4 Strategies for Developing a World-Class Creative Team
What's the one main challenge for anyone trying to create a world-class creative team? Finding the time to develop the team into an internal powerhouse that can compete with external agencies for the best and most inspiring work. According to a 2016 Paychex survey, 53% of employees claim they left their previous jobs because their "employers didn't care about employees," and 29% left due to "lack of skill development." . On top of that, survey responses from the 2014 In-House Creative Services Industry Report show that managers typically do not have the time to step away from the firehose of production work to identify career paths for the best and brightest. . Without the proper attention from managers, staff turnover increases, creating a vicious cycle where the team loses its star performers and remains too junior to compete for the best work. . We spoke with some of the most successful internal creative agency leaders in the business about how they're helping improve employee retention by focusing on career growth and development. Here are four of their tried-and-tested strategies for developing and coaching creatives: 1. Commit to Developing a World-Class Agency People development does not happen by accident. Creative leaders must embrace an existing company-wide commitment to people development, or form their own programs. This means finding ways to develop contract/freelance workers as well. This is one distinct advantage of being an internal agency within a larger organization: leaders must communicate this commitment. . Find out what your creative team is interested in, both together and individually. Help them strengthen their skill set by promising to cover the cost of an online course or creating a sandbox where the team can go in and play around with a new tool. Investing in their interests will benefit both their career and yours as a leader. 2. Know the Nature of the Work A prerequisite for structuring a talent development program is finding the time. The best leaders have a thorough, up-to-the-minute understanding of all production work and all true development work in the pipeline; including the people doing that work day in and day out. Creative management software solutions become invaluable when it comes to visualizing a team’s workload and efforts. . Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty. When your team needs design or production support, jump in and assist where needed. Make sure you're agile enough to shift workloads around or call for all hands on deck when there's a hiccup in a project or deadline approaching. At the end of the day, your objectives are dependent on them meeting theirs. 3. Create Opportunities to Flex Creative Muscles All production work and no development work makes Jane an unhappy designer. Great managers address staff fatigue by moving people across teams as necessary to ensure they are exposed to the right mix of development and production work. Allowing your team to gain experience in all aspects of creative will help them not only build out their skill set, but provide you with a well-rounded, talented team (not to mention a force to be reckoned with). 4. Use Work Clusters to Build Career Paths Identifying large "clusters" of work helps you recognize the superstars within your own team. . For example, if the majority of your team's work consists of event marketing, sales region support, and web development, you've just identified three main clusters. This means you've now created opportunities to raise your top performers to team/cluster leads. . By delegating leadership and trusting your team members to step up and shine, you've addressed their need for career growth and given yourself time to focus on the strategic aspects of building your world-class creative team. But First, Check Your Vantage Point None of these four strategies are possible without a clear view into the work coming through the pipeline. . Creative management software solutions offer this view with the click of a mouse. By implementing software solutions, there is less time spent on weekly reports, email updates, and management check-ins. And it gives leaders the tools they need to properly assess the development of each person on the team. . When we invest time and effort to understanding the work process and its patterns, we build the scaffolding for proper talent development, and the career satisfaction of each member. 4 Biggest Challenges for Creative Teams from Wrike Download our comprehensive eBook to discover a thorough process for building a world-class internal team from scratch: The Definitive Guide to Building a World-Class Internal Creative Agency. Author Bio:Kate Thome is a writer and consultant. In over 15 years in banking and payments in various marketing, analytics and risk-related roles, Kate developed a keen understanding of the internal workings of marketing and creative organizations. At Visa, she served clients as the Head of US Risk Services. Also at Visa, she was a Consumer Credit consultant supporting clients in developing their card product strategies and in managing their marketing cost structures. She led direct marketing teams at HSBC and Capital One (formerly Hibernia National Bank). Kate was a participant in the Management Development Program at MBNA. She holds an M.B.A. in Marketing and Finance from the Freeman School at Tulane University and a B.A. in Philosophy from the College of the Holy Cross. Her writing appears on LinkedIn, Mutha Magazine and Talking Soup. She blogs about her memoir in process at http://irememberthatnight.blogspot.com. Kate lives with family in Northern California. Follow Kate on Twitter @kthome219.
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.
