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Group Me can be used to communicate with your group.

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The easy way to connect with all the groups in your life, big and small

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Project Charter from the State of Oregon

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Project Charter from the State of Oregon

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How to Motivate Your Team During Crunch Time

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How to Motivate Your Team During Crunch Time

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There are times when work ramps up and you need all hands on deck. Ideally you want people to jump into the work excited and enthusiastic rather than dreading what's coming. So, what can you do to rally the troops when the team's workload is particularly heavy? How do you talk about the project or time period so that people don't feel daunted? And, how do you keep an eye on stress levels while still motivating people to get through the crunch?

What the Experts Say
Whether it's a seasonal crunch time or a particularly demanding project with a tight deadline, it can be hard to keep people focused and motivated when they're overloaded. The fact is, "most people already have a lot on their plate," says Lisa Lai, a business advisor and coach. And so when you ask your team for more, "it can leave people feeling overwhelmed and inadequate." On top of this, as the pace of work increases and our always-on technology serves as a tether to the office, intense periods are becoming more prevalent, says Ethan Bernstein, a professor of leadership and organizational behavior at Harvard Business School. "There is a greater quantity of crunch times and more of the work that we get done happens during a crunch," he says. This has critical implications for you, the boss. By "focusing your attention on your employees" and projecting a calm, confident presence, you can make these times easier for the people on your team, Bernstein says. Here's how.

Project positive energy
For starters, says Lai, " check your own emotional energy as a manager." If you're feeling beleaguered, worried, anxious, or frustrated about a project "there's no way you can show up in front of your team" and be a confident guiding force. To lead, you need to be "engaged, motivated" and "emotionally bought in." Start by "reflecting on why the work matters." Figure out "why this project is relevant and who benefits from it," she says. Remember, too, that crunch times can be useful learning opportunities. Yes, critical, time-sensitive projects are often tense, but "you want peaks and valleys," says Bernstein. "Peaks - when everyone is engaged and motivated at the same time - are good" for team morale and drive. But they should not be the status quo. "There is a value to intermittency," he says. If your team is in a constant crunch, employees "are not operating at an [optimal] level of productivity and effectiveness."

Express empathy
Once you've personally connected to the work and its purpose, "convey that message to your team," says Lai. "Don't just say, 'Here are the deliverables. Here's the deadline.'" Instead, "develop the story" around why the project has meaning and what the ultimate goal is. "Define what success looks like." Be upfront with your team and acknowledge the "burden and sacrifices" involved, such as late nights and weekends at the office. Express empathy and be vulnerable, adds Lai. "Say: 'This is going to be hard. I am feeling it, too.'" Convey solidarity in the spirit of, "we are in this together," says Bernstein. "We have to grind this out as one team." And try not to dwell on the negatives. Tell your reports that, "there are going to be parts of this that are going to be fun, too." Maintaining team camaraderie is a priority. That way, "it doesn't have to hurt so much."

Think about milestones
Next, consider breaking up the work into manageable chunks so that the overall deliverable isn't so intimidating. Lai recommends, "creating meaningful arcs" to the project based on the work that matters most. Setting short-term targets for each phase directs the team's focus, creates accountability, and helps to bring them closer to the end goal. "Say: 'We will take a breath after each one. We will evaluate and make sure we're on the right track. If we need to change course, we will do that.'" Milestones ought to help the team feel good about the incremental progress it's making, so make sure you're instituting them for the right reasons. "Don't have all these mini crunches for the purpose of micromanaging," says Bernstein. It's also important to consider how multiple deadlines may affect the pace of your team's work. If you give a team a defined amount of time to do a task, research shows that the team will work at a different speed before and after the midpoint. "The rubber meets the road" the closer a deadline looms, Bernstein says.

Offer autonomy
Allow the team to structure their workdays in ways that maximize their productivity. Crunch times are not the time for politics around face time or HR rules about working from home to get in the way," Lai says. Let your employees play a role in defining the team and how they work together. "If they have a voice, they are more likely to lean into the work," she says. "You want people to participate and feel involved in the process." While they should be in charge, do what you can to clear the way for them. For example, says Bernstein, it's helpful to clear the decks so employees can concentrate on the task at hand. You have the power to "take away distractions" and "make the crunch time relieving in some respects," he says.

