I know your hoping they are succesful.

Your process for staff development is not good.

I once contracted to a mortgage broker who wanted me to train is L.Os in basic salesmanship. The guy had a staff of four at the time, all on 100% commission. He wanted them to do well, obviously, because for every deal they brought in he was pocketing $3,500+ depending on the Y.S.P. However this guy was a horrible manager. His exact words to me were, "Our training program is great because it's sink or swim."

Basically he wasn't giving them any training in mortgage banking, and he was generally stand offish when they asked for help. He was really great at creating underwriting models that were very marketable. (He basically streamlined the whole re-fi your way out of chapter 13 thing.) Brilliant products, smart guy... but ultimatly he couldn't develop decent staff, and they always left in a matter of months.

If you want to keep staff it can never be sink or swim, and it's really not a good idea to just drop an area project on them. It's a lot of work, and feedback is slow. Now I know the people who can do the coding etc. are busy, that's not my point. It would probably be significantly better to give Lyristeon a team of three heroimms, let him project manage and have the team create an area. I'd imagine that would reduce burnout, and be more fun for everyone involved.

Staff should be nurtured along. I know you guys don't like that idea, but it's true. That's how you build a long time team. I tell people they need to treat their staff like younger siblings.

It's okay to challenge you're hero imms, but maybe you need to set up smaller steps of progress so that they can percieve their own achievment.