6 Challenges to Team Collaboration
If you treat collaboration like teamwork, you'll end up with a great team, but not always a great outcome. Taking action to make successful collaboration a priority on your team and with other departments can help streamline efforts and ultimately, save everyone time.
5 Steps to Implementing a Collaboration Tool for Creative Teams
You're a creative director. You have too many projects, your staff is already working overtime, and you have no idea how to get it all done quickly and efficiently with your current system. Where do you turn? Collaborative work management solutions help cut down on the time your team loses attending extra meetings, managing an overwhelming amount of email, and searching aimlessly for the latest attachments and updated creatives. More importantly, an efficient collaboration tool will allow more time for your creatives to BE creative, instead of tracking down project specs or sending emails. Creative teams are busy, busy folks, whether they're bringing on new clients or juggling endless requests. They don't have time to try new tools just for the effort to fail. Before you commit to a work management solution and jump in head-first, read this guide to help you make sure your choice is successfully adopted by your busy creative team. And then go forth and create! 1. Define your processes for using the tool You know how you do what you do. So as the first adopter and ultimate champion for the tool, take that knowledge and create a set of clearly defined rules for how your team will use the new tool so they know what to expect. Create a document that outlines: What features you will use — and how. Some tools come with a lot of features, but you may not need them all. Make a list of the features your team will take advantage of, and exactly how they will help your team get work done. How to organize your work. Your collaboration tool should offer a system for organizing tasks into folders or projects, so your work isn't scattered aimlessly throughout the tool. Decide if your team will organize work by the kind of deliverable(s), requesting client, assigned designer, or all of the above. Whichever works for you. How to name your work. Setting up a consistent naming convention will make it easy for your employees to understand what they'll get when they open a task. Set up a system to include rules like: Start/end tasks with [Client name] Start tasks with a verb, e.g. "Create" or "Update" Start/end with a time estimate for how long the task will take, e.g. [2hrs] How to organize your attachments. Align your team around where documents and creative files should be stored to make sure assets don't get lost.Will they be housed in one folder all together? Will they be attached at the folder level, project level, or at the individual task level? Is there a shared drive where all the files are currently stored? After a project has been completed, will final versions of creatives be housed somewhere specific? Setting up recurrent meetings. If your team has recurrent meetings, set them up in your tool. (Check out this article to learn how to conduct meetings in Wrike). This is not 100% necessary, but doing so will keep all your collaborative work (and meetings should be collaborative) in one cohesive space. Our suggestion: Create a folder called "Meetings" with subfolders for different types of meetings (if desired). Then, in this folder, create a task with the date and title of your meeting, assign it to attendees, set the date, and make it a recurring task. When these meetings are held, take meeting notes in this task, so everyone has immediate access to the notes, and can add further input as required. 2. Introduce a small core group for testing Once you have outlined your processes for using the tool, it can't be automatically assumed that you've created the best way for your entire team. Just as you would with your customers on a project, get feedback. Bring a small core group of early-adopters into your tool, explain your outlined processes, provide trainings on the features, and ask them to start using it immediately to collaborate on a project. Sell them on the benefits of the new tool and processes in order to minimize the risk that they'll revert to their previous style of working. 3. Adjust your processes to improve them As the collaborative project goes on, ask your team to add to or modify your preliminary processes as they see fit before rolling the tool out to the rest of your team members. If they have suggestions for better ways to use features, name folders, name tasks, etc., incorporate their feedback into the process document. It is the team that should have final say on how to use their new collaboration tool, as they will be the ones working with it every day. 4. Deploy the tool to the entire team After you and your small group are confident that you have created a sustainable way to implement and use the collaboration tool, it's time for the big reveal! Roll out the tool to your entire team in the same way that you rolled it out to your small test group. Share your process documentation, provide trainings for your team, and ask them to start using the tool immediately to collaborate on new projects. 5. Continue adjusting processes as necessary As always, keep getting feedback. If someone has an idea on how your team can better make use of a feature, consider every idea for the betterment of the team and reaching your end goals. When a process isn't working, create a solution and check in with the team once per month or quarter as you make adjustments. If you are using a SaaS collaboration tool, it's likely that the company will release regular updates, improvements, and new features. Always consider if you should implement these new features into your workflow for better team collaboration. Not every feature will suit your team's needs, so only update your processes if you think it will improve the way your team works. Help your team work better together Use these 5 steps to make sure your creative team is able to successfully adopt your new collaboration tool, so they can work better and spend more time CREATING instead of maintaining their inboxes. If you have more advice on what does or doesn't work when rolling out a collaboration tool to a creative team, please add your advice to the comments section below! In the market for a new collaboration tool? Give Wrike a try for free — all you need is an email address.