Be judicious with incentives
Rewards and incentives can be a key motivational tool. Lai suggests deploying them throughout the projected timeline, not just when it ends. "You need moments of celebration," she says. "That's how you create sustained engagement." Think about ways to recognize your team's hard work: a Friday afternoon off perhaps, or an all-office ice cream social. And yet, warns Bernstein, "extrinsic rewards have some downsides." If, for instance, you tell your team that everyone gets the morning off after you reach a deadline, "you're only incenting the completion of the work rather than the quality of it," he says. Instead, he recommends "placing intrinsic rewards front and center." Focus on how the project represents a "good developmental opportunity for team members," and the reasons why "working closely together" will benefit the team in the long run.

Watch for red flags
You can often judge whether or not your direct report is anxious by the expression on their face or the way they talk. "You have an ability to read people, so use it," says Bernstein. If you see that an employee is struggling, reach out. Don't "keep plowing forward" at all costs, says Lai. "The biggest red flag is when people stop talking," she says. "When your team goes quiet," it's an indication that employees "are feeling lost or overwhelmed." Talk to your team. "Ask them: What's going well and what is not going well? What do we need to pivot on? What roadblocks need to be removed?"

Be present and grateful
One final piece of advice: "be accessible," says Bernstein. Lai concurs: "Even if you do all the other things right, if you disappear behind closed doors," your leadership will be "an epic failure." You need to be consistently available. Let your employees know you have their backs. "Walk the floor and talk to people. Ask: 'Who needs help?'" Your colleagues "will value that you are present," she adds. It goes without saying that you need to express gratitude for the sacrifices they're making. Regularly say "thank you" and find small ways to show you appreciate what they're putting in. And Lai adds: "it never hurts to bring donuts."
Principles to Remember Do

Check your own emotional energy. You can't motivate your team if you're not engaged and excited about the project.

Break up the work into manageable chunks so that the overall deliverable isn't so intimidating. Milestones can focus the team.

Encourage your team members to structure their workdays in ways that maximize their productivity.

Don't

Be dishonest or sugarcoat matters. Acknowledge to your team the burden and sacrifices involved.

Ignore obvious problems. If you see that an employee is struggling, reach out. Ask: What roadblocks need to be removed?

Disappear behind closed doors. You need to be accessible and visible to your team.

Case Study #1: Project enthusiasm and communicate why the work matters
Syed Irfan Ajmal, a digital marketing entrepreneur based in Pakistan, has had a lot of experience motivating teams during crunch times.

To "do it right," he says, "you've got to know your team well. You have to know what excites them, what scares them, and what their deepest desires and biggest challenges are."

In January 2013, Syed partnered with another entrepreneur - Yasir Hussain Sheikh - on a technology startup. The two of them assembled a small team of eight people to create and license a specialized spatial intelligence product.

The product, inspired by CNN's " Magic Wall," was to help TV hosts demonstrate the results of Pakistan's elections using maps and data visualization on a multi-touch screen.

The pressure was intense - the elections were being held in May and so the team only had a few months to deliver. "We had an extremely short time period to work with," says Syed. "If we failed to build and license the product by March 2013, all our work would have been futile."

Syed and Yasir were worried about hitting the looming deadline, but they knew they needed to project positive energy to their team. Together, they reflected on what success would do for their startup and mean for Pakistan. They thought about their goals and their purpose. "What we were trying to accomplish had never been done in the country before," recalls Syed.

When they communicated the significance of the product to their team, "everything changed for the better," he says.

"My partner was very good at motivating the team by sharing his vision about what completing this project on time would mean for everyone," he says. "Yasir's passion was contagious, and did wonders for everyone's energy and enthusiasm."

Syed wasn't bashful in laying out the sacrifices involved. "I didn't use any scare tactics, but I told everyone that this project required us to work day and night," he says. "I think the team appreciated my honesty."

He and his business partner also tried to foster camaraderie and collaboration by dividing their small team into even smaller sub-teams, where each member's skills complemented those of others. That way, each team member had a say in how the work would be accomplished. "Yasir and I were always available to provide instant and constructive feedback," he says.

Ultimately, the team prevailed and was proud of their accomplishment. "We were successful and we witnessed our product being used on national TV."

