Accelerating projects by encouraging help

• Autores: Fabian J. Sting, Christoph H. Loch, Dirk Stempfhuber
• Localización: MIT Sloan management review, ISSN 1532-9194, Vol. 56, Nº 3, 2015, págs. 33-41
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This article examines the difficulties of project planning and execution and describes a management innovation at Roto Frank, a German company that produces hardware for industrial and residential windows and doors. Roto, headquartered in Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Germany, has augmented its project control system with a formal help process that encourages workers to seek and provide mutual assistance. We found that Roto's help process achieved a measurable improvement in project cycle time without changing formal incentives or other management systems. The initiative's success is based largely on two factors: establishing psychological safety, and encouraging cooperative behavior by emphasizing interdependence among workers. Because of its flexibility, we argue that this help process has the potential to accelerate projects in many environments