6 Ways to Help Your Team Return from Vacation and Hit the Ground Running
Preparing your team for a relaxing, disconnected vacation will help folks return to work with a fresh mindset. Here's how to ensure your team can enjoy vacation and return to work ready to hit the ground running.
8 Biggest Challenges for Leading Virtual Teams (Infographic)
Imagine you’re managing a team of remote workers. You’ve created a strategic work breakdown, devised the optimal workflow, and developed an airtight project plan. At the project kickoff your team is energized and motivated to succeed. Now it’s halfway through the project and your colleagues are disengaged and listless. They're not collaborating, team productivity has tanked, and you’re barely making deadlines. Your project looks like it’s dead in the water. What do you do? Top 8 Challenges Facing Remote Teams Virtual teams face some daunting challenges, but knowing what you're up against means you'll be ready to handle any bumps in the road. The following infographic shines a spotlight on the top 8 roadblocks to remote team success: Poor communication: 33% of respondents cite communication as their greatest challenge. Access to expertise: 14% report a difficulty in accessing the knowledge they need to succeed. Technical management: 14% say technical management is their biggest hurdle. Planning overhead: 12% have a difficult time planning. Lack of training: 10% claim their team is not adequately trained. Cultural differences: 9% say overcoming cultural diversity is their team’s biggest challenge. Team morale: 4% have trouble keeping their spirits high. Lack of support: 4% don’t feel encouraged in their work. Check out the infographic below for more statistics and insights into remote work trends. Infographic Source: Projects At Work Does your team have what it needs to succeed? What have you learned from managing distributed teams? How can you manage your virtual team meeting to make sure every member feels heard and included? Check out our post on remote work trends or share your wisdom in the comments below.
3 Ways to Ensure the Success of Your Remote Workers
How can you ensure the success of your remote workforce? Being in a software startup where remote work is part of daily life, we get asked how to successfully work from home a lot — by job applicants and peers alike. It's a situation that's near and dear to our heart as Wrike was created to solve collaboration issues among remote team members. So when people ask how they can ensure the success of their remote workers, we draw from our own experience. This is how we set up our virtual teams for success in Wrike. 1. Nurture a Communication Culture It’s important to have an office culture that makes it easy for an employee to communicate with everyone else whether they’re working in the office or working remotely. The remote worker should be able to communicate with the rest of the team in an easy way using the agreed-upon technology. Here at Wrike, we strongly believe that the three basic technologies for remote work are: A work management platform (such as Wrike) A file editing system (such as Google Docs/Drive), and A screensharing/voice chat software (such as Skype or Google Hangouts). It should be made clear to everyone in the company that “These are the main tools we use for communication.” And if it's not in these tools, it wasn't communicated properly. Get people used to using the tool and communicating when there's a roadblock. In the same vein, get everyone into the habit of sharing their small successes and victories. It serves as an awesome motivator. It’s easy for remote workers to feel like cogs in a machine being given orders. Communication helps maintain a good human relationship with them so that they know they are valuable members of the team. 2. Set Metrics How can you measure success for the remote worker? Metrics. Metrics can help you evaluate the success of your remote workers, but try to boil it down to the metric that really matters. Take our support team as an example: we measure the time it takes to respond to a ticket, how long it takes to resolve, how many tickets come at which time of day, and many more, the most important one for our support organization is our Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) score. As long as our CSAT score is high, we can safely assume that all individual contributors are performing at a high level. But we have the data available to report on individuals or subgroups if needed. And by comparing metrics from week to week, we can monitor how well we're improving our customer support processes. 3. Ensure Face-to-Face Interaction Happens Here's a truth you need to face even when working with a virtual team: nothing can replace in-person interaction. So find a way to meet regularly. Or at the very least, be able to see each other's faces on a regular basis via webcams. Some suggestions: a) Make webcams a necessity for remote workers. Being able to talk to someone's face is essential to building camaraderie and reading non-verbal communication. b) Call instead of write. Remote workers tend to write a lot of emails, and this takes time. If you want to speed up the process, opt for voice communications and video calls over emailing or instant messaging. c) Schedule times throughout the year to actually meet in person. Being able to work side-by-side in the same office environment for 3 to 5 days at a time can provide a better understanding of your teammates' habits and personalities. How Do You Make Remote Teamwork A Success? Remote work will always be a challenging situation for both the company and the individual worker. But following these guidelines will help ensure that your remote workers are given the chance to succeed at their work — despite the distance. Using a work management tool like Wrike that supports seamless remote working can be a gamechanger for dispersed teams. Keep track of projects, streamline your workflow and improve teamwork, all on one platform. Image credits: Geekgrind on Flickr. Some rights reserved.
