Getting time on your side

Time is a hot-button topic teams discuss when they’re using Teamworks to map the forces working for and against them. That’s probably because time can be a team’s secret weapon or its worst enemy. It all depends on how you approach it. Unfortunately, teams who feel most pressed for time rarely hit pause to think about how time is being used — and how it might be better used. If you want to get time on your side, slow down just long enough to ask yourself the following questions: • Are we setting deadlines and constraining time in an effective way? • Are we investing enough time to produce the outcomes we want, or are we starving the work? • Are we paying attention to how people are using their time, and whether they’re getting the best return on that time? • What are the symptoms when we’re not using time to our advantage? What does it feel like, individually and for the team? • What’s an example of a team that uses time effectively, and what could we learn from them?