Why Every Company Needs a Culture of Collaboration
Boiled down to its very essence, collaboration can be defined as a TEAM engaging in TASKS to reach shared TARGETS. It's one of those buzzwords that's been overused, with every software startup spouting it in marketing collateral, pitch decks, and social media channels. But the reason why it's a staple in conversations is because, without it, an organization sabotages its own success. Companies must learn to capitalize on opportunities to collaborate for two reasons: 1. Internal collaboration increases productivityAccording to a study by McKinsey & Company, implementing collaborative processes and networking tools improved productivity by 20-30% in global software development teams. And California chipmaker Xilinx reported a 25% increase in engineer productivity by using tools that encouraged peer-to-peer collaboration. In short: when internal teams use tools that make work processes and communication more efficient, goals are met faster and with higher quality results. 2. External collaboration accelerates innovationExternal collaboration refers to your work with customers, partners, and vendors — the ones whom your project and your product directly affect. And if you are able to work with these stakeholders and leverage their feedback into your product development process, then there will be better alignment between the customer's actual needs and your product's features. Therefore, it's important to use every channel available to collaborate externally: your website, social media channels, webinars, user forums, focus group discussions, conferences, meetups, and more. Then act on constructive feedback get the best results for your company. Collaborate to Win - Why Every Company Needs a Culture of Collaboration Building a Naturally Collaborative Company Culture When a company has put in effort to build a culture of collaboration, it becomes second nature to communicate with both internal teams and external stakeholders. And it is this kind of collaboration that helps companies break through boundaries and produce cutting-edge innovations that solve real-world problems. Invest in your teams' collaboration with team building days, virtual icebreaker games and peer recognition programs. Use the Right Tools for Collaboration Building a culture of collaboration in your own company is hard enough without placing extra barriers in your way. If you're still hoping to collaborate on projects using email and spreadsheets, it becomes almost impossible. Email and spreadsheets are inefficient for the kind of collaborative communication we're used to in our social world. For help finding a better way to work, download our free eBook:It’s Not Me, It’s You: Why Managers Need to Break Up with Email and Spreadsheets Top image credits: Taking in the View by Nana B. Agyei. | Some rights reserved
Stop Playing Nice! The Stoic's Guide to Managing Workplace Conflict
"Where all think alike, no one thinks very much." — Walter Lippmann Collaboration and conflict are not opponents: they're partners. So let's banish the notion that high-performing teams are made up of smiling people who always get along. Teamwork should be messy, and being a good manager isn't about creating a fake-happy work environment where you're more concerned about keeping the peace than doing good work. Think of the rivalry between sales and marketing, or the competition between your top-performing sales reps. That healthy tension fuels success. But how do you keep conflict productive? You need to be able to recognize when healthy tension is in danger of turning disruptive, and step in to prevent things from devolving into toxic workplace territory. When a member of your team is at odds with a colleague in another team or department, what can you do to help them get through it? And how do you create a work environment where conflict drives progress and achievement? Turn to the timeless wisdom of one of history’s greatest leaders, Marcus Aurelius. Who is Marcus Aurelius? Perhaps one of history’s greatest rulers, Marcus Aurelius is widely regarded as the embodiment of the ideal leader. Aurelius, who you may know as the wise old Roman Emperor from the movie Gladiator, ruled from 161 to 180 AD. No stranger to conflict, Aurelius spent the final years of his rule fighting the growing threat of Germanic tribes. He also grappled with his personal conviction that his only son, Commodus, was an unfit successor. It’s during this time that he wrote Meditations. Now considered one of the greatest works of philosophy ever written, it's a collection of Aurelius' personal thoughts and ruminations on Stoic philosophy. Stoicism focuses on accepting what’s not within your control and mastering your emotions. Stoics respond to conflict with reason and logic rather than emotional outbursts. Winning an argument is pointless — virtue and character are all that matter. But Stoics aren't pushovers. The approach isn't about letting people say whatever they want to or about you, because in the end it doesn't really matter. It's about recognizing what's truly important and what isn't so that you don't let temporary problems distract you from doing your best work and being your best self. Egos, politics, office decorum, "how we do things around here" — that is what Stoics seek to ignore. A Stoic's Approach to Conflict Resolution How do you apply 2,000-year-old advice to the modern workplace? Dealing with conflict is a task many managers struggle with, or even avoid at all costs. In fact, 85% of executives have concerns with their company that they are afraid to raise because of the conflict that would ensue. But conflict is an unavoidable part of the workplace. Aurelius' Meditations offers sage wisdom for today's managers looking for strategies to use that conflict to drive success. Conflict is Inevitable Conflict doesn’t always happen because people are being difficult… but sometimes it does. Egos, bad attitudes, and office politics are a fact of corporate life. Like it or not, there are people who will make your life difficult simply because they’re only concerned with making theirs easier. Start your day with the expectation that you’ll encounter some pushback, and it won’t rile you as much when it does happen. Anticipate that others will question your decisions, waste your time, and take advantage of your willingness to help. By expecting this behavior, you can mentally prepare, learn how to avoid getting sucked into time-wasting tasks and discussions, and be able to justify your decisions when questioned. And if things go better than expected, you'll be pleasantly surprised. This Too Shall Pass One of the foundational tenets of Aurelius' philosophies is that, in the grand scheme of things, nothing lasts. To quote a very different kind of philosopher, "Life moves pretty fast." This isn’t meant to be depressing — in fact, it’s meant to be liberating. Why waste precious time and energy getting upset over things that don’t truly matter? The CMO criticizing your campaign idea is not important on a cosmic scale, although it can feel absolutely vital in the moment. A dose of perspective can keep you from getting worked up over issues that will only distract you from things that actually matter. Agonizing Over Conflict Only Makes It Worse Anger only makes a bad situation worse. Getting ticked off that someone talked down to you during a meeting doesn't help—it just agitates you more. Not only that, it prolongs the situation. What should have been a minor blip on your radar suddenly becomes a fixation, as you relive the moment over and over. The next thing you know, you've made zero progress on your work because you're too busy stewing... or worse, complaining. Anger only hurts one person: you. Whose Opinion Really Matters? Who cares if Janice from design thinks your Powerpoint deck looks like it's from 1986? So what if Paul from performance marketing says your ideas suck? Why does it matter if Laura from content marketing keeps erasing your copy edits? At the end of the day, you answer to only a handful of people. Why does it matter what anyone else thinks? Instead of letting it