The Pursuit of Positivity in the Workplace: Q&A with Happiness Expert Shawn Achor
How do you define happiness? How do you think it relates to the productivity of your team? Are your employees and coworkers happy? These answers affect more than just day-to-day emotions and interactions. They affect revenue and the culture of your business. As we try our best to free ourselves from distraction and conduct endless research on how to achieve an advantage over competitors, we forget about the biggest productivity enhancer and competitive advantage of all: a positive work environment. We spoke with Shawn Achor — happiness author, GoodThink Co-Founder and CEO, and TED Talk speaker — about the importance of happiness in the workplace and how positivity is scientifically proven to impact a business. Read the full Q&A below: 1. How do you define happiness? Does this definition change as we grow older? We need to redefine what happiness means. The ancient Greeks defined happiness as “the joy we feel striving toward our potential.” This changes the way we pursue happiness. Joy is something you can feel even in the ups and downs of life, even when things are not pleasurable. And joy is something we feel that moves us toward our potential or growth. We get closer to our potential when we grow in our relationships, or in our understanding of the world, or as altruists and compassionate human beings. The opposite of happiness is not unhappiness. Unhappiness can encourage us to make positive changes. The opposite of happiness is apathy, the loss of joy in our life. To me, this definition doesn’t change over time. 2. How can we distinguish between long-term happiness and temporary bouts of pleasure and success? Having traveled to 51 countries over the past five years, I’ve learned two things: everyone has a different definition of happiness, but what creates happiness is universal. As we measure happiness, we allow people to use their own definitions. Just like with pain at a hospital, there’s no pain-meter we can hook you up to. The same is true for happiness. You are just as happy as you feel you are. But what creates happiness is universal. Social support and connection are the greatest predictors of long-term happiness. In my research, I've found that there’s a 0.7 correlation between happiness and social support (which is incredibly high) — stronger than the correlation between smoking and cancer! Happiness, universally, is a choice based upon how we perceive the reality we find ourselves in. Which is why some people can be happy living in poverty and some affluent people are miserable. The United States is good about realizing that we need to seek happiness instead of just success, but the US has a long way to go to match the happiness of some less economically developed countries who realize that real social connection, physical exercise, being out in nature, not playing the materialism game, are crucial to happiness. I am hoping that, for schools and companies, we can stop using the "if you’re successful then you’ll be happy" formula, because that formula does not work. Rather, we need to realize that happiness fuels the success of a nation and individuals alike. [inlinetweet]"Everyone has a different definition of #happiness, but what creates happiness is universal" via @shawnachor @wrike[/inlinetweet] 3. What barriers keep people from experiencing happiness? The biggest barrier is most people think they can’t change. Most of the public thinks you’re either born positive or not, and that you cannot change. This understanding is 20 years behind the actual science. We now know that yes, genes seem to predict levels of happiness, intelligence, and success on average, but that is because the average person does not fight their genes. We rarely break free from our genes by creating voluntary habits designed to train our brain to act differently. If you look at the same research that “proves” genes matter, you’ll see outliers all over the place proving that genes do not have to be the end of the story. This is the research we need to share with the world. We can escape the tyranny our genes and environment have over our happiness. Happiness can be a choice. 4. What 3 tips would you give someone who struggles to find long-term happiness? 1. Practice gratitude on daily basis while you brush your teeth. Researchers have found that finding three new things you’re grateful for every day can move people dramatically on the optimism scale. 