How can you improve team performance on long-term projects?

Setting clear goals and expectations provides a roadmap for the team, aligns efforts, enhances communication, and fosters motivation and accountability.

As far as my experience allows, setting a clear goal and target helps the team in many ways, first of all they won't be exhausted of an open task. This will help every one feel positive about the job they are doing and improves their performance.

In Long term projects defining the clear milestone, risk identification & mitigation and the quality deliverables play as vitals. And this clear gives the management the enablers like role switch, carrier progression, team building, team and individual recognitions etc., use these enablers in the project planning at appropriate times to keep the project performance consistence. Use of right mix of people is also critical for the performance.

Projects that take long have the propensity of getting fatigued and boring. Team have to be continuously motivated while reminding them of the specific objectives so that they don’t loose focus

Learning to adapt your team to a goal is important in these situations as well. Curate the best possible team you can for a task/project. Ensure the team works well together and perhaps even have some common interests outside of the workplace. Long term projects need short term families to generate success.

Breaking down a project into manageable tasks enhances clarity, facilitates efficient resource allocation, improves progress tracking, and fosters motivation and accountability. It is a strategic approach that streamlines project management for successful execution.

One thing that I can say is not also a working experience but a life lesson is dividing a task into small achievable targets. The question here is what we do when there is a deadline and we have to deliver it in a rush, or what to do when the task has some barriers, the honest answer is that you will face these times whether you like it or not, but the important thing is consistency and predicting some extra time when setting up the goals and always listen to your team when they say time is not enough, do not push any task to any person.

Especially important is to value feedback from the lowest ranking to the top ranking team members. Many low level or entry level workers have yet to be jaded or accustomed to odd quirks or inefficiencies and will find the gumption to voice their concerns.

The most important thing that I want to share regarding the long term project time management is adjusting your plan to the unexpected changes

One key aspect is creating positive habits such as standup meetings to ensure alignment accross teams. Habits is the the only thing that will remain in place after 1 year implementation.

Develop a team of like-minded individuals. People that think and act in a similar manner will generally work better together. Avoid pairing opposite personalities and even different work ethics together. Life follows the Pareto principal, so let the bottom 80% work with the top 20% who don't mind having them around.

Similar to situations where you create a risk register for your project, it would be helpful if you consider the risks that might arise related to teamwork performance and have the contingency and solution for those potential situations.

One thing I’ve found helpful is making sure your team feels safe in communicating during your check in meetings. Team projects is a collaborative effort and we all bring different expertise to the table. If one of your team members are quiet after attending multiple meetings, I believe it’s best to have a 1:1 to address any concerns or to make sure they know we value their feedback and want to hear from them.