How to use nudges to improve project performance

There are five important things every project professional can do to make their project a success, argue Dr Teslim Oyegoke Bukoye and Professor Jens Roehrich of the University of Bath School of Management

It is the project or programme manager and the project team who make project delivery a success. It is a range of different people who deliver successful projects, and it is often the individual’s ability to engage intelligently with the complexity of projects that leads to project success. This calls for more attention on the behavioural aspects of projects.

The concept of nudges might help project professionals and teams to meet performance targets. The nudge concept emerged predominantly in behavioural economics and public policy (initially popularised by professors Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler in 2008). Over the past decade or so, nudges have been adopted more widely across a variety of areas, such as encouraging healthy eating, stimulating pension savings and introducing ‘green nudges’ to tackle climate change. Governments around the world have also embraced nudges; for example, the UK government established a Nudge Unit in an effort to apply the associated behavioural science to public policy.

The following insights are based on our own research working closely with project professionals from different project contexts and studying reports by governments and industries. While our published article identified over 20 different nudges, here we delve deeper into five important nudges for project professionals to drive project performance.

Nudge 1

Establish clear social norms

Project teams often unconsciously try to follow the behaviour of others around them, which has both positive and negative outcomes if not properly managed. So, it is important for project professionals to establish appropriate standards and benchmarks for a team from the project’s outset. Depending on the complexity of a project, each member of the project or group of teams should be aware of the expectations and their contributions to the team in a standardised format in order to encourage positive social norms and team culture. For example, in agile projects characterised by constant changes, information clarity through a board where problems are visible and team members share problems at daily stand‑up meetings is highly important to facilitate positive social norms.

Nudge 2

Frame messages

Our respondents strongly emphasised the need for project professionals to configure messages to a project team effectively to influence decision‑making and meet performance targets. Project professionals need to configure messages using the right words, expression and structure to influence their team. While they may insist on the project team meeting their go‑live date as planned or as expected by the project sponsor(s), it is important to be logical in doing so by emphasising the positive impact the outcome could have on the team, i.e. promoting the value to the business. Such framing affects how individuals/teams think and feel about an issue, based primarily on how the choice or option is described to them; for instance, using phases like ‘not to worry, we are on track but keep an eye on our risks’.

Nudge 3

Change layouts

Making appropriate and impactful changes to the project environment to facilitate easier decision‑making is also an important nudge. For project professionals to reduce ambiguity and create an ambience for a productive thinking process, the layout of the workplace (e.g. safe paths to walk on in a construction project; encouraging queuing for a bus to take workers to/from a project site) should be changed to foster this experience. Project professionals can also change the layout of meeting rooms to enhance collaboration and facilitate decision‑making. For example, they could place key information such as maps and timelines at eye level to increase awareness and ‘demote’ other information by moving it lower on the wall. Altering the project environment by using a creative visual office design could enhance collaboration and add some aesthetics to the workplace or ambience to foster positive energy and increase motivation.

Nudge 4

Set defaults

Setting default options for a project team towards preferred outcomes reduces resistance and encourages prompt decision‑making. Setting default options to avoid errors and make systems as effective as possible can save time. This subtle approach to managing project performance could help to prevent conflict within the project team. For example, project professionals can use reminders (since individuals pay more attention to tasks that they are reminded of) and warnings (when things aren’t going in the right direction or when things are wrong so that they can change their approach), which are beneficial in meeting project performance targets. Some project professionals expect their teams to meet deadlines a week prior to the stipulated due date as a default setting.

Nudge 5

Provide actionable feedback

Providing quality feedback is highly regarded by project professionals as a relevant nudge for a project team to perform well. Here, project professionals constructively engage with their team members regarding what and/or when they are doing well or making mistakes. This motivates and increases awareness through detailed, customised feedback for individual team members rather than general team feedback. It is therefore important for project professionals to implement feedback systems to reduce mistakes and influence the team’s behaviour positively (including addressing mistakes and things that are not working well at the moment), which in turn enables a project team to meet its performance expectations.

There is a need to provide quality feedback to motivate the project team appropriately. Identifying the right motivation through constructive individual and group feedback helps to ensure that both individual and group goals are met, as does the early detection and correction of individual errors. Building a culture where feedback is expected and having an open culture where team members are expected to participate in honest conversations are beneficial to a project in meeting its performance targets.

What you can do now

Project professionals need to embrace the behavioural aspects of their projects to successfully manage project teams. With the ever‑changing demands on projects, professional bodies and project professionals in particular should focus on human issues (behavioural) to nudge behaviour, beyond the ‘hard’ systems and tools (e.g. processes and methodologies) that focus more on planning and control.

Project professionals should take practical steps in mapping out the range of nudges available to them. We noticed that nudges were more commonplace than expected, but project professionals did not always realise that they were ‘nudging’. Developing an awareness of a range of nudges available to project professionals is helpful. Then, start implementing a few nudges first. Experiment to find out what works for you and your team, and over time develop a fuller portfolio of nudges.

Finally, consider when to use nudges and to what end. As expressed by one of our study participants, nudges are not a one‑size‑fits‑all solution. During project delivery, for example, nudges may support project professionals to design feedback and reflective systems in such a way that individuals perceive them positively, make beneficial decisions on that basis and thereby contribute directly to improved project performance and resilience. Remember that some nudges are better positioned to drive certain project measures than others.

Further reading

‘Using Nudges to Realize Project Performance Management’, International Journal of Project Management, Vol 40, Issue 8, November 2022, by Oyegoke Teslim Bukoye, Obuks Ejohwomu, Jens Roehrick, Judy Too: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263786322001260?via%3Dihub

THIS ARTICLE IS BROUGHT TO YOU FROM THE SPRING 2023 ISSUE OF PROJECT JOURNAL, WHICH IS FREE FOR APM MEMBERS.