2. Write a positive note or email each day praising or thanking someone. If you make this a short note, less than two minutes, this is a daily routine that we have found dramatically raises your social connection score. Researchers have found that social connection is as predictive of how long you will live as obesity and smoking. 3. 15 minutes of cardio a day or three times a week for 30 minutes is the equivalent of taking an antidepressant. [inlinetweet]"15 min of cardio a day or 3x a week for 30 min is the equivalent of taking an antidepressant" via @shawnachor @wrike [/inlinetweet] 5. If happiness leads to success (and not the other way around), how can we take action in the workplace to improve the overall happiness of employees? The summary of my Harvard Business Review article is this: the greatest competitive advantage in the modern economy is a positive and engaged brain. The human brain at positive has an unfair advantage over that same brain at negative or neutral. When we are positive, we show 31% increase in productivity, 40% increased likelihood to get a promotion, 23% fewer stress-related symptoms, 37% higher sales — the list goes on and on. In my book Before Happiness, I describe the X-spot research which shows that we accelerate toward a goal the closer we perceive success to be. For a business example, think about a coffee shop that offers a card where if you buy 10 coffees, you’ll get one free. That strategy works much better if you help the customer feel that they’ve made great progress. So you have to buy 12 coffees, but you get two stamps free. In the first, you start out 0% toward your goal. In the second, you are 18% on your way. So as you set sales goals, product goals, or even make checklists, make sure you are already indicating progress. Each bit of perceived progress acts as a success accelerant for the brain. The X-spot in a marathon is 26.1 miles into the race. That's where they put medical crews, because your body gets such a huge rush of neurochemical accelerants that some people cannot take it. We obviously don’t want people having heart attacks, but this shows how powerful perceived success can be. At work, we can use some of those accelerants to propel growth. Happiness is a choice, but leaders and companies can make that choice easier by providing education on how to raise positivity in the workplace, creating social engagements, and authentically praising individuals. My job is to use the science to convince companies that the greatest competitive advantage in the modern economy is a positive and engaged workforce. Those that realize that, focus on helping cultivate positive work environments which results in the happiness advantage. [inlinetweet]"The greatest competitive advantage in the modern economy is a positive & engaged workforce" via @shawnachor @wrike[/inlinetweet] 6. What's a big new trend that you see coming that people aren't paying enough attention to? Genes and environment will define your happiness, unless you make conscious changes to your mindset and habits. If you do the latter, your happiness will no longer remain under the tyranny of your genes, childhood, and environment. Happiness is not the belief that we don't need to change, it is the belief that we can. How do you help boost positivity in the workplace? Share your experiences and ideas in the comments. Bio: After spending twelve years at Harvard University, Shawn Achor has become one of the world’s leading experts on the connection between happiness and success. His research on happiness made the cover of Harvard Business Review, his TED talk is one of the most popular of all time with over 8 million views, and his lecture airing on PBS has been seen by millions. Shawn has worked with over a third of the Fortune 100 companies, and lectured in more than 50 countries speaking to CEOs in China, senior leaders at the Pentagon, schoolchildren in South Africa, and farmers in Zimbabwe. His Happiness Advantage training is the largest and most successful positive psychology corporate training program to date in the world. Shawn is the author of New York Times best-selling books The Happiness Advantage (2010) and Before Happiness (2013), as well as Ripple’s Effect and The Orange Frog. Shawn was published in a top psychology journal last year for the work he did at UBS in partnership with Yale University to create a more effective stress training, and he recently did a two-hour interview with Oprah discussing happiness research and perception of success.
