Your team is struggling to deliver a project on time. How can you keep them motivated and focused?

Experiment with various communication channels to see what suits your team's work style best. If a specific channel leads to miscommunication or problems, consider exploring alternative channels. Additionally, create an environment that values open and honest communication, starting with your leadership. Instead of just claiming openness to feedback, actively encourage it. When team members provide honest feedback, consider it genuinely and implement suggestions for ongoing improvement.

Having worked in R&D for many years, both as team member and team leader, I strongly resonate with this point. In my experience, the key to improve communication and navigating the inherent uncertainties and frequent changes in R&D projects lies in fostering an environment of open and frank communication within the team. Regular, transparent communication helps in building TRUST, a fundamental element in any successful R&D team. This trust facilitates a more collaborative and positive atmosphere where team members feel comfortable to ask questions, share ideas, and raise issues promptly, leading to more innovative solutions and quicker problem resolution. Tools are very important but tools in a disconnected team are useless...

1. Shield the team from organizational and administrative overhead. 2. Limit the impact of your own, and your manager's, desire to know and control the details. One-slide, informal, updates, properly focused, will give you what you need. 3. Proactively ask what the team needs in personnel, resources, or variances from policy. 4. Are you technically able to pitch in somewhere--not to get in the way or oversee, but to take some work off of the others' plates? This is actual work + motivation. 5. Is the team composition and work-load distributed in a way that optimizes productivity and quality? Or are there other organizational goals determining these things? Is it possible to temporarily rebalance? 6. Is is appropriate to redefine the goals?

It’s often all too easy to point a finger at the need to communicate clearly. In actuality what does this mean- it is after all a subjective consideration. If we can build human understanding of each other, develop empathy and park our egos we will succeed in transparent/open communications. Often through silence and observation, we identify each other’s communication styles. We embark on conscious communication trainings in our work life. In reality we just need to listen, repeat to clarify, live our understanding, reflect, adapt and repeat.

Many researchers underestimate the power of noting down everyday ideas or keeping them systematically. Later, oftentimes we realise, oh I had this idea which someone else did. We can be more productive by spending scientific thoughts journal every day. As we do more of this, we also find ourselves better at communicating our thoughts to other researchers and making collaborations for bigger projects.

We, engineers and scientists, are inclined to be perfectionists, which is crucial to ensure the highest quality, but it can also hinder progress. Balancing high standards with progress to ensure project delivery on time is important. Breaking the project into smaller, more manageable pieces with realistic deadlines and expectations would help maintain this balance. In summary, the "Progress over perfection" approach, where relevant, could help when struggling to deliver a project on time.

Ensure that the team has a clear understanding of the project's goals and realistic expectations. Unrealistic goals can lead to frustration and burnout. Adjust timelines and milestones if necessary to align with achievable targets.

I have used the "SMART" method successfully to run programs and projects. S = Specific; M = Measurable; A = Achievable; R = Relevant; T = Time Bound. Don't forget that as engineers we are trained to be excellent, and error free.

Set / Decide the quantity and quality of the resources needed in order to deliver the output. ( Evaluate the strength and weaknesses of the individual resource so that the project can be broken down into smaller tasks and those tasks can be given to the individual resources based on their strengths. Not identifying the strengths and weaknesses before assigning a task to the individual can hamper the project deadline and also the quality of the output. By doing this an individual will give an output which would require less to no rework. Rework unless required will hinder the project deadline and its quality.

During my years in R&D as project manager, I found out that setting milestones meetings before the deadline can help. The team will benefit from feedbacks to step back and perform better.

In my opinion, it's crucial to establish clear and achievable milestones to keep the team motivated and focused on the project challenges. It can probably be done: ? By setting realistic expectations, team members gain a sense of accomplishment with each completed task. ? Providing regular feedback, acknowledging their efforts and highlighting individual and collective achievements. ? Recognition creates a positive work environment, reinforcing the significance of their contributions. ? Encouraging an open dialogue about challenges and addressing concerns together may strengthen the team to navigate obstacles! ??

In my experience clear concise communication is the foundation to any successful project, but R & D projects require special focus. Goals, customer needs, budget and timeline need to be understood from the onset. This is not to inhibit or confine the team, but merely to establish the necessary rules of engagement from the start.

You need to tell the team that you have full confidence in their ability to deliver the project and that any problems that arise, you will support and guide them. And really be available to help if they have any questions.

Below applies to R&D project intended to produce tangible results, not only a report on milestone achievements dazzling audience with pretty pictures: Start by assembling a team of adequately qualified (and over-qualified) "doers" - self-driven people with innate drive to get things done. Treat them as partners and collaborators - not disposable human assets. Set clear goals, disclose limitations, and listen to the feedback - you likely to hear how project is going to end very early. Get things people need to do their work and keep managerial noise away. Respond to bad news early and change direction if the current path is leading into a dead end. Work as hard yourself as you are expecting your team to. Don't give up and share rewards.

