Can Project Success Be Measured by Happiness?
Two of the most common questions we ask to get an understanding of whether a project is successful are:
- Is the project on time?
- Is the project on budget?
These two questions have served us well and continue to give us a good idea of how the project is doing, but they tend to show up as lagging indicators.
We’re off schedule or over budget when we’ve missed a milestone or have already spent too much; the damage is done, and now something planned may need to be cut in order to recover.
What we need is a leading indicator that a project is heading for trouble before it already has. At MadeLabs (creators of Fairview and a software consulting company that does projects all day, every day), we track team member sentiment. How happy are they in simple black-and-white terms? We ask them to pick one of these limited-choice statements on a regular basis describing their work and attitude:
- Going great!
- Not going well.
- It’s complicated.
You can see the following screenshot to get a feel for what it looks like within Fairview.
With such a limited set of answers, we believe this simple question gives us an essential insight into the various projects, teams, and individuals working at MadeLabs. For example, we’ve observed that prior to a project being behind schedule, there’s a decrease in “Going great!” responses. We suddenly start seeing “Not going well” or “It’s complicated” in correlation to problems in the trenches or at the detail level that management may be unaware of and not show up in traditional project oversight for weeks or even months. Further, team members who leave comments help others understand potential issues. Other team members, project leaders, management or even stakeholders can see these comments and work to better support the team.
Why it matters to the project?
These early warning signs from individuals who are directly contributing to the success and completion of the project are likely the only ones who know how the project is really going. Even if the team members don’t realize it themselves, we’ve observed that when folks are upset, it’s either from the project conditions that they are entrenched in or their attitude will affect the project that depends on them.
Why it matters to the organization?
Besides the obvious fact that the project they are working on may suffer, we care greatly about the individuals, both internally and externally, that work with us. We strive to be a company that provides good opportunities for our team members and lets them be proud of the work they do. Not every project is the most glamorous, not every project goes perfect, but we try very hard to set our teams up to thrive and make adjustments to keep sentiment high and projects successful.
This level of support as well as an attentive eye to potential issues and correcting them before it’s too late has a significant effect on employee retention, which has been important to us.
Why it matters to the team?
Similar to how retroes may help teams that practice Agile methodology, getting regular introspection from team members assists with continuous improvement and airs potential issues that the team can address themselves. Our team members know this isn’t a forum to criticize others (fortunately, we don’t have much of that going on anyway), which results in transparent and constructive comments.
Why it matters to the individual team member?
At the time of this writing, it is Mental Health Awareness month and there is quite a flurry of attention on a post-Covid, social media-infused, work-from-home culture and its effect on all of us. Whether team members are working on laptops from their home office or in agriculture fields tending to crops, we all need to recognize these are real people and honor them by acknowledging their contributions and understand how they are feeling. In doing so, we can identify where they need help and further the joint success of company and contributor.
If you would like to learn more about how to use Fairview to help your projects and project teams be more successful, please reach out to us, and we would be happy to discuss further. Thanks for reading!
