In organizations, leaders must get tasks done through their team members. On the surface, this appears to be easy, as leaders have formal authority over their team members (by virtue of organizational hierarchy) and so, can simply issue orders to get things done.However, a survey of team leaders across companies working in varied business environments and at different levels in the hierarchy shows that most of them harbor frustrated feelings like “in spite of numerous reminders, quite often things don’t happen on time”.Over the years, many management tools and tactics have been applied to improve productivity and speed of execution by teams. Many of these attempts improve productivity to a certain extent; however, it still falls short of desired levels in terms of reliability, quality, and magnitude of output.Techniques Used To Improve Productivity1. Soliciting Commitment DatesOne way in which leaders try to improve team performance is by urging underlings to work faster and by asking them to commit to a particular date for completing tasks. Unfortunately, in spite of committing dates, many are unable to complete assigned tasks in time. Most leaders believe that this is because:<ul><li>People commit to wrong dates or</li><li>People lack the right attitude and/or sufficient motivation level to strive to complete tasks by committed dates</li></ul>2. Using Standard Task TimesIt is believed that people are unable to give correct dates for their tasks because of one or more of the following reasons:<ul><li>Lack of detailed planning</li><li>Lack of ability to foresee all problems that might crop up in execution and take preventive actions</li><li>Not enough knowledge to estimate correctly the time required to complete a particular scope of work</li></ul>Some leaders try to circumvent these problems by having experts define 'standard times' for various tasks and holding people accountable to complete tasks within those standard times. 3. The Carrot and Stick Approach Poor attitude and lack of motivation are often identified as the reason for the team’s tardiness. Therefore, it is an accepted practice in most companies to try and induce the right attitude/motivation among people by handing out rewards and punishments based on the deviation between ‘actual’ v/s ‘planned’ completion dates. While popular, both experience and research indicate that this method is severely limited and can, on occasion, be counterproductive. 4. Tracking Progress Using Software ToolsAnother reason the why attitude of people is questioned is because of the following observation made in review meetings – Problems are revealed to senior management at the last moment. When the problems are investigated in depth, it is found that they have existed for several days but were brought to the attention of senior management very late, by which time there is not enough time left to take countermeasures to prevent delays.This delay in revealing the problems to the management creates a feeling with the management that people try to ‘hide’ problems and reveal them only when it is no longer possible to hide them. To counter this tendency, solace is often sought in software tools. The belief is that these tools give managers real-time visibility of the status of tasks, ensuring that appropriate corrective actions are taken on time. Others increase the frequency and depth of review meetings.Yet, in spite of using all these techniques and tools, tasks (and projects) continue to finish late!!Why do these tactics not work?These commonly used techniques may give some marginal results. However, it must be acknowledged that there are certain inherent flaws in these techniques that render them ineffective.1. Uncertainty of Task TimesMost tasks involve some element of uncertainty; hence, it is difficult to accurately predict the exact time required to complete a particular task. This is independent of a person’s skill, knowledge, experience, learning curve, attitude, motivation, etc. For example, the task of traveling from home to the office in a car is repetitive and done almost daily. Over a period of a few weeks at the most, any person will develop enough skill, knowledge, and experience to do it well. Now, if you ask a person exactly how long he/she will take to do this task next time, they wouldn’t know precisely. They can only give a range– say 25 to 35 minutes – but not a precise number. This is a task where all typical reasons given for variability/delay in task execution, such as – change of scope, rework, lack of skill/knowledge/experience, and learning curve, do not exist. Still, it is subject to external uncertainties like traffic conditions, repair/construction work in progress on the route, hold-ups because of pedestrians crossing, signals, etc. Most tasks we do are subject to such uncertainties that are totally beyond our control – for e.g. dependencies on other people, events or other tasks. Trying to eliminate these uncertainties is futile.2. Defensive BehaviourThus, asking for a commitment date in such an environment of uncertainty puts people in a dilemma – should they commit to an aggressively short duration (assuming everything will go well), or should they pad up the estimate and commit a ‘safe date’? If rewards and punishments linked to adherence to committed dates, people will naturally be more inclined to commit only to well-padded dates.<figure class="image"><img style="aspect-ratio:4500/4500;" src="https://new-stage-be.vectorconsulting.in/storage/editor_uploads//st-blog-23-img-1-01-01_1716890872.png" width="4500" height="4500"></figure>3. Psychology of Time Management  Then, in execution, the conviction that there is safety built into the committed deadlines further instigates behaviours that are counterproductive to the goal of fast execution. Since people are always busy with a series of tasks, most wait until the last day/hour/minute to start a task that was planned weeks before (Student’s syndrome). Or the work will expand to fill the extra time allotted for its completion (Parkinson’s Law). Either way, work is unlikely to finish fast. When these behaviours are ingrained, neither software nor frequent reviews help because both these can be suitably gamed to protect the individual interests of people (for example, most will use up the entire committed time so that in the next instance, the time estimate for the task will not be cut). <figure class="image"><img style="aspect-ratio:4500/4500;" src="https://new-stage-be.vectorconsulting.in/storage/editor_uploads//st-blog-23-img-2-01-01-01_1716890899.png" width="4500" height="4500"></figure>So in spite of all the tactics and tools, managers are unable to ensure that work is done