Case Study #2: Think about ways to be helpful to your team and say thank you
Carl Ryden, co-founder and CEO of PrecisionLender, an AI-powered software company for commercial banks, says that the most important thing to bear in mind when motivating staff during an intense period is that the "crunch has to be anomalous."

"People can't pedal as hard as they can all day, every day," he says. "It has to be temporary. [Employees] need to trust that this isn't the norm and that [they work] for an organization that respects work-life balance."

Recently, his company - which is based in North Carolina, needed to launch the first release of its intelligent virtual assistant, Andi, within its application. "We had a deadline that we had to meet," says Carl. As the deadline drew closer, it became clear that "there was still a lot of work that needed to get done and that many of our developers were going to have to work on the weekends to do it."

Carl knew that the team was stressed - and he wanted to help in any way that he could. "I wanted to show solidarity but I also wanted to get out of their way and let them do their jobs," he says.

Carl says that if he stayed at the office alongside his team, "it would have seemed like [he] was there in a supervisory role" in need of constant "status reports." Instead, he decided to give his team autonomy. "I said, 'I trust you to get this done. And I want to make sure you have everything you need. What can I take off your plates to let you focus your attention?"

"I didn't want to make things worse."

The team appreciated his vote of confidence. Once it was over - "the team got it done on time and it turned out to be a great success" - Carl made sure to express his gratitude. "I said thank you, individually and collectively, to the team," he says. "I wanted to acknowledge their great work."

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How to Motivate Your Team During Crunch Time

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There are times when work ramps up and you need all hands on deck. Ideally you want people to jump into the work excited and enthusiastic rather than dreading what's coming. So, what can you do to rally the troops when the team's workload is particularly heavy?

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Looking to motivate your team? Don't forget the small talk.

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It was an unusual confession from a CEO. "During my last staff meeting we must have spent 40% of the time talking about nothing," Jorge said. "We were just hanging out, shooting the breeze, like the old days. It was one of the most enjoyable, productive calls we've had since we shut the office." But afterwards, he went on to say, "a few people complained."

On a call shortly after, Rose, the company's president, added her perspective. "I was not happy, and neither was our CFO, so I talked to Jorge about it," she explained. "Maybe he's got time on his hands, but I'm on Zoom 12 hours a day. Frankly, if I've got a half hour available during the day, I'd rather walk out of my home office and spend the time with my husband and kids."

Although tension always exists between time spent on the substance of a meeting and time spent socializing, most recurring meetings reach a natural balancing point - at least until the equilibrium is disrupted by a change in circumstances or in the personalities involved. Having to meet via Zoom (or one of the other platforms that now constitute our virtual conference rooms) has tipped that balance.

The loss of small talk seems to be a challenge not only for Jorge and Rose, but for many executives. We've identified two common causes:

"Gathering time" is gone. Pre-Covid, executives often had the chance to casually chat with colleagues while they grabbed coffee before a meeting started. Once at the table, these one-on-one or small group conversations sometimes continued for a while longer, perhaps spreading to the larger group before the meeting got down to business.

Today, as participants' windows pop up on the screen, it's either talk to everyone or don't talk. As a result, Zoom etiquette seems to call for meetings to get underway either on schedule or shortly after the relevant participants have signed on, depending on the culture. But the best opportunity for a team to "shoot the breeze" without impinging on meeting time - those few minutes of pre-meeting gathering time - has vanished.

Zoom fatigue is rampant. Both Jorge and Rose are energized by their jobs and the success the team has had in adapting and pivoting through Covid. But like many executives, they're exhausted from the back-to-back, morning-to-night, continuous flow of Zoom calls.

Many managers find themselves depleted of energy before their workday is over. It shouldn't be a surprise that prolonging a call unnecessarily might strike these folks as irritating, especially when they know that the moment they leave the meeting they'll be free to spend time on the other, sorely needed side of the work-life balance.

But making time for small talk is important. Jorge rightly believes that continuing his team's extraordinary level of performance depends on maintaining and growing the culture he's spent the past few years instilling in the company and among his team. Jorge's concerns are centered on creating, maintaining, and deepening individual and group relationships. He knows that quickly integrating new members into the team requires more than a series of background briefings. It involves getting to know the other members as people as well.