rile you, draw confidence from the fact that the people whose opinions truly matter — yours and your manager's — are confident in your performance. Criticism Does Not Equal Conflict Don't create a conflict out of a critique. Nobody is perfect, and nobody does perfect work. Honest self-reflection is a vital part of improving, and you should welcome all kinds of feedback from all kinds of people. If someone points out a flaw in your work or thinking, don't automatically see it as an attack. There's no need to dwell over your shortcomings or feel insecure about them; take the opportunity to recognize and do something about them. Make criticism constructive. Conflicts Arise When People Care Which would you rather have: a group of apathetic "yes" men? Or a team of people who passionately argue for what they truly believe is the best course of action? Being a good team player means challenging others to uncover flawed thinking and processes. But not everyone is going to agree on what those flaws are. You’re supposed to be in conflict with certain teams, because you’re each advocating for different things. Finance is going to support the most economical solution, while marketing will argue for the most responsive. These are both valid considerations: cost effectiveness is just as important as optimization. Other people aren't disagreeing with you because they don’t like you, or because they’re an argumentative person, or because they’re flat out wrong. They’re simply doing their jobs. The best thing you can do for your team is address these underlying tensions head on. Normalize them. Bring them to the surface so that they can expect conflicting viewpoints and understand where they’re coming from. Next time you're headed into a meeting, tell your team: "Expect Lucas to argue for the fastest solution, in spite of the expense, because meeting the deadline is one of his top priorities." Remind your team that you're all fighting for the best solution. Make team building exercises a regular part of your team's work week, and research virtual team building ideas to include everyone. Conflict Can Drive Innovation If you're in conflict with someone and it truly is becoming a roadblock or preventing you from accomplishing what you want to achieve — then find another way. Use it as an opportunity for creative problem solving. Adapt. Download the full list of quotes and tips for inspiration when friction pops up on your team. Encouraging Productive Conflict Helping your team deal with office conflict all starts with your leadership. Your team needs to know that you're there to listen when they encounter conflict and help them out. It's not something they should keep to themselves or stew over in silence. To start, don't shield your team from conflicts or disagreements. Be transparent about discussions and debates happening at the executive level, especially about decisions that concern them. You don't need to air any dirty laundry, simply explain how different perspectives factored into a new decision. In your daily teamwork, encourage dissenting opinions and those who question assumptions. Show your team that disagreeing doesn't mean they'll be seen as poor team players or difficult employees. Instead of yelling and finger-pointing, foster the kind of conflict that improves thinking and results. Sources: RyanHoliday.net, Harvard Business Review, 99u.com, daringtolivefully.com, wikipedia.org, philosophybasics.com, TED Blog
4 Ways Collaboration Tools Boost Team Performance
Distance is no longer a barrier to collaboration. Online collaboration tools make it possible for us to work with colleagues thousands of miles away. They enable us to be more mobile, accessing project information wherever and whenever the need arises. But the same problems that hamper collaboration in our physical workspaces have followed us online. Communications that used to get lost in a pile of papers now get buried in our inboxes; important data that disappeared into a dusty file cabinet is now lost in chaotic folder hierarchies and duplicated in multiple versions. Miscommunication still occurs, feedback and assignments still get lost in the shuffle, and we’re still crunching numbers and updating spreadsheets to glean meaningful insights from work data. Collaboration tools offer a solution that lets your team take advantage of the real-time benefits of online collaboration, while side stepping the disorder that comes with working via email, spreadsheets, and instant messaging. So what are some ways you can improve your team's performance with a collaboration tool? 1. Improve quality Working alone means you work with one set of ideas — your own. By collaborating, you can build on the collective abilities of your team to create the best idea, or test a few different plans to find the optimal solution. Collaboration tools give you a designated place to "brain dump": everyone involved in a project can list their proposals without being talked over (as is often the case during ideation meetings), while still being inspired by their teammates' ideas and discussions. Once the team reviews the full list of creative possibilities, they can start working right away to turn the chosen idea into reality. No thoughts get lost in inboxes, and no quiet voices are accidentally ignored. 2. Increase velocity Collaboration software brings every resource, every idea, and every person into one collective space. Your team won't have to waste time searching emails for important attachments, waiting for status updates or approvals, or chasing down a colleague for help. Every piece of the project, from the initial idea to the final release, can be created and completed in one place and accessed round-the-clock, so people can connect to work information wherever they need to, or whenever a new idea strikes them. Your team can collaborate how, when, and where they want, without waiting for regular business hours or the next in-person meeting to move forward. 3. Reinforce accountability If you've studied high-performance teams, you know that public accountability is a trump card in the game of project progress. People are 33% more likely to accomplish a goal when they write it down and tell others they are working on it. Collaboration tools give your team members a way to publicly commit to their tasks and goals, so they can share their progress, ask for assistance, and complete projects with full transparency. Plus, when everyone on your team knows not only what they're accountable for, but also what their teammates are accountable for, the waste of duplicated work disappears. 4. Spark innovation It still holds true: two minds are better than one. When a collaboration tool allows you to look around and discover the new projects your colleagues are working on, that insight can spark innovative ideas for current or future projects. "I see that Lucy is working on our new feature.... Wait, what if we spun that in a different direction? I'll suggest it." Collaboration tools give people access to information that can fuel creativity on a daily basis, instead of limiting those breakthrough "A-ha!" moments to weekly update meetings or accidental watercooler conversations. Collaboration tools also free ideas from the limitations of organizational hierarchy. Company-wide visibility means new ideas and initiatives can come from any employee, not just the executives. Proposals that may have been buried, or never formally submitted to begin with, are now circulating freely to grow and attract notice based on merit, not on limited access to decision makers. Your team is your greatest resource Ultimately, your greatest resource is your team. By providing tools that help them collaborate with less stress and greater efficiency, you’re enabling them to focus on the results of their efforts — instead of getting mired in the process. After all, a good collaboration tool smooths the flow of work for everyone. It reduces the number of lost files, facilitates the ideation process, and cuts down on time spent waiting for feedback or instruction. Most importantly, it helps their ideas get noticed, so your team can fulfill its full potential.
