5 Ways to Use Google Collaboration Tools for Effective Teamwork
Younger workers especially are very familiar with the Google collaboration suite, so this can serve as a comfortable way to begin encouraging teammates to work together through the cloud. Here are four keys for making the most of using Google Drive for collaboration.
Networking, Education and Project Management Resources at the PMI Global Congress
Though my view of project management is not canonical and sometimes generates hot debates around it, I do believe that PMI is doing a good job at building connections between project managers and allowing them to share their experience and skills with each other. PMI events play a significant role in moving the whole industry forward, and I’m happy to take part in one of these events this October in Orlando, Florida. If you’re still thinking about whether you should go to the Global Congress or not, here are 3 major reasons to attend it: Networking: The organizers and past attendees do a good job at promoting the Congress as a fabulous opportunity to meet 2,000+ project management professionals. Education: The event will feature more than 150 educational sessions. There are a number of great speakers lined up, and learning from them would be useful for your future career. The question of Project Management 2.0 also will be discussed at the event. I know that one of our fellow bloggers, Dave Garrett of GanttHead, who has his own blog focused on Project Management 2.0, will be presenting there. By the way, I’m working on a Project Management 2.0 guide that I’ll be giving away during the Congress, so come visit Wrike’s booth. Resources: If you are on the lookout for valuable project management resources, I believe that PMI Global Congress is just the right event for it. The exhibit hall will feature 100 companies, including Wrike. PMI Career Center promises to hold helpful discussions about project management career paths. And last, but not least, PMI Bookstore will offer great attendee-only discounts. If you have already registered for the Congress, I’ll be more than happy to meet you there and discuss innovations in project management. Drop me a note at [email protected] or connect with me on Twitter via @andrewsthoughts, and we'll set up a meeting. By the way, it’s great to see that the Project Management 2.0 topic has become the focus of hot discussions lately. I see it as a positive sign, since “the truth is born of arguments.” I’m also working on a big post about what Project Management 2.0 is and what it is not, in which I’m going to elaborate on my initial Project Management 2.0 definition.
What NOT to Say to a Designer and Why
Miscommunications and misunderstandings in design can cause bottlenecks and delay projects—not to mention permanently damage the relationship with your designer. Learning how to talk to a designer so they have the specifics they need from you to complete a project (but enough freedom to incorporate their creativity as well) can cut down on the number of iterations and help build a good relationship for future projects.
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Age Gaps & Toxic Startup Culture — a Book Review of Disrupted by Dan Lyons
Author Daniel Lyons recounts his year spent in startup hell (technically, marketing automation startup HubSpot) and his story is equal parts LOL and WTF. It’s a fascinating peek behind the scenes of a growing company as well as a scathing commentary on startups in general.
10 Deadly Signs Your Culture is Toxic
But just as you can build a healthy company culture by injecting meaning and mission into your daily grind, you could also ignore it totally, decide not to fight for it ... and watch how the bullies and less desirable elements take over and turn the workplace into a toxic arena of one-upmanship and verbal takedowns. Here are 10 warning signs to watch out for. Nip it in the bud — if you care about your company.
9 Phrases to Avoid If You Want to Sound Competent (Work Management Roundup)
It's Friday — time for the weekly Work Management Roundup. This week we tackle what phrases to use to sound more competent, note-taking with pen and paper, customizing stock photos, and using kindness as a strategy. Plus more articles on tools, productivity hacks and work.
How to Answer the Most Common Project Management Interview Questions
Secured an interview for the project management position and want to come prepared? Nail your next junior or senior project manager interview with this guide to the most commonly asked project management interview questions and their answers.
