What would you be willing to do to improve your employees’ experience?
Most leaders I’ve known will place ‘employee experience’ ator near the top of their list of priorities.
Most leaders I’ve known recognize that pizza parties andStanley Cups don’t count.
Most leaders I’ve known don’t have unilateral authority togive everyone a 10% raise, or extra PTO.
There are other ways to positively impact your project teams’ lives!
The most glowing positive feedback I ever received as a leader was during my time at Crown Castle working on DISH’s 5G deployment.
For the first time in company history, we implemented a full-scale project planning process.
- We created a Project Charter that set our project goals and contractual obligations in stone.
- We laid out even the smallest tasks needed to achieve those goals and assigned ownership of each in a RACI Matrix.
- We led the entire organization in a scheduling process to make sure we laid out the most efficient path from start to finish.
- We documented and approved resource needs and production expectations within each vertical.
- We memorialized the plan and created reporting to monitor each commitment.
This planning process created a stable framework like we’dnever had before.
It was within this framework that my deployment teamexperienced some of their greatest success! (I moved into an operational leadership role after leading the planning process. Cool experience.)
Executing under this plan, our team:
1. Delivered best-in-class performance in forecast accuracy and cycle time.
2. Helped one of our markets deliver its own best-in-class performance.
3. Received numerous hand-written thank you letters from our customers.
4. Earned promotions and bonuses they could take home to their families.
Believe me, this project had its challenges. All projects do. And yet, even during the difficult weeks, our team’s energy was through the roof.
This experience radically shaped how I thought about the 'employee experience’. It wasn’t the “pizza parties” that improved morale. Or the virtual happy hours. For us, it was:
- Each teammate knew what to do when they logged on each morning (We had a weekly cadence of meetings, updates, reports, and emails that we followed closely).
- Each teammate knew who to lean on when they needed help (Each task had a clear owner who was empowered to fix what was broken).
- Each teammate knew exactly what success looked like in the numbers (our reporting was live, actionable, and tied to customer outcomes).
- Each teammate knew they would be rewarded for winning!
Project Planning can transform your organization!
If you’re looking for ways to invest in your employees’ experiences, I want to help.
My firm can leverage these experiences and guide your organization in Planning. Having a foundational structure for project execution can give your teams the same stability and control we experienced.
Connect with me when you’re ready to make that investment!