Those moments, for Jorge, surface during or after unstructured conversations. There's a virtue to "hanging out." It's the chit chat, the side conversations that lift emotions and promote well-being. It's one way we strengthen and deepen relationships and is critical to building high-performing teams.

How to Reintroduce Small Talk into Your Meetings

While we can't solve the problem of finding a virtual replacement for a round of golf, an afternoon's sail, or a long dinner with a few glasses of wine, we have come up with a few ways to help reinstate this important component of your meetings.

1. Make small talk an agenda item, not an afterthought.

Jorge didn't have any plan in place when he allowed a large part of his meeting to devolve into a conversation about nothing. It just happened. And the fact that it was spontaneous, while energizing and enjoyable to Jorge, turned it into an imposition for Rose and others.

Were he to do it again, Jorge might inform the team of his intent to deliberately create space for more personal, informal interactions as part of their virtual meetings. While this may seem paradoxical - planning and scheduling the casual and spontaneous - creating expectations and setting boundaries will increase the team's comfort to embrace the change.

2. Start team meetings with an individual check-in or individual icebreaker.

An activity or ice breaker at the beginning of a meeting is a timeless way to connect participants. Over the years, groups attending regularly recurring meetings, like Jorge's weekly staff meeting, often abandon icebreakers as unnecessary.

In a virtual world, beginning meetings with an icebreaker is a first step to reintroducing small talk.

One client asked each individual to take a minute and share what had been happening in their lives, both professionally and personally. She went first and modeled the tone and candor of the exercise, explaining that a loved one was ill and describing how it had affected her. Others followed suit and immediately the group felt more connected and comfortable with each other.

Alternatively, inject some fun at the beginning of their meetings. One CEO asked each team member to send along a baby picture of themselves. At the beginning of each meeting, the CEO shares one picture and asks each team member to guess who it is. This often leads to laughter and some good story telling - pretty good results for an investment of two to four minutes.

3. Introduce agenda items designed around opinions and conjecture.

Put your team on a level playing field. Occasionally bring up a discussion topic on which most people will have an opinion, use polling to get your team's individual views on the table, and then let the conversation meander.

Instead of a "conversation about nothing," Jorge should swap in a topic designed to collect opinions on broad themes or focused on creative brainstorming. These are still "talking about the business," but at a much higher altitude than the transactional, day-to-day agenda items. And because they're opinion based by design, it becomes hard for any team member to claim special expertise that overrides the opinions of the others.

A question like "When do you think the next indoor sporting event or concert with over 10,000 spectators will be held?" has, at the moment, no right answer. Fifteen minutes discussing the range of views among Jorge's team on this or a comparable topic would make a great start.

4. Leave unstructured time at the end of team meetings.

Another way to open up an opportunity for informal chatter while accommodating Rose's concerns for efficiency is simple - leave the choice up to each participant.

If Rose knows in advance that Jorge may choose to use 15-20 minutes of unallocated time at the end of his next staff meeting just to chat as a group, she can decide for herself whether to hang around. Unlike when the open conversation happened at the beginning, Rose will no longer feel ambushed, trapped on the call with no idea how long it will take to get back to business. If she needs to move on, she'll just move on. And Jorge will have an even more convivial group, knowing that everyone around the table knows they too can drift out of the conversation when needed.

Small talk is a big deal. It's time to bring this missing piece of your team's culture to the virtual world.

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Make Time for Small Talk in Your Virtual Meetings

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It was an unusual confession from a CEO. "During my last staff meeting we must have spent 40% of the time talking about nothing," Jorge said. "We were just hanging out, shooting the breeze, like the old days. It was one of the most enjoyable, productive calls we've had since we shut the office."

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The book, Dare to Lead, provides many examples for effectively leading teams to reach goals.

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Daring leadership is a collection of four skill sets that are 100% teachable, observable, and measurable. The foundational skill set of courage-building is "rumbling with vulnerability." Once we have built these rumbling skills, we can move on to the other three skill sets: Living into Our Values, Braving Trust, and Learning to Rise. Our ability to be daring leaders will never be greater than our capacity for vulnerability.

The greatest barrier to courageous leadership is not fear-it's how we respond to our fear. Our armor-the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that we use to protect ourselves when we aren't willing and able to rumble with vulnerability-move us out of alignment with our values, corrode trust with our colleagues and teams, and prevent us from being our most courageous selves.