Project 2.0 Teams: Creating Project Communities
In my two latest posts (about Level 5 Leadership with Project Management 2.0 here and about Leading Collective Intelligence) I wrote about leaders and leadership aspects in Project Management 2.0. Now, it’s time to discuss project teams and their transformations in the PM 2.0 reality. I came across a very interesting blog discussion lately. Social media evangelists Dennis D. McDonald and Lee White discuss the introduction of Web 2.0 tools like blogs, wikis, social networks, etc., to project management. I believe that their thoughts can also be applied to the collaborative features of Project Management 2.0 tools. For me, the most intriguing idea brought up in their discussion was the idea that these tools help people create project communities from their project teams. Traditionally, a team is a group of people linked by a common purpose. For a project team this common purpose is achieving a project goal, set by a project manager. However, wise project managers know that setting a goal does not guarantee a project’s success. Motivation plays an important part here. You need to reach people on the emotional level and make them passionate about a project for the simple reason that the more committed one is to a project’s success, the more likely the project will be a success. The next important thing is to make this passion common to all the members of your team. Experts say, that to make this happen, you need to strengthen the social bonds between the team members. Here’s where blogs, wikis and social networks and can be of great assistance. They, as I pointed out in one of my previous posts, create a collaborative environment that lets everyone on the team share knowledge and relevant information. Thus, everyone on the team can be heard and can introduce ideas about the development of the project. While they are constantly interacting, introducing their own ideas, and getting feedback and help from other team members, people on the team level become socially connected to each other. Dennis McDonald and Lee White refer to this social connection as a “community.” In his post, Dennis mentions the phrase “sense of community”, saying that “it refers to a sharing of common beliefs that involves a connection at a more personal or emotional level.” In this regard, the concept of community brings to mind notions like passion, devotion, and commitment. Many project managers would agree that commitment, along with passion and devotion are very important for a project’s success. Emphasis on collaboration that is introduced by social media, blogs, wikis and Project Management 2.0 tools and practices helps to build the sense of community in a team. Yet, each team is unique, just like each project is unique. Some teams sit in the same office and have successfully completed several projects together; others are separated by vast distances and have never met each other before. If this is the case the role of the social media will be especially important. When a project brings together people who may not know each other or who may not have worked together before, social technologies can help to greatly enhance collaboration and communication. There can be numerous examples for such a case: a large corporate project, a project to unify the operations of two merging companies, an outsourced project, or an international project, members of which are located in different parts of the world. In his post, Dennis writes: “In the context of a temporary time-bounded project this is not at all unusual, especially when projects are large and involve multiple teams that span organizational or departmental boundaries. Making it easy for people to communicate and to establish both professional and social relationships can make eminently good sense.” I couldn’t agree more. Blogs, wikis, and Project Management 2.0 tools help to create teams that share not just a common purpose, but common interests. These tools and practices help to build project communities that are committed to a project and are passionate about successful project completion. A project community is very close to another notion that’s very popular today - “collective intelligence” or “collective brain,” which is one of the essential practices that Project Management 2.0 takes from the Enterprise 2.0 movement. These two (project community and collective intelligence for a project team) are interconnected, as effective collective intelligence relies on the team’s collaboration and interactions, as well as team members’ sense of community and common interests. So we may say that the next-generation technologies can stimulate the two sides of your project team involvement: emotional (by building communities) and rational (by developing collective intelligence). Stimulation of these two sides will inevitably result in the increase of a team’s productivity. At the end of the day, the multiplied team morale and intelligence is to the whole organizations benefit. Maximized productivity of a team will lead to more projects completed successfully in a shorter period of time. These results may be able to justify investing your precious budget money into the new technology, to say the least. But justification of money spending and validation of ROI is a topic for another post. Meanwhile, I’d be pleased to see your thoughts about project communities in the comments to this post.
Lessons in Office Politics from Game of Thrones
Office politics are a fact of life — it’s human nature and basic sociology to have power dynamics within a group. Despite the negative association, however, office politics don’t have to be cutthroat! Making and using workplace connections to get things done, secure the resources your team needs, and gain visibility for your contributions isn't a bad thing, and oftentimes, it's just plain necessary for advancing your career. Below, our 13 tips for winning at office politics without turning into this guy: Dos and Don'ts of Winning Office Politics 1. Don't: Pretend office politics don't exist or affect you. Rather not get involved in office politics at all? You're certainly not alone. But burying your head in the sand (or snow) only puts you at the mercy of people who are willing to use office politics to further their ends. Remember that engaging in office politics doesn't necessarily mean selling your soul: the ability to see what motivates others and positively influence them are also key traits of a good leader, and skills you should be actively trying to develop. 2. Do: Forget the official org chart — how do things really work? Take the org chart and redo it according to how you see the company actually working. Who has influence and well-respected opinions? Who mentors or supports whom? Who’s doing valuable work that’s not getting proper recognition? Once you understand the behind-the-scenes, you can start making connections that will yield positive results. 3. Do: Make note of social networks. Who eats lunch together? Who asks whom for help? How do different departments socialize? Make your own relationships with a wide variety of people across multiple departments, especially those you wouldn't ordinarily interact with on a daily basis. Just choose to befriend people you genuinely like and respect — don’t be fake or rely on empty flattery. Remember, it’s not just the power players that have valuable support to give; the goodwill and respect of average employees goes a long way, especially when it's time for promotions or assigning team leaders. 4. Don't: Spread gossip or rumors. It’ll come back to bite you. Nobody's perfect, and sooner or later you'll make a mistake you'd rather not have spread through the company by vindictive colleagues who are happy to watch you flounder. 5. Do: Use your network for the greater good. Use your connections to gain visibility for your team’s overlooked achievements, attract opportunities to excel, address widespread problems that have gone unnoticed, and contribute to improving the company overall. 6. Don't: Fail to think ahead. Odds are, you've been tempted to fire off an angry email reply or make a flippant remark at some point in your dealings with others. Before you act on impulse, watch the situation play out in your head all the way through to the end. Does it turn out the way you’d like? Taking a beat and considering the consequences will help you check any impulse reactions that could backfire big time. 7. Do: Contribute to overarching objectives, instead of just focusing on personal goals. Never say, “That’s not in my job description,” or, "This isn't my responsibility." Keep the organization’s interests top of mind, instead of putting your own self-interest above that of your team or the company as a whole. If the business is struggling, you're not going to succeed either. Besides, if someone asks for your input, it’s for a reason — they think you have something valuable to contribute, or it’s crunch time and they need all the help they can get. 8. Do: Pay attention to those with informal power. Get to know those people you see as influencers: they may not be a C-level executive, but when they speak, people listen. Ask for their advice and opinions, observe their habits and how they interact with others, and learn everything you can from them. 9. Don't: Get sucked into other people’s problems and arguments. Office politics can quickly devolve into the kind of drama and backstabbing you haven't seen since high school. Learn how to gracefully bow out of toxic situations, pick battles that really matter, and recognize what you can control — and what you can't. 10. Do: Learn to make allies. When you're at odds with a colleague, look past “Me vs. You” to “How can we make this a win-win?” Examine the situation from the other person's perspective and try to see what their motivation and goals are — or simply sit down with them to discuss how you can work together. Take the opportunity to turn a possible adversary into an ally. 11. Don't: Make disagreements personal. You’re going to disagree or butt heads with someone somewhere along the line — it’s inevitable. Just keep it professional, deal with them directly and openly, and focus on the objective facts instead of devolving into personal attacks or insults. Remember, your goal is to create allies, not enemies. And even if your work results are undeniable, you’ll have a hard time getting promoted if it's well known that you're difficult to work with. 12. Do: Stay focused on the end goal, especially in the midst of conflict. By redirecting everyone’s focus to the organization’s best interests and goals, you’ll develop a reputation as someone who can transcend petty interpersonal squabbles and just get sh*t done. 13. Don't: Be an office zombie. People are people! Show warmth and personality. Look for opportunities to help others and show gratitude to those who help you. Stay late to help a colleague, remember to thank someone who shared a helpful tip, get two coffees during your morning stop and offer the extra to someone who could use a pick-me-up. They'll remember, and you can never have too many people speaking well of you. Don't be a Leader from Hell! Watch our video to learn from classic management mistakes and keep your team happy and productive. Sources: Mindtools.com, Lifehack.org, Forbes.com, Monster.com, Wisebread.com Game of Thrones images, titles, and associated names are the sole property of HBO. This article may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit for comment and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#107.
