Accelerating Projects by Encouraging Help

Organizations often try to accelerate product introduction cycles by
prioritizing project delivery. However, many projects have two characteristics that make
optimal delivery times elusive: The projects tend to involve uncertainty (for example, they
develop a new product function whose feasibility has not yet been established); and the
workers have information about the status of their tasks that many don’t share. Behavioral
issues are as important in project timeliness as diligent planning. This article examines
the difficulties of project planning and execution and describes a management innovation at
Roto Frank, a German company that produces hardware for industrial and residential windows
and doors. Roto, headquartered in Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Germany, has augmented its
project control system with a formal help process that encourages workers to seek and
provide mutual assistance. The authors found that Roto’s help process achieved a measurable
improvement in project cycle time without changing formal incentives or other management
systems. Its success is based largely on two factors: establishing psychological safety and
encouraging cooperative behavior among workers by emphasizing their interdependence. The
authors argue that this help process has the potential to accelerate projects in many
environments. In developing a project planning and monitoring system that encouraged project
workers to reveal private information about their tasks, Roto did not rely on financial
incentives. Indeed, the authors note that incentives don’t need to be monetary or career
focused; they can be social and geared toward building positive relationships. Without fears
of being blamed for problems, workers were more inclined to call for help rather than
procrastinating or passing latent issues on to the next project worker. The article examines
how the formal components of a project management system interact with mutual relationships
and psychological safety in promoting project success and which combinations of managerial
actions are most likely to succeed at harnessing behavioral tendencies. It describes a
system that works and shows how psychological safety and mutual reciprocity can be
incorporated into a fully implemented system. Collaborative problem solving does not imply
that project problems and task uncertainty are eliminated altogether, only that solutions
can be found more effectively.