6 Steps to Managing the Marketing Chaos Using Workflows (Video)
The chaos is real: your marketing team is working on complex, long-term plans while new requests keep streaming in. Meanwhile, a global conversation is happening online involving your brand and your industry — yet another thing to track. In addition, your team must be constantly learning new strategies and integrating new tools into what is marketing management for your organization. On top of everything, you need to interface with a variety of internal groups and outside vendors to make it all work. So how do you tame this mess? Watch the video below to discover how to best control the chaos using repeatable workflows: As you just saw, marketing workflows can help your team by making internal processes predictable and easy. What are Workflows? Workflows are repeatable steps that your team members follow each time they start a routine project. It's a formula, a tried and tested recipe. Here are some examples of things that could be turned into standard workflows: Creating a new infographic Launching an email campaign Developing a new web page or section of your website Running a paid marketing campaign Planning and developing a new feature Setting up a customer event See our Marketing Workflows Infographic for a list of workflows and common steps for each. So How Do Workflows Help You? Workflows allow you to: List the standard steps, timing, and approvals needed for each deliverable Know who's responsible for each step Stay up-to-date on the status of the project It's the same process every time. And because of this, you know the handoffs, approvals and timing of each step. This allows your team to focus less on the process and more on being strategic and creative. Setting Up Workflows in 6 Steps To set up workflows for your team, follow these steps: List the major processes that your team completes regularly Document the steps, responsibilities, and approvals Set up those steps in a tool like Wrike (using custom workflows) Manage each process in your project management tool Get status updates within the tool and via notifications Eliminate the extra status request emails and meetings, and focus on getting work done within your project management tool Does Your Marketing Team Have Workflows in Place? Does your team have standard workflows in place? If so, how has it saved you time? If not, which process would you turn into a standard workflow first? Read next:5 Essential Marketing WorkflowsAccelerate Your Business With Custom WorkflowsWrike for Marketing Teams
10 Tips to Build a Top-Notch Sales Organization
Over one trillion dollars are spent annually on sales organizations. That's a 13-figure number, and no small matter for our economy. With so much money going into the field, shouldn't we make sure we're putting in every effort to ensure our sales teams are equipped to do their best work? We asked sales and business leaders for their tips on building a top-notch sales organization. Read on to see what they had to say and learn how you can help lead your sales team to success. 1. Sales boils down to People, Processes, and Systems Sales operations and management are all about putting the right combination of elements together to make your organization successful: people, processes, and systems. The interaction between your sales talent, technology, and management expectations can make or break your goals. As a sales leader, you hire sales people who are goal-oriented, hungry, have great communication skills, and can represent your products and company appropriately. Then you hand them a compensation plan and technology tools to drive and manage their behavior. —Cassie Dennis, Director, SocialRaise 2. Build processes for every possible situation your team will encounter The most important part of building a leading sales organizations is creating systems and processes. You not only have to be able to scale, but you also have to know what is working. You cannot have 10 people selling your product in 10 different ways. You have to build out systems for everything from sales process to handling objections. —Adam Dailey, CEO, funlyevents.com 3. Hold people accountable with KPIs You must have metrics to hold people accountable. You have to establish easily-measured KPIs that the entire team understands and follows. —William Bauer, Managing Director, Royce Leather 4. Continually coach & support your reps Sales management has to be able to oversee what is happening in the sales process to coach and focus the rep's efforts. Creating a system that supports and enables your sales people AND processes can make all the difference. —Cassie Dennis, Director, SocialRaise 5. Address the elephant in the room: fear Fear must be addressed. It is the single most-discussed issue relating to sales reps. The fear of rejection, failure, cold calling, contacting the Upper Crust buyers and sellers, and much more. It keeps salespeople from picking up the phone and going out to connect with buyers and sellers. —Jonathan Kendall, CCP, CPS, CMCT, President & CEO, PopUpSelling.com 6. Teach your salespeople how to develop relationships with customers In the new economy, selling requires individuals that understand they are in the marketing business, can control the discussion, and build a relationship. Customers are smarter today and have more access to information. Today’s sales individual has to be able to develop a relationship, since 88% of consumers will only work with people they know and trust. —Drew Stevens, Ph.D. 7. Show reps how to sell to customers from varied backgrounds and situations Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers are naturally motivated to buy (and in the case of the sales team, sell) in very different ways. The one-size-fits-all sales and training methodologies, and the singular revenue-based sales management style, are outdated. The sales person needs to be led and taught to connect and sell to everyone, in any generation. —Jonathan Kendall, CCP, CPS, CMCT, President & CEO, PopUpSelling.com 8. Train reps to suit their learning style, not yours You need education that is focused on the learning style of the sales person. If the person is visuals-focused with a hard-charging, aggressive sales attitude, a touchy-feely approach will not work (and vice versa). In fact, it might demotivate them. Too many