The Rise of the "Network of Teams" (Work Management Roundup)
Welcome back to the weekly Work Management Roundup, where we collect and curate the best reads from around the web regarding work, leadership, and —this week especially — teamwork. It turns out that hierarchies are out and functional teams are in, and those who are finding success engaging their workers do so by focusing on improving team dynamics. Read on! New Research Shows Why Focusing On Teams, Not Just Leaders, Is Key To Business Performance (Forbes): According to the Deloitte Human Capital Trends 2016 study, traditional hierarchies have taken a backseat to today's “network of teams.” These are teams that work to solve a specific goal regardless of job title, and where leaders are hands-on experts who come from the ranks. Most issues companies face are due to this new model, and now 92% of companies surveyed are redesigning the way they work because of it. The article identifies 4 keys to success using this "network of teams" model. Marketers Poised to Run the Customer Experience Show, Survey Says (Tech News World): In a recent study involving nearly 500 CMOs and marketing execs conducted by email automation company Marketo, the consensus is that marketing will have significant influence over business strategy and the entire customer experience by 2020. The Rise of the Agile Marketer: A Report on the State of Agile Marketing in 2016 (Marketer Gizmo): In a study involving 803 US-based marketers, some fascinating results surfaced: a whopping 63.4% are using at least some aspects of Agile methods. Though there's a surprisingly limited use of Scrum, and there are challenges in finding good Agile training. Bridging the Communication Gap Between Marketing and Creative Teams (Infographic) (Wrike): If you're part of either a marketing or creative team, you understand the frustrations of collaborating with one another. The language and even the focus is sometimes different for each side. This infographic lays out a few simple tweaks to your communication style that may make all the difference. Great Leaders Embrace Office Politics (Harvard Business Review): It's not just about delivering results; being a great leader means networking with influential people in the company, making sure your contributions are noticed and you are perceived as being executive material. Some advice on playing the game without using Machiavellian influence-building tactics. 20 High Achievers Share the Daily Routines That Make Them Successful (Inc): If successful people could distill their daily routines into a formula, would you actually use it? Here's your chance. This roundup gathers the daily tasks of 20 CEOs, founders, and thought leaders, ranging from the mundane ("eat lunch with your employees") to the inspirational ("treat every day like it's the first day on the job") to the unconventional ("run to trouble"). Celebrate small wins, celebrate big milestones. Whenever your team crosses a major hurdle, bring out the champagne and congratulate everyone for the hard work! #Wrike #wriketeam A video posted by Wrike (@wriketeam) on Apr 8, 2016 at 1:28am PDT More Work Management Reads Creativity/Productivity: Why You Need a “Deloading” Phase in Life (Four Hour Workweek) Productivity Zen: Tips and Techniques to Help Get Things Done (Business Zone) The Harsh Truth About Speed-Reading (The Kernel) - Basically, it doesn't work There’s More Than Enough Time, When You Use The Time You Have (Medium) Business: Landing Page Optimization: Find Heaven By Saving Your Visitors From Hell (KlientBoost) What Your Stakeholders Need To Know About Your Project (PM Tips) You Will Soon Be Able To Rent Out Office Space Inside A Staples Store (Consumerist) Behavior: Smokers Less Likely to Get Hired and Earn Less: Study (NBC News) What Every Startup Needs To Know About The Psychology Of Choice (Fast Company) Driving to Work Linked to a Fatter Middle Age (Fox News) Tools: Franz - one free, cross-platform messaging tool that consolidates your different accounts in Slack, Skype, Facebook Messenger, Google Hangouts, and more Google Calendar Update Helps Users Complete Personal Goals (Social Times): the new Goals feature helps users find free time to complete goals The End of Apps is Here. Long Live Chat Bots (The Telegraph) Browse Marketing Speak on Flipboard If you use Flipboard on your mobile device, then you might enjoy our links to all things digital marketing via our Marketing Speak magazine. View my Flipboard Magazine.
