I’m doing a lot of writing these days — working fast and furious on a new book. It’s going well at the moment, but it wasn’t until recently.  What got me back into high gear?

Tracking progress every day — whether I make any or not.

I created a spread sheet, and started counting words written, chapters edited, ideas explored, stuff like that.  I did that about a month ago and I’ve improved my writing results every week.  The first week was a grind, the second week just a little better, then I hit a groove.  Its incredibly satisfying to see an upward trend, even if it started from a very lousy place.  What is it about human nature that responds to measurement?

It’s an obvious tip isn’t it?  Still, I think that at a macro level, many organizations take for granted that this will happen in some fashion, and it simply doesn’t.  Results — profits–  are tracked at most companies, but progress towards creating something new?  Not so much.  Deming was a big fan of tracking things as a way to improve quality.  I think the tool works quite well in innovation. Clay Christensen and his disciples are also big ones for a “train schedule” related to innovation projects; I think charting progress, as the train moves from station to station, is an important and motivating discipline.

An interesting thing about charting progress is that it removes emotions. If you’re evaluating someone’s progress, one idea is instead of all the critique, just write down what they’ve done.  Do that weekly and I’ll bet you won’t have to do much more to see improvement.

So, if you’re bogged down with a project, start tracking progress. Your own, the teams, the company, or all the above.

Perhaps I should turn this tip towards dieting…