Team Productivity

You are probably not working in isolation

There is a plethora of books and tools on how to be (more) productive. It’s a pretty safe bet to say you have already read or used at least one of them.

The multitude and variety of productivity systems is astounding. There seems a whole array of ways to approach this problem. Alas, all of these systems seem to have one thing in common.

It’s About You, Personally, Getting More Done

Most, if not all of what you find is aimed at personal productivity. It is self-help, or rather self-management.

Have a look at some of Amazon’s top sellers from those categories:

  • Time Management from the Inside Out: The Foolproof System for Taking Control of Your Schedule--and Your Life by Julie Morgenstern
  • Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen
  • To-Do List Makeover: A Simple Guide to Getting the Important Things Done by S.J. Scott
  • Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
  • Time Warrior: How to defeat procrastination, people-pleasing, self-doubt, over-commitment, broken promises and … by Steve Chandler
  • Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy
  • Time Management Made Easy: Become more productive and get things done stress free! (Procrastination Self Help) by Tiffany Barker
  • Time Management: Increase Your Personal Productivity And Effectiveness by Harvard Business School Press
  • … the list goes on.

I won’t comment on the metaphors used in productivity systems. Let’s focus on this: It’s all about you; the personal productivity gurus are teaching ambitious (or stressed out) people to get more done.

Team Productivity

So what about the team? What about the relations and dependencies of working within and with a group of people? Does team productivity simply consist of a bunch of properly self-organized people who work on a project? I guess not.

I have yet to see a proper productivity system designed for, and used by, a team of people. There are project management methodologies, agile, waterfall, you name it. I have worked with SCRUM. It has an interesting, and agile, structure.

A project management methodology is concerned with coordinating work and getting assignments done on time.

There are roles and responsibilities. It’s about how ideas get captured and prioritized – and about managing resources.

But what makes team productive as a team?

TightOps isn’t really a “productivity system for teams”, although I often call it that when explaining it to people in person. In fact, the terms “framework” and “communication protocol” are a better fit, but they also sound a bit more theoretical and technical.

But, sorting out what goes where and how to communicate effectively with and within a group of people is a huge win for your team’s productivity. So yes, following TightOps certainly improves any team’s productivity.

So I think TightOps is the missing link between personal productivity systems and project management. It fills a gap to directly link the one with the other.