How to quantify team engagement with Industry Box user analytics to drive teamwork decisions

We are going to borrow the punchline from another software company's advert (Asana's, to be clear), since it corresponds so well with this topic:

"You can track where your pizza order is and when it will arrive at your door, so why not your project?"

Indeed. Data helps us plan better, and enjoy more in our personal life. The same should be true of our work life. If you are a project lead, opening up data sources that help you make leadership decisions should be a high priority.

Industry Box's user analytics function generates data that help you make project teamwork decisions. The data is so intuitive that you can become a capable teamwork decision maker without going through a learning curve. And it covers the entire project lifecycle from team on-boarding through to the end, and all kinds of scenarios including disengaged stakeholders. Here is how it works.

Let's be clear, teamwork is about your extended team of stakeholders more than your core team

So many project leads and executives make the cardinal mistake of thinking that the "team" is only about the core team members, people who work day-in-day-out on the project. The core team is important, but they are fuelled by the diverse set of stakeholders. These stakeholders form your "extended team", with each member creating a defined stream of values, adding up to become a make-or-break for your project.

Plus, you work closely with your core team. You can sense areas of low productivity and make decisions swiftly. Whereas your extended team of stakeholders are dispersed and distant. By the time you sense trouble, it is already rooted (i.e. too late).

If anything, prioritise teamwork with the extended team. Once you get that right, your core team is a quick job. 

By the way, Industry Box user analytics is non-intrusive 

When you publish project updates to a workstream channel on Industry Box, we know who have read the posts (unlike emails or instant chats). Yes, just like your social media posts. And that's all Industry Box tallies up, nothing else. User's data privacy is respected, there is no intrusion to their ways of work.

And by the way, that's all you need to make the right project teamwork decisions.

Industry Box user analytics highlight stakeholder connection weak spots to prioritise teamwork decisions

It's natural for stakeholders to be dispersed and distant (that's why they are stakeholders, not core team members). As long as they are well connected with the project, they are ready to create streams of value. That's the principle behind Industry Box's user analytics.

See who haven't read the important posts, and remind them

This is almost the simplest way to up team productivity. When you have published an important post, and need everyone to read it ahead of the workshop, have a look at the post analytics.

It will show you who have read it and who have not. Give those who haven't a friendly reminder, then keep an eye to see if their read/unread status changes. Repeat with stronger words if necessary.

No more unproductive workshops where stakeholders haven't prepared ahead, or delayed progress waiting for stakeholders to catch-up.

See which stakeholders are weakly connected, and reach out to them

A stakeholder usually works on multiple projects in parallel. It's forgivable for them to miss out on your project posts. But if they keep missing your posts despite your repeated reminders, alarm bells should ring out loud. Or if a previously enthusiastic stakeholder goes cold, it's worth asking if the project is moving in the wrong direction.

Stakeholder analytics allows you to see how a stakeholder is responding to the project posts across time. Are they diligent, or delinquent? Are they keeping up, or dropping off? Are there red-flag stakeholders who chronically de-prioritise your posts from the beginning?

No more guessing or reacting when it's too late. You know solidly whom to have a word with, and the underlying problem to talk about.

See which workstreams are drifting apart, and help them to re-group

This is a rare scenario, but fatal. An entire workstream (e.g. clarifying legal restrictions for a country expansion programme) could be plagued by in-fighting, low motivation or poor self-organisation. Their value creation stream would thin to a drip, slowing progress for other streams, the core team and ultimately the project itself.

Channel analytics helps you see how a workstream group is working collectively. Are they all ignoring the posts? Are they being selective about the posts to attend to (e.g. reading workstream posts diligently but ignoring all-hands posts for the full extended team)? Are there bad eggs among a broadly hard-working group, posing risk to team harmony? 

No need to analyse reams of surveys or conduct regular group reflection sessions (these activities soak up everyone's time and efforts). Have a look at the analytics and the picture becomes clear. Certainly no need to wait till the whole situation deteriorates into an open conflict.

You can now take preventative, decisive actions at first sign of workstream-level concern. Have one-to-one chats with the members, organise workshops, host social events. Or even break the workstream into smaller streams or merge with a productive stream. By spotting issues early, you have lots of options.

Make the switch to Industry Box and start powering up your project leadership

If you are a project lead or executive sponsor, you are set to benefit massively from Industry Box's user analytics. Not least in terms of not having to attend leadership courses and struggling to apply those theoretical best practices in the messy real world.

Industry Box is free, and you only need to create a personal account to kick-start. No need for corporate contract, IT setup, admin control designation etc. Pick a project, identify a couple of workstreams, list the stakeholders per stream, and create a channel per stream on Industry Box. The next time you need some work done on a stream or keep its members updated about the project, craft the message on Industry Box and publish the post on the stream's channel. Move away from emails, presentation decks, conference calls, instant chats.

You can include texts, images and videos in the message, in the same way as the best online news articles. Your message is protected from corruption and interruptions such as comments, one-line replies, never-ending follow-up chats. It stays clean, targeted and informative. A stakeholder will never miss a relevant message, receive an irrelevant message, or see different messages from her fellow workstream members.

Of course, you are likely to be leading a few projects and stakeholding in several others. Industry Box has great features to help you work as an efficient stakeholder, creating your stream of value without over-spending your energy. Our clean interface and daily digest are just a few.

Create an account on Industry Box, and see how user analytics will make a difference.

About Industry Box:

Industry Box is dedicated to introducing streamlined & frictionless stakeholder management, as we believe this to be a hidden productivity blackhole for most companies and managers.

Apart from raising awareness about this issue and promoting industry best practice, we have also designed a digital tool with all the best practices built in, so that managers & leaders can introduce and benefit from best-in-class stakeholder management without the learning curve.   

See here for our other blog articles on raising productivity through better stakeholder management, or by becoming a more productivity-conscious stakeholder.