{"id":287590,"date":"2023-06-01T16:18:35","date_gmt":"2023-06-01T16:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/project.co\/?p=287590"},"modified":"2024-06-07T11:11:49","modified_gmt":"2024-06-07T11:11:49","slug":"team-productivity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/project.co\/team-productivity\/","title":{"rendered":"17 Ways to Seriously Improve Team Productivity (2024)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Last updated on 7th June 2024<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For creative teams – productivity is perhaps THE key driver of success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sure, ideas and inspiration are super important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the ability to turn around great work at scale <\/em>and get the work done<\/strong> is one of the most prized skills in any creative industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how do you go about unlocking high levels of team productivity?  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frankly, it relies on a potent blend of motivation, efficiency, communication and automation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stick around, and we\u2019ll share 17 actionable tips for unlocking serious productivity gains <\/em>in your team!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Goals<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Just as a journey begins with a clear destination…so productivity begins with being clear about exactly what you want to achieve.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a clear correlation between goal-setting and productivity. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n <\/i>Statistic\n<\/div>\n
\n Even without financial incentives – goal-setting improves worker performance by 12 to 15%.<\/strong>\n
\n Source: <\/strong>Science Direct<\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

Goals keep your team on-task, enthused about what they\u2019re trying to achieve, and motivated to do their best work.\u00a0And the best goals aren’t based around outcomes (that you can’t control) but instead based on actions (that you can <\/em>control). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, instead of your goal being ‘get 5,000 subscribers on our brand YouTube channel<\/em>‘, it should be something like ‘Post YouTube videos twice a week for one year<\/em>.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is something you have complete control over and will naturally help you grow your subscriber count. It’s something that your team can be held accountable for and can feel excited about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One goal-setting model that distils this idea nicely is OKRs.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"OKR<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a great way to make people entirely accountable for their own \u2018part\u2019 of what you\u2019re trying to achieve, in a very numerical, quantifiable, binary way.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n <\/i>Recommended Article\n<\/div>\n
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\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n <\/div>\n
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How to Write OKRs + 7 Top OKR Examples<\/a><\/div>\n
It\u2019s actually quite easy to get started with OKRs. So allow us to explain what OKRs are and give you some useful examples to get you started.<\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

2. Give ownership<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of the key ways to help people be more productive is to give them ownership of projects – and decision-making power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This removes layers of decision-making bureaucracy, stops people waiting for input from higher-ups, and can improve their satisfaction by giving them agency to pull \u2018levers\u2019 and make things happen in their role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also gives them more control over their performance and greater room to shine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting used to \u2018owning\u2019 projects and making decisions isn\u2019t always easy for less senior team members and can cause its own problems.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n <\/i>Our Insight\n<\/div>\n
\n A good way to empower less confident team members to make decisions is, when they do come to ask for help, before offering your opinion, turn questions back onto them: if they ask you what they should do, get them to tell you what they think <\/em>they should do.\u00a0

More often than not, it\u2019ll be the right thing – building their confidence and empowering them to start to make decisions without asking.

If you\u2019d prefer a different course of action, you can explain that in a positive way.\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

3. Systemise your process<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Systems and processes create repeatability, consistency, allow less room for mistakes – and build a structure within which people can do their best work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, when creating animated videos through our sister brand Wyzowl<\/a>, process is absolutely at the heart of everything we do and ensures our projects keep moving forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without our process, creating our product as efficiently as we do simply wouldn\u2019t be possible. Things would take so much longer and be so much messier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Start by breaking your overall work into the constituent parts. For example, when we create a video, it requires…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Script > Storyboard > Animation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At each of these stages, create guidelines for:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n – Who\u2019s involved?
– How long do they have to work on the project?
– What happens when a project starts? (e.g. is there a kick off call? A creative meeting?)
– What\u2019s required of them in order to get to the next stage?
– What happens when a project\u2019s ready to move forward? (e.g. is there a handover meeting? A debrief?)\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

Fixed turnarounds, clear processes and best practices aren\u2019t particularly sexy <\/em>but they can quickly become the lifeblood of your company. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And – far from being something that inhibits or limits our creativity in any way – our process is one of our key selling points. It\u2019s something we passionately talk about to our customers, because it simply reduces friction, re-work and wasted time. It makes our lives – and, more importantly, our customers\u2019 lives – that much easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Wyzowl<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

4. Smash information silos<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In any project that involves a number of people, information silos can quickly become a problem<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What that means in simple terms is:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n – People doing incorrect work based on having insufficient\/inaccurate info.\u00a0
– People spending time digging around for files they need.\u00a0
– Friction between teams and customers based on miscommunication or crossed wires.\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

In a world where everyone seems to have their own system <\/em>for working – their own way of organising and sharing files, their own private communication systems, their own paper to-do lists – it\u2019s so easy for things to become   disorganised!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the keys here is to use a dedicated Project Management system. Tools like Project.co<\/a> are very much designed as an antidote to the information silos that kill team productivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each project on Project.co brings together the people who are collaborating on a project or piece of work, and gives them a central set of tools to keep that project organised: a unified discussion feed, file sharing, a \u2018Notes\u2019 section for important info, and powerful but simple \u2018Tasks\u2019 that can be allocated to people, assigned dates and statuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As well as this, you can also use things like Google Drive – with a clearly organised file system that\u2019s explained to every new person you hire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Above all it\u2019s about consistency: get people signed on to one unified way of working <\/em>and you\u2019ll avoid so much hassle down the road!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Encourage time blocking<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important to preface this point by saying there are a LOT of time management techniques out there – time blocking<\/a> may or may not be the right thing for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s certainly one worth trying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time blocking came to our attention in the book Deep Work <\/em>by Cal Newport. The book refers to a variety of ways to \u2018divide up\u2019 your day\/week according to different tasks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it estimates that a 40 hour time-blocked work week, produces the same amount of output as a 60+ hour work week without structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you and your team spend a lot of time on \u2018reactive\u2019 stuff like checking your inbox, replying to Slack messages, or unproductive meetings, this is a good thing to look into – although it takes some thought to make it work across your organisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out the video below to find out more: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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