programs do not modify the process to meet the exact needs of the individual. Most are too focused on soft skills and the "I'm OK, you're OK" approach. Customization to the personal modalities of the individuals' brain is critical to the success of the program. —Jonathan Kendall, CCP, CPS, CMCT, President & CEO, PopUpSelling.com 9. Recognize the success of individual sales personnel using a great CRM tool Successful salespeople want to be compensated for closing sales, but they also want to be recognized. It's not just about how much they're paid, but about the thrill of victory and recognition. To make the most of this drive, you'll want to have a top-notch system where performance can be tracked. The challenge here becomes how to attribute team accomplishments as well as individual accomplishments. You want to enable people to take ownership of their achievements without being too territorial. It's important to set up a dual set of metrics to encourage pride in the team alongside pride in individual accomplishments. Good CRM software is crucial to managing this kind of information. It enables a company to clearly track involvement in different stages of the sales process, and enables you to reward employees accordingly. —Marc Prosser, Co-founder & Managing Partner, Fit Small Business 10. Automate repetitive tasks Don't do your own busywork. Use a third party tool to automate or hand off your repetitive tasks, such as building a list of leads, gathering contact information, researching potential clients, cleaning up CRM data, running drip campaigns, etc. —Joe Leon, Co-Founder, Steward More tips on building a sales team primed for success If you're serious about improving your sales team, the learning doesn't stop here. Read these posts next to see how you can turn your sales team around: 15 Stats You Should Know to Improve Your Sales Team How the Best Sales Teams Collaborate to Get Better Results 5 Challenges Sales Operations Teams Face Today Better teams use better tools Thousands of sales organizations rely on Salesforce to manage their client relationships — but how do they manage relationships with other departments? The Wrike + Salesforce integration allows your sales reps to communicate with other internal teams without leaving Salesforce. See how sales teams are already using Wrike + Salesforce, and then start your free 2-week trial of Wrike.
Smart Ways to Manage Your Team's Resources with Wrike
Sometimes the perfect project plan fails because of poor execution: budgets swell with unexpected expenses, and the team needs extra time to deliver the goods. Having real-time transparency into the allocation of your project resources will help you make project-saving decisions faster, and improve your estimation and execution on future projects. We're sharing our advice to help you figure out which resources are overloaded or need higher capacity, monitor overruns that are eating into your margins, and identify critical project areas. Use Wrike's resource planning tool for professional services to implement our tips and manage your resources effectively: 1. Track all resources in one table Wrike's Table View is familiar to all spreadsheet users, and it provides you with a comprehensive overview of your project state. Use it to plan a new project from scratch, view available or unavailable project resources, and build up-to-date reports. You can customize your project view by reordering and hiding/unhiding columns for your various projects. All data in our Table View can be exported to Excel so you can share it with your executives, clients, or stakeholders in a familiar format. 2. Keep accurate time logs Tracking time spent on tasks is tricky since people often forget to update their records. Wrike's timer takes this administrative task off everyone's shoulders: whenever someone on your team starts working on a task they simply click the timer to start tracking the exact number of minutes they work. This data is aggregated into the Time Spent column in Table View. To add it to your project overview, click on the gear icon. If you're using Wrike Enterprise, create a Custom Field for "Estimated Time", fill it out in the beginning of your project, and compare it to the actual number hours spent working. This side-by-side eye-opener will help you make more accurate estimations on future projects. 3. Adjust your team's workload If some tasks are at risk to run over schedule, Wrike's Workload view will help you adjust the team's workload to ensure they are delivered on time. You can see which team members are overloaded with multiple important tasks at once, and identify whose schedule has more capacity. Once you've identified risks, rearrange tasks to balance the workload and bring more resources to critical areas. Detail and Track Project Resources with Custom Fields Wrike's advanced customization options for Enterprise enable you to track resources specific to your projects. Use Custom Fields to control your expenses, estimate risks, and more. 4. Get control over your budget Create Custom Fields for estimated budget and actual cost to quickly spot which activities required extra expenses. This will help you adjust your budget for additional projects. 5. Estimate risks Spotting potential risks in advance will help you deliver results on time, even if the worst case scenario comes to light. Add a special "Risk" Custom Field with "High", "Medium", and "Low" values in the dropdown menu. If assignees feel that a task is likely to go over budget or schedule, or thinks something will impede progress, they can set the risk for this task as "High". When you go to your project Table View, sort your tasks by your Risk column, go through the list to diagnose the problems, and take preventative action. You can also keep these important tasks in a Dashboard widget to ensure they won't fall through the cracks. Wrike makes managing resources easier Using these Wrike features to manage your project resources makes planning projects, tracking progress, and coordinating your team's work more accurate and stress-free. If you're already using other Wrike features to manage your project resources, please tell everyone about it in the comments. Note: Custom Fields and Analytics graphs are available as part of our Enterprise subscription. Try our Enterprise version for free to test drive these features.