To scale daring leadership and build courage in teams and organizations, we have to cultivate a culture in which brave work, tough conversations, and whole hearts are the expectation, and armor is not necessary or rewarded. We have to be vigilant about creating a culture in which people feel safe, seen, heard, and respected.

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Daring leadership is a collection of four skill sets that are 100% teachable, observable, and measurable. The foundational skill set of courage-building is "rumbling with vulnerability." Once we have built these rumbling skills, we can move on to the other three skill sets: Living into Our Values, Braving Trust, and Learning to Rise.

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Hoping to communicate with your team with a stand-up meeting. Learn how here.

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In today's drive to have the perfect company culture, meetings can fall under serious scrutiny. Surveys have repeatedly found that workers prefer fewer meetings, but doing business means getting together at least occasionally.

As a more casual alternative to traditional get-togethers, many startups are switching to stand-up meetings, which sets a completely different tone than seated gatherings. While "stand-ups" are a favorite among agile development teams, they're also gaining popularity among all types of teams that need an efficient way to share progress, remove roadblocks, and stay aligned.

So how do you make this format work for your team? Here are seven tips to help you get started.

1. Only meet when necessary

One common employee complaint is that many meetings could easily be replaced by an email. Consider investing in a collaboration tool that facilitates ongoing conversations between team members when it's convenient for them.

Many development teams do daily stand-ups, but you should choose a cadence that works best for your team. Try stand-ups only as needed, or have them on a weekly basis. The key is to keep them fairly short, which brings me to my next point...

2. Keep it short and sweet

At it's core, a stand-up meeting is brief. After all, the very name implies that no one is taking the time to get comfortable. Shoot for a meeting that takes 15 minutes or less, where everyone can share necessary updates without elaborating on details.

If additional information is needed, you can always follow up afterward with an email or team chat. I love this tip from Atlassian, which recommends that if you need a sidebar during a stand-up, grab a few minutes right after the meeting. The point of a stand-up is to be quick and efficient - don't ruin the flow by adding another meeting.

3. Establish a goal

It's important that everyone understand why you're having a stand-up and what's expected of them. So many non-technical stand-ups I've attended have devolved into pointless updates that no one pays attention to. Talk about a waste of time.

Make sure everyone knows the goal of the stand-up so they understand what to share and how to share it. Is your goal to keep communication flowing on a project? Provide visibility into the progress of a common goal? Prioritize tasks and resources? Come to a decision and assign next steps?

The quick stand-up format works for all types of teams and situations - just be sure everyone is on the same page and stays on-track.

4. Maintain structure

A stand-up should be informal by nature, but that doesn't mean it should be disorganized or lack focus. The meeting leader should help maintain structure and ensure no one goes off on a tangent.

Most stand-ups adhere to the following structure where everyone goes around sharing:

Progress updates

What they're working on

Blockers and challenges

But remember, you can make a stand-up whatever you need it to be! For some teams, a task-based format works best. Instead of conducting the meeting as a "round robin" the meeting agenda covers a list of projects or tasks where individuals share updates depending on what projects they're contributing to.

5. Make remote employees feel like they're there

A stand-up is a great way to keep employees feeling connected and engaged. Everyone stays informed on progress and sees how each team member is contributing to the larger goal. Don't blow it by leaving out remote employees due to bad collaboration tools. Here's what you need to make sure everyone is seamlessly connected:

Video conferencing. Everyone should be able to hear and see one another. This may involve individual webcams if everyone is remote, or video conference rooms solutions for a mix of in-office and remote employees.

Screen sharing capabilities. If you need to share something on screen, it needs to be easy to display for everyone.

An easy way to join. Joining a stand-up should be hassle-free so make sure everyone has easy access to the meeting link or can join from their mobile device if they're on the go.

6. Give everyone a chance to talk

The short nature of a stand-up meeting can make a "talking head" situation seem unavoidable. Instead, reserve a few minutes to let attendees speak, whether it's to answer questions or update team members on the progress of their projects. No one should dominate a stand-up meeting. With the short time frame, everyone needs to share high-level or important information as concisely as possible. This isn't the time to brag about how busy you are.

