Team Burnout

Project can be very long, and deeply draining. In fact, some projects never end. Teams can become stressed, fatigued, and burned out very quickly if a project manager does not recognize and take actions to help eliminate these issues as they are arising.

In an article written by an author only known at Tom at Project Management Knowledge, he lists some things a person can do when fatigue or burnout is observed. I rather enjoyed this article, and wanted to share it with you because these are techniques I would use to take action.

Tom makes the following suggestions:

• Make a list of things that are going well but still have room for improvement. Clearly identify the areas that need improving then work in those areas. This provides some variety.

• Determine what is making people feel lethargic, stressed, paralyzed, fatigued, or burned out. Tom states that sometimes just identifying these areas is enough to improve people's attitudes.

• If the previous two steps do not do the trick Tom suggests changing people's duties, or giving time off.

• Get a team member transferred.

I believe Toms last suggestion is an extreme solution because it could get someone fired. This suggestion does make sense if a person is at the end of their rope because a change in scenery or culture could bring new life to someone who in burned out.

At techreplublic.com there is an article by Debbie Young who suggests other strategies for avoiding, or mitigating burnout. These are other techniques I would use to recover from burnout.

• "Leveling overwhelming workloads." The idea is to look at the responsibilities of team members, determine if there is an unbalance in the work loads of members, and make adjustments accordingly.

• "Improve communication." When I first read this title I could not imagine how communication played a role in burnout. Young quotes Dr. Jo Ellen Moore of the Department of Computer Management and Information Systems at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville Illinois as saying, "That’s because exhausted, burned-out IT workers, according to Moore, tend to connect their exhaustion to what they perceive as poor management decisions."

This makes a lot of sense to me. Young is speaking about project managers and a technique that could be used to help them with burnout. I would add this could be applied to team members as well. By communicating with and including project team members in the decision-making process, communicating project issues, project managers and add team members, may change their attitudes towards their work environments.

Tom. (2009, January 4). Project Management Knowledge: Identifying and Dealing with Project Management Burnout. Retrieved March 3, 2010 from http://www.project-management-knowledge.com/identifying-and-dealing-with-project-management-burnout/

Young, D. (2002, November 11). Communication, workload balance keys to averting staff burnout. Retrieved March 3, 2010 from http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-1057738.html

Roberts Six Simple Rules for Good Estimating

Many projects run over budget, and behind schedule. In order for organizations to insure their estimates are sound and to prevent costs overruns they must follow some basic rules. The following is "Roberts Six Simple Rules for Good Estimating."

1. Stay within the scope. Sometimes I think the scope would change as much as the weather does if you let it. Take control of your projects, and remember you are the subject matter expert. No one has the pulse of what is going on as much as you do. You might not be the last say or have direct authority over every final decision but stick with your plan. You might not even be the smartest person in the team but remember you are responsible.

2. Create a realistic schedule, and cost analysis. Do not be pressured into making changes to time and cost every time a stakeholder wants you to lower expenses, or speed things up. Granted, you do not want to be inflexible but negotiate. Turn on the charm, be political, do whatever it takes to find a balance between what was planned, and what stakeholder wants.

3. Create, study, examine, and adjust the critical path. The goal of project managers is to bring their project in on time, under budget, within the scope, and meet established quality goals. The critical path is the spine of a project. Once something goes wrong with it the project can have a hard time walking. Project managers need to focus on their project goals, and not be concerned among other things happening within the organization (Barkley, D., 2006, p. 62).

4. When estimating costs find similar organizational projects to draw data from. If this is impossible to ask people, you think might have examples or will be able to point you in the right direction. Always remember Google is your friend. Kim Heldman (2009, p. 60) put it this way " you might find it helpful to review the activity estimates and budgets on past projects of similar size and scope before estimating the costs for the activities on the new project."

5. Estimated cost, and time requirements should be researched so that the estimates provide proper value when the project starts (Heldman, p. 102). Do not rush or use ballpark numbers just to satisfy your requirement to gather the data.

6. Remember that everything you do during your project while working on a project takes resources. This might seem obvious, but the small things can add up depending upon the size of your project. For example, sick or vacation days, team lunches, stakeholder visits, conflict resolution, or snow days can all have cost and schedule impacts.

Barkley, B. (2006). Integrated Project Management. p. 62. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. New York: New York.

Heldman, K. (2009). Project Management Professional Exam Study Guide. 5th ed. p. 69 & p. 102. Wiley Publishing, Inc. Indianapolis: IN.

To Let Be Or Not To Let Be

I have heard said that one of the ways to develop team members' skill is to provide direction and then let them go off and do it and allow them to make mistakes as they learn. I wonder if this is this really a realistic plan in the current world of high demand, short schedule, and minimum budget project management?

I say yes and no to the “ idea that one of the ways to develop your team members' skill is to provide direction and then let them go off and do it and allow them to make mistakes as they learn ( (Mahon, 2009).

In certain circumstances, it can be a realistic plan in today's project management world. I believe people learn the most when they do not succeed in their objective, but a subordinate must be monitored closely when they are having difficulties. My career has taught me that a leader can educate, train, and monitor a team member all they want, but it is not until the team member is allowed to venture out on their own do they truly learn.

Growing up my parents did not attend formal courses to teach me to crawl, walk or run. We can be shown how to catch and throw a ball, but it is not until we drop the ball numerous times or overthrow our target do we really learn. Trial and error are the methods in which we use our education and find out if it applies in the situation we are involved. Many times what we learned is not reality. We must adapt what we learned to what works in the real world.

These same basic concepts on learning to apply to our professional lives as well. People learn from piers, managers, and/or experts in their field. Formal education beyond a training manual has become increasingly important in how organizations train their employees. For example, workshops are conducted that give examples on how to handle a human resources issue, interact with a customer in a given situation, or how to conduct a disaster recovery plan. A major problem with these training methods is that they are based on generic, standard situations a person will face.

Even though all snowflakes look the same each snowflake has a different design. Learning by doing and trial and error can be argued to be the best way to learn in the present world of "high demand, short schedule, and minimum budget project management" but it is often not a realistic method to develop team member proficiencies. I believe a good leader will teach their team members the skills to excel at their position. After they teach their team the skills to perform the leader must allow those members to succeed or fail on their own to some extent.

I think an effective leader will be aware of team members at all times. A leader must build confidence in their team members by congratulating them when they are succeeding, and supporting them when they are not. By supporting team members when they are not succeeding a leader gives them the comfort of knowing the leader will be there for them no matter what. The business world is too competitive to allow team members to freelance to much be given the pressures to finish projects within short schedules, minimum budgets, and reduced resources. A good project leader must quickly evaluate a situation, and take action accordingly allowing team members a chance to grow, but at the same help guides them when needed.