Comments on: How to Give the Project Team Just Enough “Pressure” http://jrothman.com/blog/mpd/2007/10/how-to-give-the-project-team-just-enough-pressure.html Management, especially good management, is hard to do. This blog is for people who want to think about how they manage people, projects, and risk. Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:03:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Frank http://jrothman.com/blog/mpd/2007/10/how-to-give-the-project-team-just-enough-pressure.html/comment-page-1#comment-657 Frank Thu, 04 Oct 2007 19:18:06 +0000 http://jrothman.com/blog/mpd/2007/10/how-to-give-the-project-team-just-enough-pressure.html#comment-657 There is no better pressure than social pressure. The "Student Syndrome" happens because the student doesn't feeling any shame because nobody notices he is late/lazy or nobody cares. So to overcome the student syndrome, a project must have a social structure that makes those "lazy bastards" visible. A daily standup-meeting may be a way to do it. If you have to explain every day why you didn't do what you said you would do yesterday, then there is a certain amount of shame/exposure. This may be sufficient to keep most of the people focussed and active. There is no better pressure than social pressure. The “Student Syndrome” happens because the student doesn’t feeling any shame because nobody notices he is late/lazy or nobody cares.

So to overcome the student syndrome, a project must have a social structure that makes those “lazy bastards” visible. A daily standup-meeting may be a way to do it. If you have to explain every day why you didn’t do what you said you would do yesterday, then there is a certain amount of shame/exposure. This may be sufficient to keep most of the people focussed and active.

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