| I agree with what russell says, systemic discipline or the lack of it could be a problem here. Try this: Have 1)long term deadlines, (Quarterly?) 2)mid term deadlines (Monthly?) 3)short term deadlines (Weekly?) At least on a weekly basis, review the deadlines and tasks with the team/functional leaders, and see if there are any issues that would prevent any of the deadlines from being met. If there are such issues, then brainstorm for solutions and then follow up. Keep following up on fixed schedules and keep asking for reasons if any of the deadlines are not being met. In fact, a better idea would be to let the team decide on the deadlines and commit themselves to delivering them. If they are too loose, push for tighter deadlines (over time anybody would develop a good sense of judging the deadlines - if they are too loose). That can make them push themselves hard when required to deliver by their own deadlines and they do get a sense of achievement. And do your part to be the facilitator, to help them reach those deadlines. It could mean to provide hard resources, soft resources, to iron out political problems, to be a cheerleader, a hard driver/nudger, be a sounding board or whatever you need to be to help them deliver those deliverables. Other than the work/task ownership aspect, another reason why I prefer this approach is, often the ones with hands on experience are the ones best qualified to estimate the effort required. At least thats the way I prefer to work. Keeps the management time overhead low too (relatively) |