7. Don't skip follow-up

Whether your meeting is conducted remotely, in person, while seated, or while standing, follow-up is essential. Don't skip this important part of the process with your stand-up meetings. There are multiple ways to follow up, but the end result should be that you ensure what was discussed in the meeting moves to the next step.

Meetings are an important part of getting work done, but many employees face them with dread. Stand-up meetings can help you accomplish your goals while still upholding the casual, fun work environment you're trying to create.

Now that we've established how to get the most out of your stand-ups, consider inviting us to your next one! When your stand-ups are comprised of a mix of in-person and remote employees, you need a solution that can meet everyone where they are. GoToRoom is our all new, out-of-the-box conference room solution that makes it easy to modernize your office. State-of-the-art hardware and user-friendly video conferencing software that can be set up in less than 15 minutes, GoToRoom offers a one-stop shop for frictionless meetings.

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7 Rules for Effective Stand-Up Meetings - GoToMeeting

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In today's drive to have the perfect company culture, meetings can fall under serious scrutiny. Surveys have repeatedly found that workers prefer fewer meetings, but doing business means getting together at least occasionally. As a more casual alternative to traditional get-togethers, many startups are switching to stand-up meetings, which sets a completely different tone than seated gatherings.

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This article from the BBC describes the importance of being realistic when setting time goals for yourself or a team.

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With offices closed in nations around the world, many of us are grappling with how to stay productive and on task as we work from home. To help provide insight on how to manage this, BBC Worklife is updating some of our most popular productivity stories from our archive. This story was originally published on 4 November 2019.

"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by," the late British author Douglas Adams once famously quipped.

Most of us can empathise with this feeling of time rushing before our eyes as we struggle to complete a task. At least most of our delays are not the cause of national humiliation, but missed deadlines have led to red faces in politics on numerous occasions. Consider the Sydney Opera House. The Australian government first commissioned the project in 1958, with an expected completion date of 1963. Yet it didn't open until 1973 - 10 years late - at enormous extra cost.

Today's prominent examples include the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, Berlin's Willy Brandt Airport, and Britain's much-vaunted HS2 high-speed railway, which is now seven years behind target.

Why are we so bad at sticking to schedules? The explanation can't just be laziness or procrastination, since in many of these cases the employees were working at full productivity. Instead, psychologists tend to blame a cognitive quirk called the planning fallacy, which leads us to consistently underestimate how long it will take us to complete a project. The result is that our original deadlines are flawed from the get-go.

Whether you are managing a complex professional project, or simply trying to renovate your house, an understanding of the planning fallacy will help to ensure that you meet every goal on time.

Due to planning fallacies, the Sydney Opera House - initially budgeted at around $5 million - ended up costing nearly $70 million and was completed ten years late (Credit: Alamy)

The concept of the planning fallacy was first introduced by the Nobel Prize-winning psychologist and economist Daniel Kahneman and his collaborator Amos Tversky in the 1970s, who were inspired by the habits of their colleagues. They were surprised to note that their colleagues routinely underestimated how long a project would take to complete even after they had missed many deadlines on similar projects in the past. They weren't learning from their errors.

Surveys confirm that the planning fallacy is astonishingly common. In schools and universities, it can be seen among both staff and students. In IT, surveys suggest that fewer than one third of projects meet their initial deadline. In industrial research and design, projects take about 3.5 times as long as expected. And as Adams had noted, it is the bane of authors: informal estimates suggest that up to 90% of professional writers are late delivering their manuscripts. The planning fallacy could also help us understand why people fail to file their tax returns on time, year after year and leave Christmas shopping until it is almost too late. In each case, previous failures did not appear to improve their chances of meeting a deadline in the future.

One theory is that the planning fallacy arises from our broader tendency to focus on fine details of a scenario, rather than the big picture - what Kahneman calls "taking the inside view". As a freelance writer setting out the schedule for an assignment, for instance, I might start to tot up all the people I need to call, the papers I need to read and the places I need to visit. Since those particular factors will be different from assignment to assignment, I may not see my previous experiences as being relevant for this particular project.

The problem is that our failures to meet deadlines often come from less predictable, more general factors - such as new distractions from other tasks, difficulties with travel or gaining the necessary supplies, or illness - that could all contribute to a delay. It's these kinds of difficulties that probably caused us to miss deadlines in the past - and recognising that fact could help us to pre-empt some of those issues in the future. By focusing too much on the highly specific details of our current task and ignoring our past experiences, however, we fail to take those possibilities into account.

