AllIn your experience, what has been the best way to motivate a consulting team that are stuck on a long engagement that doesn't have a big list of interesting deliverables that need completing and one that people can't escape for at least a few more months...

Wire quotes at the ready!

judging by most places I've worked at, fear of being fired tends to be the preferred motivational toolcan you offer them flex-time or a bonus or something?

You need to go and get that Ned guy from the BBC Call Centre TV Programme... heheheBut on a serious note;- Bushy is partly right, if people start moaning too much then they better remember that they are the ones who wanted to join an MC and this is part and parcel of it- "Outside work" engagement. I think it becomes even more important to have a great Partner and Senior Mangt team who actively encourage everyone to do more things outside the working hours. Paid for drinks and dinners is the usual but I would also encourage more. Comedy club, Theatre, Go Karting, etc, anything that makes them look forward to something other than a boring assignment and next day of work- Partner and Senior Mangt self belief. Even though everyone knows the work is lame, there has to be a Leadership team in place that looks the team in the eye and says that this is important, what you are doing is valuable and needed by the client. If you all treat it like cr@p, thats what you will get in the end- Encouragement, positive feedback. Make sure they know they are doing a good job, constructive criticism where needed and be positive. You set the tone. They may find the work a solid 5 out of 10, but they get instant feedback on things when going wellI always think this type of work means that the Mangt team has to be that much stronger. You have to help the team to get through it. I would try and ensure the team meetings are more than just zzzzzz downloads and you take an active interest in getting more outings at night.

let them go home on timeensure that "optional" activities after work are just that - remember, most folk prefer to spend time with their families but often feel pressurised into spending yet more time with work colleagues if they feel that it is expected of them (I mean, really, who wants to spend Friday nights talking shop with colleagues over a glass of wine!). turn Friday evening drinks into Friday AFTERNOON drinks so that people can still go home on time. evening drinks are somewhat of a con, I for one value my personal time more than the £5 or so it costs for a glass of winelet the young folk wear their ipods as they do their typing and suchlikelet them not wear ties, or dress informallybe nice to them, supportive and caring - they are our future after allbe straight with them - say "do a good job and do it fast then we can all go home". if they can get the work done (properly and as verified by yourself) by 4pm, tell them they can go home at 4pm and not have to feel guilty. what you don't want are people hanging around the office, checking ebay and Hotmail until 10pm every day and pretending to be busy even though they could have been done by 4pm.

Bushy,Good points but I think we are coming from different angles - mine is in realtion to people working on not so great projects that are [b]away[/b] from home...Yours are more related to everyone being able to go home each day. Off course if its London based and all of the team live there, then Bushy is totally right.But when they are all in Liverpool and whole team is Edinburgh/London based (for example), then I think outings and doing things play a bigger role while staying at a bland hotel

When away with a team, I always have a few rules:Team dinner - every night. Everyone makes it, no exceptions. If workload is horrendous, it's kept short and sweet; if not, it's a bottle of wine between every 2 people. Starts at 6.30, ends at 8.30 with a "now go and call your families". Client attends at least once per week you're away. The dinner starts as all business - what went well today, what didn't, what do we need to nail tomorrow. And everyone else inputs before the manager/partner (if on site) who take notes. Once everyone had cleared the air, onto other topics.Also, last night away is always a quiet one so you can get in early the next time and ensure you're aware on time (if not a little early).If away for 1 month +, team members are rewarded with half days on Fridays if targets are reached (key deliverables achieved, client satisfaction etc).Formal Client meetings are held with project owner/sponsor daily - what went well yesterday, what didn't. These are fed back to team (individual problems are discussed in person, group problems in the round).Lots and lots of food - doughnuts, lunch (pizza/curry/team member choice). Obscure online purchases as well - we once ordered (for a 5 man team on site for a month) 5 different stress balls a day for the first 2 weeks. And threw them at each other when the brown stuff hit the fan. Client thought we were mad but it got us through it.Finally - every member of staff on site is personally thanked at the end of every day.Treat the team like people and they'll reward you back with excellent work. Treat them like slaves and you'll get a rubbish outcome.

