How Complacency Can Harm Your Project Management Office's Productivity

         Complacency is a hurdle that appears in many different organizations. Over the past year and a half, changes have occurred in the workplace due to the pandemic – making it more crucial than ever to assess engagement within your project management office. When an office becomes too complacent, disengagement occurs. This contributes to overall less productivity and loyalty amongst your team. 

Know the Signs

While complacency can happen in any aspect of life, knowing how to recognize the signs of complacency can help you remedy it more quickly within your project management office. If you have noticed that productivity is dwindling, then complacency may already be prevalent in your office. So, what are some of the key signs of a project manager becoming complacent, and how do they affect a project manager’s productivity? In this article, we’ll highlight some of the issues to look out for when it comes to complacency in the workplace.

Why Change What Has Always Been?

One of the first excuses that leads to complacency in project management offices is the mindset that the way things currently work is the way it has always been, so why change now? If a team has always missed deadlines, always made mistakes, and always had changing priorities – then over time, this begins to seem standard. A project management office becomes used to these circumstances as they see them as normal. In general, it is true that most humans dislike changing normal. When it becomes routine, complacency is so deeply ingrained in the daily workflow that it is hard to pivot from what has always been done. Many might have the mindset that since this is the way it has always been, there is nothing that can change.

A Domino Effect

A project management office beginning to lose their passion for responsibilities and no longer becoming excited about their work is another issue when it comes to complacency.  Passion inspires productivity, and a lack of passion leads to complacency. This combination contributes to the team taking shortcuts in their work.  When a project manager is not as detailed or hardworking as they were in the beginning, they likely have lost the desire to produce the same quality of work that they once did. Complacent project managers can appear to be on auto-pilot, as they don’t have much motivation to perform above and beyond. 

Complacency and Disengagement go Hand in Hand

If no real changes are made, then the resistance to change increases over time. This means that project management offices must be proactive about diminishing complacency in the workplace, which will lead to diminishing disengagement as well. Remember that even the strongest management teams can have a complacent office – and it is never too late to change this path to better your company and your project managers’ morale.

Learn How to Fix the Issue of Complacency

At Enterey Consulting, we have the experience and knowledge to reduce disengagement in your project management department. Our documented techniques, processes, and procedures will improve engagement while simultaneously improving morale.

Make sure to Attend our Webinar on October 26^th to learn how to minimize disengagement in your project management office!