When we confidently tell ourselves that suppliers are going to be more reliable this time around, that's motivated reasoning doing the talking (Credit: Alamy)

This tendency may be exacerbated by " motivated reasoning" - we often look only for the evidence that suits our goals, and it is often within our interests to feel that a project can be completed quickly and with less effort, leading us to ignore or dismiss clues that it might take longer. We could tell ourselves that all our suppliers will be more reliable this time, or the transport problems that set us back last time were a one off, because we want to feel confident that the project will go more smoothly this time.

Motivated reasoning could be a particular problem in businesses where people could be rewarded for unrealistically short deadlines, which might explain why it is particularly rife in IT. "It could be something to do with the need to be competitive to secure contracts and thus underestimating the costs involved when tendering," says Kevin Thomas at the University of Bournemouth in the UK. Note that this does not necessarily involve deliberate deception: thanks to motivated reasoning, people could easily be fooling themselves rather than consciously pulling the wool over their clients' eyes.

An understanding of the planning fallacy can explain why even our best attempts at time management can sometimes backfire. In a 2003 study, a group of Canadian undergraduates were asked to make detailed plans to execute tasks such as their Christmas shopping. Against expectation, their time estimates were even more unrealistic than people who had not put together a schedule. The problem was that they were still focusing on the more specific tasks to complete, rather than all those less-predictable distractions and challenges that might prevent them from carrying out those duties on time. Their detailed plans had simply given them a false sense of security.

Clearly, these were fairly simple tasks, and if you are embarking on a complex project, it will still be essential to unpack the necessary steps. Research by Katherine Milkman at the University of Pennsylvania and Leslie John at Harvard Business School, for example, shows that setting "implementation intentions" can reduce procrastination and increase the chance that people will follow through with their plans.

Haven't started Christmas shopping yet? Be sure to lay out the specific tasks and potential challenges before hitting the markets (Credit: Alamy)

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Constantly late with work? Blame the planning fallacy

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With offices closed in nations around the world, many of us are grappling with how to stay productive and on task as we work from home. To help provide insight on how to manage this, BBC Worklife is updating some of our most popular productivity stories from our archive.

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This test is similar to the Myers Briggs Personality Test.

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Follow this link to learn more about Strengths Finder and take the assessment.

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Learn how the CliftonStrengths assessment -- formerly StrengthsFinder -- empowers organizations, managers and millions of people to succeed.

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Here is a project charter template from NYU that you can download into Microsoft Word.

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This link reviews the key components of a project charter

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What's in a project charter

There are several components in a complete project charter:

Basics: Include the completion date, details about who's leading the project, and the name of the project.

Project goals: Detail the desired outcome. If possible, explain why stakeholders chose that target.

Stakeholders: Define stakeholder roles in the project. For example, explain whether they're actively involved or beneficiaries. List anyone who can approve or request changes to the project charter.

Customers: List all customers who will receive a product or service from this project and their relative share of investment. Collect information from customers. Different customers may expect varied things from a project, so write down the most important expectations of each customer.

Project managers and staff: List every staff member and their role in the project.

Previous p rocess: This section is only necessary if the current project extends a process. It outlines goals and results of the previous process. For example, you can include unmet metrics or standards.

Process: The process section is an important part of the project charter. This section should clearly define the process that you plan to implement in order to meet each part of the project's main goals. Everyone should clearly understand what's happening with the project and how it will help improve metrics. If this section follows a previous process section, make sure you emphasize a clear contrast that shows how the new approach will be different and bring about better results.

Risk: There is always some risk in undertaking a project. The possibilities include wasted money, wasted time for staff or unsatisfactory outcomes for customers. There may also be broader risks if the project fails, such as damage to clients or the company. Outline these risks and what the team intends to do to mitigate them or prevent them altogether.

Timeline and expected expenses: An experienced project manager should structure the project timeline and budget.

Signatures: Like any legally-binding document, a project charter is not complete until it has the signatures of all stakeholders. It's best practice to obtain original signatures. If you must use photocopied or scanned signatures, this should be agreed upon by all stakeholders.

