MS Teams. We could have people post there too. I'm thinking about it. I don't want people to game it - and instead follow the 'spirit of the law' and not the 'letter of the law'.
We are a hybrid development team. Relatively small so we can still sync up a couple times a week to talk about priorities for the day... and what we accomplished yesterday. But we have been missing the mark on the “winning feeling” part. I think we will try reframing our questions and see what happens.
Thank you for this write up!
Too practical today. :)
Careful on implementation that it doesn't come across like surveillance.
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I used to support a manufacturing site. They had a lot of daily/weekly/monthly metrics and goals. But the one that stood out to me was, Attainment. They defined it as - How many things you completed / the amount of things you committed to completing during the designated time period. I've been thinking a lot about this metric recently and how it reflects my character, especially around personal discipline. If I say I'm going to do something, then I damn well better make sure I meet that commitment. I continue to fail daily (I over commit), but I'm starting to see some improvement.
How would employees track and record any given commitment, David?
It's something I've got to work on. We use a team version of Todoist to track major projects, tasks/subtasks. There is the possibility there - to set a Most Important Task for today them leave a comment when they completed it. We also use MS Teams. We could have people post there too. I'm thinking about it. I don't want people to game it - and instead follow the 'spirit of the law' and not the 'letter of the law'.