Also, make sure you take on the right sort of work in the first place. If the language of the moment is how the team will "get through it", then one might question why you took on such crap work in the first place. Maybe you have been able to charge a premium or it's a nice profitable job - in which case, give the team a bonus so that there's something meaningful in it for them (as opposed to being greedy and not financially acknowledging their extra input)? As a junior, there's nothing worse than seeing the partners profit to the tune of an extra £100k thanks to the grief you had to endure, while all you benefit from are a couple of slices of cold pizza that you had to eat in the office, a dollop of silly putty and an empty "cheers and have a nice life" at the end of the project from some senior associate who gets to go back home to his 5 bed house in Hertfordshire while you return to your flat share in Elephant & Castle.

[quote]Team dinner - every night. Everyone makes it, no exceptions. If workload is horrendous, it's kept short and sweet; if not, it's a bottle of wine between every 2 people. Starts at 6.30, ends at 8.30 with a "now go and call your families". Client attends at least once per week you're away. [/quote]This would have annoyed the hell out of me personally - doing the daily download is part of work and can be done on site. People shouldn't feel like they have to do a team dinner every night. If they are on a rubbish project, they should at least be afforded the ability to get in a good work-out, see a movie and Skype with friends and family.Personally I would re-think this one...Dylan

Agree with Dylan.Sounds like the kind of thing where you THINK you are doing everyone a favour when in fact you are not.Nothing wrong with that, MCs use night time for work all the time, but don't try to hide it.I would be looking at the manager in question and thinking of a particular word, it starts with a very big "c" and finishes with a huge "k"Totally understand if your compulsory dinner was at the start of the week (or twice in a week absolute max if something big was about to happen) but every day, jeez this is very weak mangt who doesn't trust his own consultants...

I can't imagine anything worse than a compulsory meal every night while away...once per week, fine.

Yeah, I for one would want to have a nice long soak in the bath, FaceTime the family, take a dump and watch "police, camera, action" in my underpants rather than donning my evening dress and feigning enthusiasm over a bottle of wine with some personality-devoid co-workers (i'm not talking about you here btw!) about some 'gritty' issues arising from some process map interviews I did that day.

You have it all wrong BEP. You're supposed to plan bowel movements to occur while on client site.Assume 10 minutes per, 4 days a week and 40 working weeks - over the course of a year it's equivalent to billing 3 days, just to dispose of that awesome Hilton breakfast.Now there's a good case study!

Gosh, you're right... I [i]really[/i] like your way of thinking!

Dylan,Can you approve my Change Request to your "3 days billing process", it is asking for us to extend it due to addition of [i]weeing[/i]? I would say we stick to the "3 shakes and stop" rule as part of the BRD (Bushy, this stands for Business Requirements Doc).

Motivating?Easy! Tell me the mix of the group (male/female, level, etc.) and your location and I'll tell you where to go to "send spirits soaring" :D

LOL! Guys like you are the reason I stay in consulting... you crack me up ;-) Gotta love the use of italics too!

Oh I don't know BEP, [i]italics[/i] is a bit like the ability to speak French?Looks pretty but noone really uses it anymore!?! Well, unless you are at the Olympics at which point you listen to the English speaker and ignore the rest?

Dylan, BEP, Anon-MCI'd agree that there is some flex on dinner dependent on the size of team you're working with. A 2/3 person team doesn't need a long dinner every night - but as the team grows the manager loses the ability to complete their own workload, catch-up with the client, get around the team during work hours to pick up the end-of-day brain-dump, hear the 'gossip' that teams often generate at clients and to make sure that everyone knows where the assignment is and is going. Worth pointing out that I'm mostly refering to work with 5+ team members on site for more than 2 weeks (which are the times when team motivation matters the most - long projects timescales = timetable slippage, IMO).I disagree that this discussion should be part of 'normal' working hours, mostly because, in my experience, what is said can be a bit raw if things are going wrong and so should be kept off the client's site. I've been in positions where managers have held daily catch-ups on site, only for the client to walk in half-way through to an awkward silence (and then there's a (now-ex) colleague's story when a client heard a 'blue-air-rant' when walking past the door... that didn't end well). It's not a question of not trusting the rest of the team but, as I see it, wanting to show them the big picture and giving them the opportunity to input into the direction of the project. But very interesting comments - thanks! Good to reflect on different views.

