“So, how did you fuck up this week?”
My first project management role was taking over a landmine detection system firmware/software team. The team was behind budget, behind schedule, and demoralized. The previous lead had a habit of gathering everyone together in the lab once a week, and started the meeting with, “So, how did you fuck up this week?” He took notes then he went back to whatever he was doing (nobody was quite clear on what that was), and the team was left to chase their own tails.
When we finished the project, we were on time (to the original schedule), on budget (to the original cost estimate, including the UI subcontractor), and the system deployed to Afghanistan, where among other things, it helped clear the Kabul airport and environs of landmines.
One of the tactics I adopted was posting the schedule outside my office every week. We had MS Project, but not much else in terms of collaborative software. Heck, instant messaging was new and shiny at the time. My office was the first in the row of our cube farm, so everyone on our team of six and to walk past the paper Gantt chart to get to their desks.
What happened next was unintended magic. Team members started asking questions. Then they started offering opinions, pushing back on assumptions, updating progress (sometimes daily) making suggestions and optimizations (sometimes forcefully). I left the old schedules up so everyone could see the changes and the progress.
The team started managing themselves, because they knew what needed doing next. When we needed to shift people, or to head off a slip, everyone saw it coming and they worked together. It was never a question of how late we were going to be. It became about how to meet the deadline.
Just from posting a schedule.
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