5 Reasons Why Your Team Isn't Getting Stuff Done
“There’s no ‘I’ in 'team'!” You may have heard this saying once, twice, or a thousand times. Whether during sports, a school project, or a business meeting, this saying has made the rounds to many individuals who find little motivation in a cliché spelling lesson. And although the technicalities may be true, the meaning just doesn't resonate. There is an "I" in team — many of them. And each individual can impact how the team functions as a whole. Instead of drilling the overused “teamwork is key” speech, focus on the individuals on your team, and the common excuses they give when project hiccups arise. Here are five “I”s that can contribute to why your team isn’t getting stuff done: 1. Poor Prioritization "I didn't think that was a priority." Priorities are a common misunderstanding amongst teams. This can stem from miscommunications right when tasks are assigned, or incorrect assumptions about the importance of a task. These mistakes can affect the trajectory of the entire project if they're not addressed right away. Even when a task is assigned and flagged via email, it can be difficult to know what should happen next. Instead of driving yourself mad tracking down which email was sent to whom and when, consider changing your work processes. There are several task management platforms, like Wrike, that allow you to prioritize (and reprioritize) a task list to tell your team what they need to complete first. Throughout the project life span, you and your team can go in and see what tasks need to be completed ASAP, and assign due dates and available team members accordingly. Some tools have dependency features, so you can make any task dependencies clearly visible for your team and they'll know what needs to get done first. 2. Undefined Team Roles "I wasn't sure who to ask." Clearly defined roles within a team are extremely crucial for both project success and team growth. This response may come up a lot in a team where responsibilities are not explicit. Questions are ignored, forgotten, and, at times, presented to the wrong person — who then gives an incorrect answer. Undefined roles can also lead to team members taking on tasks that don't fit their expertise. This problem sets the team, and project, up for failure. One of the most important roles to define is the team leader. Whether that person is yourself, a colleague, or multiple people, your team needs to know whom they can turn to for questions, progress updates, and changes to the current plan. Defining this role gives your team a solid foundation and direction. 3. Accountability Issues "I wasn't aware that was my responsibility." Tasks are assigned during meetings all the time. Even followed up on through email. Yet this excuse continues to be popular when tasks aren't completed. It may not have been clear who exactly was responsible for the task in the first place. Someone could have missed a meeting, skipped an email, or simply forgotten, and without a proper project tracking tool, there was no way for either of you to know the task was sitting in limbo. Scott Blanchard, co-founder of Blanchard Certified, also finds that accountability problems stem from alignment problems with the overall goal of the project. If you don't share the overall project plan, your team members may have trouble seeing the purpose of their task and its importance to the overall project — so they don't hold themselves accountable for quality work. Tools that allow you to clearly assign individuals to tasks as part of larger projects will help eliminate accountability errors. In most project management tools, a team member will be notified once they are assigned to a task, so there is no confusion on what needs to get done and who needs to do it. One of our well-known customers, Redfoo, uses Wrike to help manage his brand and both of his companies, Party Rock Records and LaFreak Clothing. Before Wrike, Redfoo and his team were struggling with accountability. Now, they open up Wrike during meetings to assign task owners as they're discussed, in a tool where everyone can see the new responsibilities. “It’s really hard in a company like ours, where we’re all creative people, and we’re trusted by our boss to accomplish tasks on our own,” says Charlie Pearl, Brand and Social Media Coordinator at LaFreak. “Wrike creates a timeline and makes it clear who’s assigned to what, so that there is no confusion.” 4. Inability to Resolve Conflict "I find it really hard to work with her." Team members don't always have to be friends, and sometimes they won't be. But workplace drama is not a good excuse to miss a deadline or perform poorly on a collaborative project. As a team leader, it's important to know that most damaging problems don't necessarily occur when a conflict arises, but when it's ignored. According to a study on team conflict resolution, a whopping 95% of the workforce struggles to speak up when problems arise. This may also lead to bigger issues, like wasting time ruminating over the issue, or permanently damaging employee relationships. When resolving conflicts, the best advice is to nip it in the bud. It may not be easy to confess to a mistake, or to talk to a team member about their error, but it's important to fix problems immediately before they get worse. Avoid pointing fingers and placing blame. Accidents happen, so it's important to remind yourself and your team members that you have a common goal, and that your intention is to address the conflict ASAP so everyone can get back to achieving that goal. 5. Lack of Vision "I really just don't see the point." One of the most crippling reasons that teams don't get work done is a lack of shared vision. A negative outlook may not only affect one person, but your whole team. If the ultimate goal is not clear to the whole team, then every team member will view a project's importance, urgency, and crucial steps differently. This can lead to divisions within the team, and may waste time as you figure out how to accomplish tasks. It can also damage productivity due to lack of motivation or enthusiasm for the project as a direct result of not seeing the same vision. One way to avoid this is by writing out clear, tangible goals before any work begins. This way, the team can start on the same page, and the important goals can be referenced when disputes arise. They also make team members feel like their role is crucial to the success of the project, because they can clearly link back their tasks to the vision. When each team member has a purpose, they are more likely to get the job done and do it well. What are some other reasons teams are unproductive? Share your experiences, along with your solutions, in the comments below. We'd love to learn from you! Related Reads:5 Ways Creative Teams Can Boost ProductivityDownload “Get Things Done with Wrike” (eBook)50 Productivity Tips to Boost Your Brainpower (Infographic)10 Reasons Projects Fail: Lessons from the Death Star
The Past, Present, and Future of Remote Collaboration: Where Does Your Team Stand?
We asked you and other people representing companies of all sizes, from solopreneurs to Fortune 500 corporations, how you feel about virtual collaboration and where you see it going. Your input helped us get a bird’s-eye view on the current state of this prominent trend. Click the preview on in the top-right corner to see our infographic visualizing the results of the survey. Today, we’re sharing the prominent findings of the survey so you can see and compare where your team stands in the area of remote collaboration. Check out the major trends: 1. Remote work is on the rise Apparently, virtual collaboration has expanded at an impressive pace, as 43% of surveyed workers report that today they spend much more time working remotely than 2-3 years ago. See what the stats look like if we slice the respondents by organization level as we take a look at this question: 2. The big future of distributed teams Less than 17% of respondents say they get all things done in the office only. And it seems that those who already leverage the opportunity of working remotely are craving for more! One in four respondents expects their office to go fully virtual within just a year or two. The remote work expectations are especially high among the business owners who took part in the survey. It’s almost 44% of them predicting such a rapid shift to virtual teams in their companies. 3. Pros and cons of a virtual workplace Of course, it’s not that easy to work just as efficiently across distances as when you sit in the same office and can discuss all issues face to face as soon as they arise. Here are the main hindrances for collaboration within distributed teams that our survey revealed: By the way, we saw a consensus among workers of all organizational levels when they shared their thoughts about the disadvantages of remote work. Lack of direct communication is something that team members, managers, executives, and business owners equally suffer from. But when you know how to overcome this and other apparent disadvantages of remote work, you can yield some great benefits. Once you master some key challenges, i.e how to make virtual meetings fun or how to give direct feedback across dispersed teams, you can begin to see your remote team flourish. Here are the absolute favorites of our respondents: A curious thing to notice: while time savings turned out to be the No. 1 benefit for team members, managers, and executives, what business owners value the most about remote collaboration is boosted productivity. 4. Sacrifices for the benefit of remote working Getting more things done in less time is a treat, isn’t it? It looks like the vast majority of surveyed workers would agree with this statement since 89% of them responded that the opportunity to work remotely is an important fringe benefit in a job. In fact, 25% of respondents value this perk so much that they’d accept a reduction in their salary in order to continue working remotely! Here are some more sacrifices workers are ready to make: 5. Software matters When we asked the respondents about social communication tools (social networks, microblogs, IM’s, etc.) and the role they play in people’s day-to-day work, here’s what we discovered: over a half (to be precise, 56%) said they use these tools no more than 1 hour every day. The survey revealed that to a significant extent, the success of remote teams leans on the shoulders of helpful online collaboration software. A full 87% of respondents think that collaboration software from remote workers is important or even mission critical for efficient work of their teams. Once again, we thank all the respondents for the input to our survey that has brought such interesting findings. Want to find out more about how Wrike can help your team to embrace remote working? Take a look at some of our features here.