Enterprise Collaboration: Why You Need It & How to Improve It
Enterprise collaboration at its most basic level comes down to how a large organization communicates. It includes the various technologies and platforms that individual members of the organization rely on to discuss work, deliver feedback, and cross-pollinate their ideas. The use of enterprise collaboration software can also reveal a lot about a company's culture and how they assist or impede the exchange of ideas and information. Enterprise collaboration software is becoming more popular each day, as companies look for efficient ways to connect increasingly dispersed and remote teams. In fact, one survey noted that 60% of respondents planned to purchase some sort of collaboration software for their business. Here we talk about what enterprise collaboration is, why it’s important, and how directors and project managers can strategically use it to increase productivity. We’ll also go over frequently asked questions about implementation and introduce a new tool to help you get started. What is enterprise collaboration? Enterprise collaboration is the process of helping diverse teams work together — which sounds simple, at first. But, in a world where thought leadership and personal branding are still on the rise, many individuals are now being hired as specialists who function independently rather than generalists who are used to working as part of a team. Even if this isn’t your company’s hiring strategy, you may have noticed a recent uptick in contractor and support roles throughout various aspects of the organization. Either way, it’s up to enterprise directors and project managers to help these individuals function through one cohesive system even though they all may be miles apart, a one-time contributor, or have competing goals. In addition to providing support systems for day to day tasks, teams will also need help understanding what the big picture is, how each project supports that vision, and what contributions every team member is expected to make. Why is enterprise collaboration important? In an Inc.com article, Wrike CEO Andrew Filev points out two undeniable benefits of collaboration: By collaborating internally via social tools, wikis, videoconferencing, and more, you increase productivity. By collaborating externally with customers, partners, and vendors via user forums, blog comments, social media, live webinars, conferences, and meetups, you gather feedback that increases innovation. It makes sense that cross-functional team collaboration as well as external collaboration with stakeholders improves efficiency and effectiveness. When communication channels are open, it's easier to find the information you need or turn to colleagues and customers for feedback and assistance. In addition to this, collaboration helps organizations meet top business priorities such as improving business processes and reducing enterprise costs. The Aberdeen Group surveyed 299 organizations and discovered significant benefits of enterprise-wide collaboration: 53% improvement in customer service metrics 49% improvement in workforce productivity This data proves that enterprise collaboration helps teams and customers alike. When processes are improved and communication becomes more efficient, team members can focus on delivering value to customers. How does enterprise collaboration boost project productivity? Enterprise collaboration boosts project productivity through a holistic approach. First, you begin by taking stock of where your team is today. What tools, workflows, and systems are already in place? How do those help or hurt progress in the short and long term? After you have a good idea of which areas need improvement, you move on to strategy. Connect the dots between your business goals, project goals, and team goals by discussing them with your collaborators all at the same time. Before you can even begin to establish a new way of doing things, you have to get everyone on the same page. This is exactly what the first phase of enterprise collaboration does. Then it’s time to try new strategies, examine your results, and adjust as needed. These steps are often long and involved, but they’re key to figuring out how to maximize your team’s potential. As you go along, actively listen to what people say about their project productivity and be prepared to apply feedback on what is or isn’t working. When you approach project management through this lens, you’re able to boost productivity by bringing everyone in the loop through strong communication practices such as centralized document sharing and @ mentions that directly bring collaborators into the conversation without missing a beat. Laying all the components of your workflow out also helps anticipate breakdowns before they even happen. It also makes it easier to try new things. This is an essential part of increasing productivity because, as we all know, if you always do what you’ve always done you’ll just get the same results. What are the challenges of enterprise collaboration? The number one challenge of enterprise collaboration is complexity. With competing voices and priorities in the mix, it can be tough to sort out even the simplest workflows. For example, let’s say a marketing agency is collaborating with a freelance designer for a client’s website. If the client prefers to be extremely hands-on, you’ll need to have a strong enterprise collaboration system in place in order to prevent their feedback from derailing forward movement. Then there’s decision-making. Choices like task management, meeting arrangement, and workflow designation can benefit from the input of everyone involved. But if a project manager or director doesn’t create rules and systems, it’s really easy to miscommunicate, promise deliverables without consulting team members, and create other issues that leave a bad taste in the client and the collaborators’ mouths. Even if your team already has its own internal way of getting things done, it may be hard to bring new people into the fold as one-time contributors. Enterprise collaboration is meant to be agile so if your team needs to adjust their process at any stage, you’ll need to quickly accommodate, reforecast, and keep everything moving without missing a beat. At the end of the day, using enterprise collaboration in your business saves everyone a lot of time and unnecessary headaches even if it takes a little set up or getting used to. Enterprise collaboration starts with culture, not tools In the past decade, the number of enterprise collaboration tools has exploded. Although they're beneficial tools, they're not an out-of-the-box solution for an organization hoping for immediately efficient teamwork. After all, any technology that promises collaboration cannot bring about change on its own. There has to be a simultaneous shift in internal culture — from individual silos to transparent and generous sharing of ideas and resources. That shift doesn't happen overnight. It has to be something that your organization works at every day in the processes it puts into motion and in the policies it enforces. Good enterprise collaboration habits to instill into your organization You can begin to infuse enterprise collaboration habits into your organization on a macro and micro level. The three most important habits for both include: Consolidating all project updates to one single source so everyone can refer to the latest information with ease. Being conscious of realistic timelines for projects, phases, and even individual tasks. Taking care to work within realistic limitations on budget, resources, and personnel. Why you should invest in enterprise collaboration software One way to move toward enterprise-wide collaboration is to get teams accustomed to sharing information within a collaborative platform. Choose a platform that enables file sharing and open conversation outside of long email threads. You'll have to take baby steps to get individuals to voluntarily share their workloads, upload the files they're working on, comment on best practices, and even draw in other people into their projects for cross-team collaboration. But once something as simple as a habit of sharing information becomes ingrained in the company's culture, it becomes easier to build processes for wider collaboration between teams in the enterprise. Introducing Wrike as the enterprise collaboration platform for your company The best way to communicate company-wide project systems is through Wrike’s highly visual system that makes it easy to adjust as you go and add input from outside collaborators without sacrificing productivity. Chances are if you’ve been using the same old system even though your team and the world at large has radically changed, your usual workflow needs to be examined. Note what works, remove what doesn’t, and use customized dashboards to streamline the rest. Here’s a sample of Wrike’s standout enterprise project management features: Collaborator calendar management so that you always know how to balance the workload amongst your team even if they’re working on more than one project at a time. Visual timelines that allow you to drag and drop tasks to both plan projects before they begin and quickly adjust as you go. Internal messaging so that details like deadlines and meeting links aren’t buried in anyone’s email inbox. Review and approval cycles that plainly show other team members what’s going on at all times. Collaborator dashboard views you control so they can follow progress without getting too wrapped up in the backend process. In a nutshell, Wrike is a highly effective, full-scale solution for enterprise collaboration on projects of all sizes. With it, teams are empowered to work together with and not against each other. Take it step by step Your organization doesn't have to jump head-first into doing everything collaboratively. Start by creating space for individuals to connect within the organization and grow ideas with shared resources. It's about building an enterprise-wide framework for productivity, innovation, and velocity. Wrike can help your enterprise organization improve cross-team collaboration at every level. Start a free trial today and try it out with your team.
