Work upstream: hire carefully. Do they have their ego in check? How do they act when they're right about something? How do they act when they know something? Ho

Work upstream: hire carefully. Do they have their ego in check? How do they act when they're right about something? How do they act when they know something? How do they act when they're wrong? Do they try to hide evidence or change the story? Do they find excuses? etc. Midstream: alignment. Make sure everyone is on the same page and has access to information. Make sure everyone knows what the goal is, why it is a goal, how to get there, what's important, what's less important, what they have to do, that they understand what to do, etc. Tweak according to people. With some people? Just give them room and don't bother them. They'll come to you when they have a problem and they know when they must come to you. With others, more involvement is required. Tailor your approach to each one. Downstream: why are they slacking? Is it because they don't know how to do the job? Do they have personal circumstances/problems? Are they lacking sleep? Are they equipped to manage time? Are they not motivated to do the work? Have I talked with them about this? One good way was to go for a walk one on one, outside of the office. Changing scenery helps. You're walking and talking, and it's amazing that you end up having a completely different conversation than the one you'd have had at the office. Written emails work, too. When you lay out the problem without attacking the person as in [here is the problem], you get answers like "I meant to talk to you about that but I haven't found the courage. I've been struggling to manage my time and tasks", and you can work from there. There's sort of an "index" reply here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25367011 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25367011. Several replies touch on different aspects around the mechanics of getting work done, from reducing the barrier to writing good issues by having templates, to dispatching minutes of meetings so everyone has the same information, to the emails you write to make sure everyone is on the same wavelength, to onboarding documents. Sed "giving a damn" or "what if I disappear" to start.