3 Collaboration Tips for Enhancing Teamwork
We talk a lot about collaboration here at Wrike. Partly because it's our favorite topic and we wouldn't be able to function as a company without it. But also because trends continue to point toward more remote collaboration in the future. It's part and parcel of everyday work and it will continue to be so. Which made us think: for the companies that are struggling to implement a culture of collaboration, what are three easy hacks that could make it happen? Here's what we determined: 1. Make Space for Collaboration Whether you're talking about cubicles and areas where your colleagues physically work or the virtual spaces created with cloud services and instant messaging, there must be a way to create inviting spaces for people to meet and work together. For example, Zappos designed its new HQ in Las Vegas so that workers can easily move to a new workspace. Data and power cables dangle from the ceilings so you can plug in anywhere, and common areas are abundant so that you're bound to come into contact with people you wouldn't ordinarily bump into. And what about remote teams? Companies like Shutterstock have made room for collaboration with the extreme practice of always-on video conferencing, where remote workers are part of a Google Hangout for 8 hours a day, allowing them to speak as if they were all in the same room. This way, even remote workers get a chance to build a sense of camaraderie with the other team members. And they can instantly turn to one another for information or assistance by turning to their video conference screen. 2. Push Tools for Sharing Making shared spaces is impossible without the right tools. We suggest these three or four tools to make collaboration a reality: — Realtime messaging tool: Think Skype, Google Hangouts, and Facetime. Something that allows people to talk and video chat with a remote colleague in real time. — Task management tool: Think Wrike (of course). Something that makes teamwork efficient, allows for assigning and organizing tasks, and eliminates the need for back-and-forth emails or IMs regarding work. — Knowledge base tool: Think internal blogs or wikis (and Wrike can do this very well too). Something that allows processes to be documented or expertise/best practices to be shared with the team. — File sharing tool: Think Box, Dropbox, and Google Drive. Something that allows you to easily save, sync, and share files with the team. (If you use Wrike, you'll be able to easily attach these to tasks.) 3. Trick the Body into Participating People are more attentive at meetings when standing versus sitting (especially if they don't have their laptops). There's also much more participation when the team is discussing problems around a whiteboard as opposed to watching someone present onstage in a large auditorium. When issues and diagrams illuminating unsolved problems are posted on whiteboards lining the hallways — or in internal blogs and wikis — you're more likely to see other solutions volunteered by people outside of the core team. Whatever your meeting or discussion may be about, prime the team for participation by encouraging a more active posture, and getting in the way of boredom, complacency, and silos. What are your best collaboration tips? I'm curious what hacks you've used to get teams collaborating or even participating proactively in a meeting. Hit the comments and share! READ NEXT: 5 Mistakes Marketing Teams Make with Collaboration Where Collaboration is Heading in 2015: Top 4 Trends to Watch 4 Strategies for Dealing With Difficult Stakeholders
Why We Complain About Work & How To Stop
Researchers say we complain about 15 to 30 times a day, and a lot of those complaints are about our job. Why do we complain about work? Let's take a look at what complaining is, why you do it, and how to get past it to lead a more positive life.
How Two Customers Cultivate Cross-Departmental Collaboration
You want to develop a more collaborative atmosphere in your organization, get the smart, highly capable people you've hired to interact with one another, despite being on different teams. But how do you motivate your people to peer over their silos and interact with others, despite personality clashes, conflicting priorities, and miscommunication? We look at two Wrike customers who, when faced with the challenge of cultivating cross-departmental collaboration, absolutely crushed it.
How to Improve Your Collaborative Project Management
There are three main factors that determine the success of a new project or campaign: Excellent top-down and bottom-up communication, so everyone is on the same page with progress, challenges, and achievements; Organized and collaborative project management to make sure all work is completed on time and within budget; Collaboration between team members and across departments to bring in more ideas and breed innovation. But it's a mistake to think about these critical success factors for project management separately in today's innovative work environment. You can improve in all three areas by focusing on just one aspect of work: your collaborative project management. Refining this will enable everyone from the CEO on down to communicate with colleagues, manage projects and ideas, actively work together on tasks, and get work done efficiently. The best way to improve your collaborative project management is to bring your team out of the dark ages of back-and-forth email conversations and introduce a software specifically made to do the job. The Keys to Effective Collaborative Project Management Whether you decide to continue using your old methods, or you're looking for a new collaborative project management tool, here are a few things to consider: 1. You need a tool that updates in real time Some cloud-based and online software allow your team to share and monitor updates in real time; as soon as a change is made, that change is visible to everyone. That means your team will never accidentally work with outdated information (e.g. spreadsheets), so collaboration can move forward smoothly and efficiently. 2. Colleagues need to be able to work at the same time Live collaboration is the new hallmark of the best teamwork. One of the first popular tools of this type was Google Docs — one person updates the online document, and another person can edit simultaneously or simply watch the process as it's happening. Wrike is a collaborative project management tool that provides the same real-time collaboration capabilities on tasks and projects. 3. You can discuss work right where its being done Instead of keeping conversations in one tool (e.g. chat tools) and your actual work in another, you should find one tool that allows you to hold conversations right where work is being done. This way, if you bring someone new into your project or you need to pass off work, you can also give them insight into past decision-making and project-related conversations. They'll be able to get up to speed immediately, without you taking time out of your day to walk them through every project detail. 4. You need a consolidated place to store & manage all work-related information It's common these days to keep information saved in many different places, such as email inboxes, cloud file storage systems, and on the hard drives of personal computers. That makes it nearly impossible to ensure your entire team is working with the latest information. If you want to improve your collaborative project management, you need to find one place to store everything related to work — all your one-off tasks, long-term projects, files, conversations, meeting notes, and reports. Doing this gives your people immediate, always-available access to the information they need, without having to hunt through multiple tools. 5. You should be able to change project details & let the team know immediately Every team will need to change project details or priorities at one point or another. Your process or tool should allow you to update work and let your team know immediately, so that everyone is always working on the most important projects with the most accurate information. 6. You should be able to see what's coming next Effective project management software allows you to plan for future tasks and projects using scheduling, Gantt charts, task dependencies, and more. You'll be able to logically organize your tasks and projects, set up workflows to move work from beginning to end, monitor progress to make sure nothing falls behind, and check in with colleagues to see if they need help. As one project is ending, your team can immediately start on the next priority work. Free Collaborative Project Management Tool If you've decided to implement a collaborative project management software, try Wrike absolutely free for 2 weeks, and then upgrade or stay free. Invite your team to Wrike, complete a short project together using the tool, and see how we can help your team work better.