Now this topic is imo one of the critical themes. Doing this right and having the right project culture is essential and leads team member satisfaction, happiness and productivity. This natural makes it easier to deliver a project on time and on budget.

GO BACK TO THE BRIEF My experiences over the years in driving and directing R&D team, I found one thing helpful - “Never start a Development project until you have a vivid understanding of the Brief”. If you don’t ask every imaginable question about the brief, you will jump into the ocean with a leaking life jacket. Everything that could go wrong will go wrong in the middle of the project but will be known at validation - painful. I always recommend the “Count the Cost” Model in evaluating a brief to create a project plan. Because a project plan without proper understanding of the brief is a disaster. The Team gets super motivated when they understand the brief and know what they are up to. That is when you hear a shout of “we can do it”.

Arrangements of brain storming sessions with all the team mates are very useful, this provides the team to look at any challenges from the new lenses. Most of the time they have the most suitable solutions to the challenges, just need the right alignments.

We are not a independent entity but we are inter dependent on each others so collaborative and team work is always in need and will more efficiently and effectively provide us to reach the destination

Remember you might not be the expert. If one of your team has a good skillset, ask them to set the pace and outline how things could be done. Or invite someone in from outside the team to challenge progress

Usually delay in project occurs because of poor assessment of resources available to the team. Resources should match the complexity of the project. Time spent at the start with the team to have an honest dialogue to reduce mismatch will largely pay off.

Address the team's concerns, set realistic goals, and emphasize the importance of collaboration. Regularly check in, provide support, and recognize their efforts to boost morale and maintain focus.

Keep the communication moving, informal and motivational. ensure that there are no barriers and that concerns are shared and listened to

Em projetos de pesquisa e desenvolvimento, onde a press?o e os altos padr?es s?o comuns, é crucial apoiar o bem-estar da equipe. Oferecer arranjos de trabalho flexíveis, respeitar limites e tempo pessoal, e evitar sobrecarga s?o práticas essenciais. A promo??o de hábitos saudáveis, como exercícios, medita??o e hobbies, n?o apenas ajuda os membros da equipe a relaxar e recarregar, mas também contribui para um desempenho consistente e inovador a longo prazo.

But you must watch out for accommodations for the few that will degrade the morale of the many. While many accommodations are private and personal, it is good to foster trust and relationship building with your team so they are all personally connected, giving each other the benefit of the doubt, and can infer from a position of mutual respect any accommodation that could be seen as “special treatment”.

Prioritize the well-being of your team by promoting a healthy work-life balance. Encourage breaks, discourage excessive overtime, and offer support for personal well-being. Recognizing the importance of balance contributes to a positive work environment, reducing stress and increasing overall team motivation and satisfaction.....

The biggest counter-intuitive mistake when the schedule slips is to do more things in parallel. The correct thing is to prioritize and focus. Here are 4 steps to follow. 1.Understand the remaining work and the runway to the deadline: If the deadline cannot be met, you will need additional OT work session arranged or get additional personnels. 2.Prioritize the work: Start with those that will impact other deliverables later in the flow. 3.Get the best person for the job: Set the expectation and objective for this execution sprint and get the correct person for each task. 4.Set the execution heartbeat: Set up twice a day short sync sessions. Set the daily tasks in the morning. Get the status and help needed in the evening.

Be in the trenches with them. There's nothing more motivating than knowing your CEO or Manager is willing to roll their sleeves up and work with you and your team, side by side. Titles don't matter. Teamwork and sense of doing things together does.

It is natural in R&D that unexpected happen and things do not go as planned. This is the nature of it. To keep folks motivated, setting smaller, tangible, realistic goals on a long road is critical. Such positive feedback helps keeping the stuff motivated.

No all, R&D projects are similar, eg software based IT development is different than hardware based. Delivering a R&d project on time is something I am not convinced with. At research level things go unpredictable, being a R&D head one should have a keen eye on the process, serendipitous finding exist, that changes all the dynamics. Yes, your Human Resource engaged in research and development activity need a team spirit and sincere care and suggestions, guidance and support means a lot for all of us. Sometime the learning out of failed attempts is more profitable than timely delivery. So stay positive, keep learning, because for me learning is earning!

Let them know the deadlines and benefits that they would get out of it eg: If it's work towards some paper, let them know the importance of upcoming conferences, what they would gain if work is accepted there, etc... As far as my collaborative experience is concerned, people tend to work harder only if they can find some personal benefits out of it, probably may sound rude but I guess it's the best way and eventually if someone is a part of particular work, it is coz it will be beneficial for them in some or the other means Note: This is only for R&D roles