5 Best Video Conference & Meeting Apps for Your Team
Whether you're working with remote colleagues or coordinating with clients, you need a video conference and meeting app that's reliable and easy to use. You don't have time to deal with dropped calls, choppy audio and video, stream lags, annoying downloads and plugins, or other frustrating technical issues. Between our weekly webinars and daily meetings with our remote colleagues around the globe, the Wrike team has tried just about every top video conference and meeting app available. Here's a list of our 5 favorites: Top Video Conference & Meeting Apps 1. Zoom With HD video conferencing, screen sharing from desktop or mobile, recording features, and the ability to choose full screen or gallery views for video streams (or choose different views for multiple monitors), Zoom is quickly emerging as one of the top video meeting apps available. What we like best: Zoom boasts a slew of cool features like a collaborative whiteboard and the ability to send group texts, images, and audio files during meetings. Plus, the ability to join meetings from mobile via wifi or cellular networks makes it a great option for teams that are constantly on the go. Pricing: The free version includes an unlimited number of meetings with up to 25 people, up to 40 minutes per meeting, and unlimited one-on-one calls. Paid plans with advanced features start at $10/month for unlimited meeting durations and calls with up to 200 participants. 2. GoToMeeting GoToMeeting has established itself as the "go-to" solution for video conferencing and virtual meetings, and with good reason: HD-quality video, screen sharing, personalized meeting URLs, and the ability to connect to meetings via desktop or mobile make it a popular choice. Teams can also collaborate by using the whiteboard feature to annotate and highlight the presenter's screen. What we like best: International toll-free numbers and options to translate control settings make GoToMeeting a convenient option for global teams, plus it's easy to change presenters for meetings with multiple hosts. Pricing: The Pro version starts at $39/month per organizer and includes 25 participants. The Plus version starts at $56/month per organizer for up to 100 participants. GoToMeeting also offers a free plan for 3 attendees. 3. Join.me Join.me offers all the essentials you're looking for, in a lightweight, no-muss-no-fuss package. Attendees can call in via VoIP or telephone, and with numbers in over 40 countries, it's an easy solution for international teams. Record meetings, join from your preferred mobile device, share your screen, transfer files, and easily change presenters. You can also personalize your meeting space with custom URLs and screen backgrounds. What we like best: Ease of use. We can set up a meeting and be connected with colleagues in a matter of minutes, with no technical confusion or cumbersome downloads. Pricing: The free Basic plan includes up to 10 participants and instant screen sharing. Pro and Enterprise plans include up to 250 attendees with advanced features like Outlook and Google Calendar plugins, built-in cloud storage, recording, and reporting tools. 4. ReadyTalk With ReadyTalk's suite of web conferencing, mobile conferencing, video conferencing, and webinar tools, you can find the perfect solution for your needs. Hand over controls to a participant to let them take over the discussion, use the interactive real-time polling feature to make group decisions right then and there, and stream up to 4 video feeds simultaneously. ReadyTalk also conveniently integrates with Google Calendar, Outlook, Lync, Salesforce, Marketo, and more popular tools. What we like best: Support. At your request, a ReadyTalk customer support rep will join your meeting to provide instant technical assistance. Stop worrying about glitches and instead just focus on hosting a great meeting. Pricing: Meeting plans start at $24 for 10 participants, $34 for 25 participants, and $59 for 100 participants. 5. Onstream Meetings Onstream offers the usual features like screen sharing, document sharing, group or private chats, polling, shared controls, and a collaborative whiteboard. What sets Onstream apart is the ability to add up to 1,000 attendees, which is great for companies hosting all-hands meetings for more than 250 people. The toolbar at the top of the screen keeps controls for screen sharing, file sharing, drawing tools, and polling easily accessible. Also convenient: you can send files to all attendees or just to select people, or make documents available for download after the meeting concludes. What we like best: You can edit your meeting recordings without downloading the video file. Highlight key discussions or add chapter markers so viewers can easily skip to important points — all within the Onstream application. Pricing: Subscriptions start at $49/month Take Your Meetings to the Next Level Now that you've got the technical aspect of the perfect virtual meeting settled, fix these four common problems with virtual meetings to make all your meetings productive. Read Next: 7 Tips for Better Meetings (Infographic) Everything You Need to Successfully Manage a Virtual Team (Checklist) 4 Problems with Virtual Meetings that You Can Fix
Become Wrike Certified With Our New Customer Certification Program
Whether you're a long-time user or taking your first steps towards Wrike mastery, let your team and organization know you're the expert when it comes to all things Wrike with our new Wrike Customer Certification program and badges.