Avoid the Domino Effect: Help Your Team Members Understand Their Impact
It’s easy for people to miss the forest for the trees and have a severe lack of understanding about how their own individual work fits into the larger picture. Failure to understand these interdependencies leads to a frustrating domino effect of delays and failure. Here's how to ensure that doesn't happen.
Tips for Introducing Granular Workload Organization to Your Project Team (Inspired by the Discussion at PMI LA Chapter)
Meet-ups with fellow project managers keep bringing up thought-provoking discussions and interesting ideas on how to maximize the efficiency of project teams. This time, I want to share some notes from the February dinner meeting of the PMI LA Chapter. After my presentation that focused on the ways of making distributed teams efficient, one of the most interesting questions that I heard from the audience was how to introduce a team to a granular work breakdown. No matter how talented and experienced your remote worker is, it might still be unproductive to assign him a huge, month-long task. There’s always some risk in thinking that he’ll do just fine figuring it out all on his own. This way, you severely limit your visibility into the work progress, and if the course goes wrong, you might discover it too late to clear things up. When you can’t discuss things with some of the team members directly and frequently, having more granular assignments might be a helpful tactic and make life easier for both parties. So how exactly do you make it work? Making a sliding scale work in planning First, you could use a sliding scale in planning. Your weekly plan for this week could focus on 5-10 things, just like your quarterly plan, but the scope of those things will obviously be quite different. You don’t have to build a detailed, upfront plan for 52 weeks on January 1st of the new year. If your only concern is visibility, then a weekly plan that only includes the current week is enough. As a new period of time comes, be it quarter, month, week, or day, you plan it, thus the term “sliding scale.” The closer this time period is to today, the more detailed your plan should be. You should however be aware of scope leap when using a system like this. When possible and reasonable, you should also delegate the planning to the employees who are doing the work. Most people feel more moral responsibility for getting the work done on time when they have promised the dates, not when the dates were imposed on them. This not only makes them more responsible, but also makes them happier. By the way, in our recent research on working habits, we discovered that sense of responsibility is the No. 1 productivity trigger: People feel stressed out when they feel no control over their life and work. By returning that feel of control back to them, you empower them. Did I mention that it also saves you from having to do the initial planning?:) It’s hard to come up with a better win-win. Of course, you should also review the plans and align them with higher-level objectives and other employees. Steps to building a new habit within the team Sure enough, it’s easier said than done, as some employees prefer murky schedules, so that they don’t need to report very often. Here are the steps that helped me introduce sliding scale, bottom-up planning: - Make sure to communicate your vision. Why exactly are smaller tasks a better option than bigger assignments? Make sure your team clearly understands the benefits and doesn’t see it as their leader’s new micromanagement whim.- Seed it by your own example. For instance, if you use a collaboration system with a newsfeed, when your workers see how you complete tasks one after another, this might give them a good deal of motivation. They wouldn’t want to lag behind. - When you want to implement some change, making it happen in one big swipe is often hard. Instead, support from a group of “pioneers” might be really helpful. Some employees are more open to new methods. Also, some might be more productivity-oriented than others. Form the “core team,” build the right productivity habit there, and it’ll be easier to later plug in others through peer pressure. - You can blend it into your team’s other working habits. For example, if you have weekly virtual meetings to discuss the work progress and the plans, how big is the difference between these two ways of phrasing the agenda? “Last week, we got 40% of the project completed” or “Last week, we got 10 tasks completed on the project, namely …” To me, the second version sounds way more concise, but it still plays nicely with the habit of discussing work progress every week. - In his awesome best-seller “Good to Great,” Jim Collins said, "Sustained great results depend upon building a culture full of self-disciplined people who take disciplined action.” If, after some time and persistent efforts, the new habit still doesn’t stick with certain employees, you need to look deeper into the reasons. Are they your best performers who try to set up their own rules, or are they your worst performers who try to hide that behind ambiguous schedules and obscure “percent completed” updates? Do they simply need some extra motivation, or do they drag and slow down the whole team? Motivation and other benefits of granular tasks The advantages of slicing work into smaller parts are supported by psychologists. For instance, Joseph Ferrari, a professor from DePaul University, says that when the scope of work looks overwhelming, you get captured by the feeling of “seeing the forest and forgetting that it’s made of trees.” In the opposite situation, we can get valuable small wins. Quoting another interesting book, “Small wins are something people can experience pretty regularly if the work is chunked down to manageable pieces” (from “The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work” by Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer). By the way, “small wins” have become a behavioral term, and they’re often discussed in literature. In “The Power of Habit,” Charles Duhigg concluded that a “huge body of research has shown that small wins have enormous power, an influence disproportionate to the accomplishments of the victories themselves.” What else is there in the habit of granular work organization? In addition to the benefits of clarity, visibility and easier tracking, this approach to distributing workload might also be an efficient way to eliminate procrastination. Another revelation of our survey on work styles was that 21% of workers see procrastination as one of the most dangerous productivity killers. So they’ll most likely thank you if you give them a good weapon to fight this enemy :)