fast. This makes them erroneously conclude that the problem lies in the ‘capability’ or ‘attitude’ of people – they are not sufficiently motivated, don’t take the initiative, are not ready to work hard, etc.Where do we go from here?As discussed earlier, the nature of tasks we do in our typical workday has some elements of uncertainty that are beyond our control and cannot be removed. However, many other things we do inadvertently during task execution end up significantly elongating the time to complete the task. These are completely in our control, and eliminating them can bring about a dramatic reduction in lead time. For this, we must understand what it means to do a task in the shortest possible time or ‘touch time’. Task time = Touch time + waiting timeWe have already concluded that the precise time required to do a task is difficult to predict because of the inherent uncertainties involved. In that case, how can we be sure that a task was done at the fastest speed possible? After all, there is no reference with which we can compare!We can evaluate this by observing the conditions under which the task was performed. After completing the task, in hindsight, it should be possible to claim (each and every time) that the task was done without any waiting times (at least those waiting times which are in our control). When this happens, it can be said that the task was completed in touch time. But when a particular task has to wait for the resource to become free to work upon it, the time needed for task completion elongates.Causes For Waiting TimeThe typical reasons why tasks have to wait to be worked on are the following:<ul><li>Multi-tasking (or change in priority – the task was in progress, but some other task came up for which the task at hand had to be stopped midway; the first task had to be put on hold until the second task is completed.)</li><li>Task started with partial information/inputs and now waiting to receive missing inputs.</li><li>Unforeseen obstacles coming up during execution</li></ul>If these three types of waiting times are removed, we can claim to have completed the task in the shortest time possible.Eliminating Waiting TimesWastage in this form of waiting time is well within the control of individuals or teams. With a little effort to eliminate this wastage, teams can dramatically reduce in the time taken to complete tasks. For this there are three essential steps:1. Stop multi-tasking:Everyone the company (irrespective of function or hierarchy) should list down tasks pending with them. Then these tasks have to be put in descending order of priority. Work should start on the highest priority task. The picked-up task should be worked on continuously till completion. Only then should the next priority task be picked up.The fastest way to complete a task in hand is to deploy maximum resources on it. So, maximum resources should be assigned to the top priority task. But if some resources are available, these can be assigned to the next priority task until all resources are deployed. The tasks that are worked upon are called ‘active tasks’. All other tasks should be on a ‘waitlist’, and no work should happen on these. The number of active tasks is called the WIP limit for that team. It represents the maximum number of tasks that can be active at any point in time. Only when one of the active tasks is over will the highest priority task on the waitlist become active. Thus, tasks will flow with the principle of one out, one in. A task is considered complete only when it meets its ‘closure criteria’. This ‘closure’ is when the task is complete in all respects for the next entity in the chain to work on it. Nobody in the company (not even the CEO) should be able to ask someone to stop an active task and take up something else instead. 2. Start Work with Full Kit:Full kit is defined as all inputs required to finish a task (not just to start it!!). To ensure that team members don’t have to wait to gather missing inputs, once they start work on a task, the team leader must gather the full kit while the task is on the ‘waitlist’ and make it available to the team. One of the roles of the team leader will be to check the availability of the full kit for tasks on the wait list (checking should happen in order of priority). A waitlisted task can become active in order of priority only when one of the active tasks is completed and full kit for the waitlisted task is available. If full kit is not available, that task cannot become active even if it is next in priority. 3. Daily Flow Meeting:Unforeseen obstacles might crop up during task execution and these must be solved quickly to avoid increasing lead time. Doing a daily review helps detect these obstacles without losing of time. Daily review (called Daily Flow Meeting – as it checks the flow of tasks) should be done at a fixed time, fixed place, and with fixed participants. Team leaders should conduct these daily flow meetings. Discussion in this meeting is about reviewing progress in last the 24 hours and setting the expectations of how much work will be done in the next 24 hours by each team member. Evaluation of progress in the last 24 hours gives a clue as to whether there is any obstacle that could slow down work on the task. If these three rules are followed in letter and spirit, the waiting time for tasks can be reduced or eliminated. Therefore, shifting to this method of task execution can cut lead times by at least 30% and more than double the output in almost all environments without adding resources and without consuming much bandwidth of senior management.

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Problem: Leaders struggle to ensure timely task completion despite using methods like commitment dates, standard task times, or tracking tools. Uncertainty, defensive behaviours, multitasking, incomplete inputs, and unforeseen obstacles lead to delays and reduced productivity. Solution: To address delays and improve task execution, organizations should focus on limiting multitasking, ensuring all inputs are ready before starting tasks, and conducting daily reviews to resolve obstacles. Benefits: This approach eliminates waiting times, reduces lead times by 30%, and doubles output without additional resources, improving execution reliability and efficiency.

Key Takeaways

Leaders often struggle to get tasks done through their team. Many management tools and tactics have been applied to improve productivity. However, these often fall short. By implementing just 3 steps - Stop Multi-Tasking, Start Work with Full-Kit and Daily Flow Meeting the team improve can productivity.

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