The Magic Jar

The Magic jar brought back the real magic into our team. This is an account from our experiment in 2012-2013. 

The High: 

We were approximately 7-8 months into the project. The team had transitioned the work from onsite to India in record time.

Team was appreciated for performing above expectations. Team had developed a good sense of belonging in the days we ramped up together.

There was every reason for the team to continue performing. 

The Plateau: 

However, I could sense that the team was not continuing the same momentum seen before.

All the work was business as usual for the team by now.

We had a team meeting to discuss why the team was losing pace and motivation. 

The conclusion was that the not find the work exciting anymore or were getting a sense of achievement or were learning in the same way when they first started.

The Thought: 

I had seen a post on the ‘Magic Jar’ on the web in 2012. I proposed this idea in the team meeting and team readily decided to implement this. Many thanks to the team for agreeing.

The though behind this was simple: We tend to forget our little achievements. We need to be reminded of all that we had achieved.

The Process:

1. We arranged a jar, some paper slips and kept a pen handy.
2. Whenever a team member felt they had achieved something, they could write the achievement objectively and drop it in the jar. 
3. At the end of the fortnight, the jar would be opened, the entries read out one by one to the team and ask the member to share his/her achievement.

The Results:

1. The team was surprised to learn that they had individually achieved much more than they had realised during the fortnight.
2. A new feature implemented, a new bug found, a root cause analysis done in record time were things that were easily forgotten being buried in the weekly report.
3. Reliving and celebrating the achievements face-to-face brought in a new sense of contributing more, learning more and achieving more. 

The Turnaround

1. After 2 such sessions, team opened up more. Team looked forward to these fortnightly meetings. Now the meeting also hovered around what more could be done.
2. Team came up with the idea of automating manual test cases. Team learnt automation and implemented it for the project.
3. Team attended Six Sigma trainings and proposed/implemented multiple time/cost saving ideas. 4 members earned Six Sigma green belts.
4. Team also explored patentable ideas. 

In the end team got back on track and scaled new heights in the 2 years that the project lasted. The simple Magic jar is something that worked for us.

Give the Magic Jar a try. It worked wonders for our team. I still use some form of this technique in my projects.

 #EveryWinMatters #Appreciate #ServantLeader #myfirstpost #SmallAchievements #BigResults #ContinuousLearning #projectmanagement

Photo: Manish Kumar Das