Related: 10 Recruiting Strategies for Hiring Great Employees
Advantages of creating a project charter

A project charter can improve:

Clarity

Communication

Understanding of individual roles

Without a project charter, the project lacks direction. Customers, stakeholders, project managers and staff may all have different visions or expectations for the project. You can prevent miscommunications and misaligned expectations by having everyone review and contribute to the project charter upfront.

A project charter can also stand as a contract. Since it defines everyone's responsibilities and the agreed-upon outcome, there's less room for debate about whether parties meet their obligations.

Project charter FAQs

Here are some commonly asked questions about project charters:

Can a project charter be changed?

Project charters can be updated if there's a major change in scope, a change to the organization, or a process that isn't working. The board should approve all updates. If you need to change one or more elements of your project charter, discuss with all stakeholders and project members.

Who develops a project charter?

Creating a project charter is a job that a good project manager should be able to handle. If it's a particularly large project, you may benefit from putting more than one project manager in charge. Input from various stakeholders can also help make the project charter a success.

What's the difference between a project charter and a project plan?

A project charter defines the objectives and expected roles of everyone in a project. It's the formal document that project managers present to stakeholders to get official approval on their proposal. A project plan outlines roles and milestones.

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What is a Project Charter? Key Components

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There are several components in a complete project charter: Basics: Include the completion date, details about who's leading the project, and the name of the project. Project goals: Detail the desired outcome. If possible, explain why stakeholders chose that target. Stakeholders: Define stakeholder roles in the project.

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This link has a Google Doc which you can download as a project charter template

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Project charter template, sample and examples | Casual.PM Toolkit

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We suggest using the following sections:
1. Background
Give a straightforward answer to the question: 'why are you doing this project?'
Describe what problem it solves and what gave you the opportunity to make your idea a reality. Try to articulate this section as if you're trying to hire a complete stranger and you need to briefly explain the basic elements of your project.
2. Goals
Describe what goals you are going to achieve and when. It's crucial that your goals be specific and measurable (SMART). For example, "Significantly increase customer satisfaction level" is a bad goal because it's up to interpretation as to whether or not you've met it. However, "Increase retention rate from 5% till 10% by the end of 2015" is a good one.

It's essential that upon reading over your goals you clearly understand what you consider to be a successful part of your project and how you measure that.
3. Scope
What product, service, or result do you expect to get from this project? What actions will your team take to undertake the project?

It's also important to mention what your team will not do. For example, your end product is "a new website for a public library". You will develop and design it. But will you test it, set it up or fill this site with content? Try to make it absolutely clear what you are going to do and what you aren't. It helps you eliminate any confusion in the future.
4. Key Stakeholders
Make a list of people involved in your project. Some sort of who is who in it: PM, sponsor, client, and team members. If you don't know the names of individuals, list the title of the required position and department.

5. Project Milestones
Establish significant dates of your project: start date, end date, invoicing dates. It's important to understand that these dates are merely guesses. When writing the charter you don't have firm dates yet.
6. Project Budget
Make a note of the main project expenses. Treat them as rough estimations. Try to make note of non-recurring and monthly recurring costs separately.
7. Constraints, Assumptions, Risks and Dependencies.
Constraints:

These are the limiting factors that impact your project in a particular way. For example, when developing a new website the number of available programmers and technical limitations (platform, coding language, etc.) must be considered.

Assumptions:

Factors that you are relying on in order to succeed in your project. These factors are considered to be true but without including proof. A few assumptions: contractors will be paid without delay and your client will test the website.

Risks:

Anything that might get in the way of you and your team when you're trying to accomplish your project goals. Make sure to carefully weigh in on this point and clearly articulate the risks. A few examples:

Tight timeframe. The deadline doesn't allow for any force majeure circumstances

Part of the team are volunteers with no-money motivation -which may mean that you'll have to find and train new project participants.

Technical risks: i.e. part of the platform where you're planning on setting up your website may be open-source and may not be updated.

Dependencies:

An absolutely essential part of the project. For a new website, it'd be client-driven content.

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Project charter template, sample and examples | Casual.PM Toolkit

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We suggest using the following sections: 1. Background Give a straightforward answer to the question: 'why are you doing this project?'Describe what problem it solves and what gave you the opportunity to make your idea a reality. Try to articulate this section as if you're trying to hire a complete stranger and you need to briefly explain the basic elements of your project.