High Performing Business – Project Teams – Productivity
Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT
Doing a 5’s activity with your project team is a great team building activity to improve everyone’s productivity.
I’m a big fan of using the Japanese technique of the 5 S’s to improve productivity with my project teams. The 5 S’s are a way to get your workspace organized. Do these tasks in the following order:
1. Sort – this means go through and get rid of things you don’t use. You also can remove those items in your work space that you don’t need right at your finger tips.
2. Set in Order – make sure everything you need for your day to day work is in the places right where you need them.
3. Shine – set up your workspace so it’s clean and is easy to keep clean.
4. Standardize – people who follow standard routines with starting and ending their days tend to be more productive. Distractions are the biggest productivity losses so having a standard process to shift into a working mindset can create a more productive environment.
5. Sustain – entropy is a natural state of affairs (it’s how our offices get so chaotic in the first place). Taking a few minutes every day to keep your workspace tidy and organized pays off in big productivity dividends long term.
Transitions are a great time to implement the 5 S strategy with your project team. Some transitions where you can take a few hours to implement the 5 S with your project team are:
- when the days get longer and warmer (the reason for our “spring cleaning” rituals)
- when we move to new office space.
- when we add or lose a team member
Cheetah students love the 40 hour online course PM of Spring Cleaning where they learn how to implement the 5 S strategy in either their home or their work environment to improve both their personal or professional productivity.
