Productivity improvement is a natural result of proper planning and tracking.

1. Plan out all key tasks
   1. To be productive we have to plan
   2. Plan the who, what, when, where and how
      1. As a Project Manager / Business Owner it’s your job to make sure your teams have the tools they need
   3. Communicate your plans
2. Tracking and benchmarking triggers the improvement process
   1. If you want to improve something you have to measure it
      1. “What gets measured, gets managed.” – Peter Drucker
   2. Measure and track key tasks – don’t over complicate the process
   3. Establish benchmarks and work as a team to improve
3. Start with the fundamentals and go from there
   1. If you do the first two things properly, productivity will naturally improve
   2. Make further strides by working with your teams and setting clear expectations of improvement
      1. Let you teams now that Status Quo is not what we are looking for
   3. Introduce gamification – create friendly competition – get everyone involved – they will enjoy it and get a sense of pride when they best their previous numbers

To successfully meet our schedules we must monitor and adjust productivity.

1. Putting a target on paper is just the start
   1. If you plan to finish a task by next Friday you can’t wait until Thursday to determine if you are going to make it
   2. You have to monitor and track progress along the way
   3. This allows for adjustments
2. To stay on schedule you have to track the productivity
   1. Many projects get into crisis mode as the time runs low for a task because they didn’t track things along the way
   2. Want to complete a task by next Friday then figure out how much needs to get done each day
   3. I am taking a course that I want to complete in 3 weeks, I sat down this morinng and outlined how much I need to do every day to reach my goal – do the same for your project tasks
3. Putting it into practice
   1. Start with a good 3-week look-ahead schedule
   2. Choose a couple of key tasks that will drive the schedule
   3. Based on the task, determine the best way to track it – SF / LF / Rooms / Areas
   4. Start tracking the first day – make adjustments along the way to be sure and reach your milestones

Today we have a guest Coachcast. Todd Dawalt of Construction Leading Edge is here to give us some tips on getting people to do stuff.

You can find out more about Todd’s podcast at http://www.constructionleadingedge.com/

Or you can find his podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. Be sure to subscribe to his podcast, you are going to want to add it to your toolbox.