Why People Are Ignoring Your Business Memos
Business memos seem retro but still have a place in today’s business world. Are employees not reading your memos? Maybe it’s time to update your template and adopt a more modern business memo. Read on for business memo best practices and examples of both traditional and modern business memos.
4 Problems with Virtual Meetings that You Can Fix
If you really want to start running excellent meetings, this post has some pre-reading. First, check out the four-step guide to any perfect meeting for your business (virtual or otherwise), then head back over here. Virtual meetings have the same issues as face-to-face gatherings, but they come with an extra layer of difficulty. What do you do to create a good meeting environment when your colleagues are across the city, across the country, or across the ocean? Here are four common problems specific to virtual meetings, and the proactive things you can do to fix them: Problem #1: Repeating yourself over and over again This occurs when someone isn't listening. You ask for their opinion and they have to ask: "Can you repeat that, please?" Solution: Know everyone's name. If there are multiple people involved in your meeting, the best way to make sure you have someone's full attention is to say their name. And do it first — before you talk about what you want them to hear. It calls them to attention so they focus and you don't have to repeat yourself after they realize, "Oh wait, was that last statement meant for me?" Make your next virtual meeting perfect: Start every sentence with someone's name. "Jill, what do you think about this? Jack, what do you think we should do to solve our problem?" Problem #2: You have no idea who is talking to you Someone in the conference call mentions you by name, asking for your opinion. And you realize you're not sure who she is. Solution: Lead the effort — make sure everyone knows your name. It frequently happens that not everyone on a call knows the other participants. Which means they will not recognize your voice when you start speaking. Instead of assuming that everyone knows who you are and what you sound like (we all know what assuming does to you and me), introduce yourself a few times so people can start connecting a voice to a name. Or a face to a name, if you're using video chat. Ask everyone else to do the same. Make your next virtual meeting perfect: Start sentences with your own name: "This is Jack again. Jill, what do you think about this?" And you can even include your job position for further clarity: "Hey, this is Jack from marketing again. Jill..." Problem #3: Your technology decides to take a break It has happened to the best of us. Powerpoint decides to crash. The microphone isn't picking up your voice. The video feed is pixelated to the point of turning your colleague into an unrecognizable collection of colored blocks. Solution: Have a backup plan. Technology always seems to know when it should not fail — and chooses that exact time to give up on you. Send out your plan details in advance. If you're having technical difficulties, create a protocol for the entire group to switch to a new platform in a matter of seconds. Fumbling around trying to fix a technical issue can add 15 extra minutes to 30-minute meeting if you don't. Make your next virtual meeting perfect: If you use one platform (like Google Hangouts) for your meetings, make sure everyone has a backup platform ready (like Skype) with everyone's username already added. Communicate that expectation in advance. Problem #4: The dog keeps barking You've heard it all before: babies crying, dogs barking, construction hammering, car horns honking. (Once, I was forced to listen to someone munching on chips for 20 long minutes.) Solution: Set video conferencing etiquette guidelines. Remind people that just because you can't see each other, it doesn't mean you can't hear each other. Ask everyone to mute their microphones when they aren't speaking, sit in a relatively quiet area during the call (no busy coffee houses or loud trains), and move to a room away from the crying baby. Make your next virtual meeting perfect: Send out a set of call etiquette guidelines in advance. Don't make it too long — everyone knows how to be polite. Sometimes they just need a gentle reminder. There are some technology issues you can't prepare for: bad wifi connections; calls cutting out. But you can try to prevent additional problems by getting your team on board with these four steps. What do you think? Can you solve your virtual meeting problems with these 4 solutions? What's missing from the list? Read next: 7 Tips for Better Meetings (Infographic)