I did a project in Paris once. On the first day the French team were chatting to me in English. The big boss client came in and said "bonjour". I said "bonjour, comment allez vous ce matin?".The team gasped "you speak French"I said "Oui, donc pas trop de betise"Then we spoke English for three months

I did one in Blackpool once and it was hilarious.in the deal review I put 6k for entertainment for team of 20 and expenses @ something like 150 quid a night. In reality the Hilton which was the most expensive was 60 quid a night and a posh meal was 20 quid a head with booze (remember this is Blackpool). It was a multi million pound deal and spent a year pissed. Final straw was the Marilyn Monroe night at the Hilton (Avon ladies) black cocktail dresses and blonde wigs and a seemingly never ending budget of pints at a quid. I remember taking some photos and sending them back to the London office saying how tough things were. Strangely we were also most profitable engagement that year.DC

Ah...those blissful days... Will we ever see them again?

Re-Mark-able If your meeting descriptions had been more like what DC has just described, then believe you me a number of us would have stood by your side! Those are the kind of projects you always hear about from a veteran who has a glint in his eye and a sad smile on his face as he tells the story from long years gone by...But as it stands, my comments still stand for MCs who want everyone every single night together on an away programme. We are not in Boarding School. As to Coolio's comments, I reckon those days will not be coming back anytime soon in Europe. Need to get a project in Asia or Latin America if you want something lively.

Occasional dinners with the team are OK but shop-talk is off the agenda. I would hate scripted dinners where everybody is expected to attend - I would probably walk off the project. I agree with BEP and underpants sessions form part of my regular routine. A long time ago, the organisation I worked for ordered people to arrange motivational "away days" for their teams. Most of these away days took place in hotel meeting rooms in 3rd world regions such as Coventry and involved the liberal use of post-it notes. I hired a coach and took my team to Alton Towers and blew the budget on booze and a picnic. I received a verbal warning for my efforts.

Hold your head high Charlie,You did the right thing! I doubt the Coventry boys remember their away days with the fondness that your boys who went to Alton Towers have.One of my favourite away days (obviously pre '08) was one where we all went to a construction site and basically in between work sessions on how we were going to work as a team going forward etc we went outside and got to - played with earth movers (far more fun than it looks when you are in control of the joysticks)- raced big trucks around the construction site- basically got to do all the stuff that would give a Banking Health & Safety Officer a thorough heart attack if he saw staff doing it

Anon,I also have a construction related anecdote. I used to work for a Swiss consultancy who arranged for everybody (and their wives, kids!) to go skiing for a weekend. I was looking forward to a free weekend of skiing but spent most of the 1st day building an Igloo with the CEO as part of a team-building exercise. Bloody hard work! I was a bit pissed that evening and somehow managed to miss the following day's exercise.You know you are getting old when you have an anecdote for every scenario.

Did the CEO's Igloo have "yellow" doors and windows...?

Red, from his blood. We were using long saws to cut up the blocks of snow. We had an argument about the size and shapes of blocks and he then nearly sawed his thumb off. I was amused - he wasn't.I am not sure that team building exercises are supposed to lead to 2 grown men (2 very obstinate grown men) having an argument about snow on top of a mountain.My wife enjoyed the open air spa though....

You have a bunch of bright, young ambitious and competing people. Therefore...Give them new problems to solvecreate interim (fake if reqd) deadlinesreward and flatter successget them drunk relatively regularlyaccept a few will leave.

I seen all good replies here thanks to see you all here

I have a great idea. Why not "reward" them for their hard work during the week by organising fun team-building exercises for the weekend. You could hire a hotel near the office (for convenience) and organise fun activities such as everybody recalling and telling stories about the funniest and most enjoyable moments of the project. The event could start at, say 10.00am (so a late start!), breaking for a team lunch around 1.00pm, followed by a few hours of team-building activities then some drinks with the team in the evening (with "carriages" arranged for, say, 10.00pm). Then on the Sunday you could do something similar but with different events (maybe a fun activity involving writing some powerpoint decks for an imaginary client).

Good idea, but the late start seems a shame? I'd instigate a Saturday working breakfast (entire team attends, no exceptions).Alternatively, terror is also a good option. Sack the weeks worst performer after publicly humiliating them, and pin their P45 on the door as a warning to others...

Souldn't this be a 3 day event over a Bank Holiday!?!Why only use 2 days of MC time?