3 Productivity Secrets: Sleep, Deep Work, No Multitasking (Work Management Roundup)
Welcome back to the weekly Work Management Roundup, where we collect the week's best reads in work, business management, and productivity to inspire you to work smarter. This week, we open with three articles that tackle why we're not performing at our best: we lack sleep, we don't schedule time for deep work, and we're addicted to multitasking. Read on!
Productivity Lovers, Build Better Habits for Your Project Team
Ever wonder how successful project teams make it seem so easy? Every team member is engaged, every deadline is met, and every project is a breeze.... Today on Elizabeth Harrin's popular blog, PM4Girls, our CEO and productivity-lover Andrew Filev teaches everyone how to instill new team productivity habits. Read it now and make other people wonder how YOU do it. Andrew's guest post gives us 5 easy steps to move team members from habit denial to habit acceptance as quickly as possible. He writes: "Your team’s productivity habits are the magic ingredients to your project's success. If you have the right recipe, your team will complete the project on time and collaborate in a hassle-free way... Motivational speaker Brian Tracy said, 'Successful people are simply those with successful habits.'" If you want to build better productivity habits for your project team (and who doesn't want better productivity?), and invest in a resources planning tool, read Andrew's advice on PM4Girls right now.
One Simple Trick To Make All Your Meetings Productive (Video)
Are you part of the 39% of people who admit to dozing off during meetings? How often do you sneak a peek at your phone to browse Twitter under the table? Do you check up on other work in the middle of a meeting? Guilty on all counts? With 11 million(!) business meetings taking place every day in the US alone, and up to half of that time being wasted, we can hardly blame you. And we commend you for seeking a solution to unproductive meetings. Wrike's principal consultant and productivity coach Errette Dunn has picked up a few tricks during his time at Toyota and other top companies, and he's ready to share his #1 secret for better meetings. Click 'play' on the video below to learn the one question you need to ask to make all your meetings more productive. Make your meetings more productive Use Wrike to easily capture assignments and next steps from all your meetings. Learn how to lead effective weekly meetings in Wrike, then start a free Wrike trial to try it out with your team. Statistics Source: MeetingKing.com Read next: 4 Problems with Virtual Meetings You Can Fix 7 Tips for Better Meetings (Infographic)
The 3 Most Effective Principles To Encourage Your Team's Creativity
“Have fun, create and inspire” – that’s how we describe our work at Realmdigital, a software solution provider. Software development is by definition an area for innovative and creative minds. Nevertheless, it’s not an easy thing to keep coming up with great new ideas in the day-to-day routine. That’s why in our work we follow several important principles that help us keep a fresh look at what we’re doing. If your team works in the creative environment, as well, I presume these principles will work for you, too.“Have fun, create and inspire” – that’s how we describe our work at Realmdigital, a software solution provider. Software development is by definition an area for innovative and creative minds. Nevertheless, it’s not an easy thing to keep coming up with great new ideas in the day-to-day routine. That’s why in our work we follow several important principles that help us keep a fresh look at what we’re doing. If your team works in the creative environment, as well, I presume these principles will work for you, too. Aim for clients as adventurous as you are Simply being a company that builds everyday “vanilla solutions” is not a challenge for us. That’s why we are looking for customers that have the same spirit as we do. There are different companies among our clients – large corporations like Nivea, Motorolla, and Jeep, and really small businesses. What they all have in common is the desire to explore the new technologies and to try something different. It’s challenging and inspiring to work with people who have ambitious goals, such as being pioneers in the digital space and getting the best results from the online market. This makes us try our best to help them achieve these goals. First comes the right idea; then comes the right technology to implement it The most fascinating things in software development are ideas. The technologies only exist to help us implement them. Others pay a lot of attention to the technical requirements right from the beginning, but in my opinion, this kills the creativity in the project. We believe that in software development, everything is possible, and we always start by making our customer believe it, too. With this vision, together we can come up with really groundbreaking ideas and then find the best technologies to implement them. Collect as many ideas as you can The more people who participate in the brainstorming, the more great ideas we get! That’s why we are eager to involve our clients in the development process at any stage, if they want to be involved. Wrike’s backlog feature works great for our brainstorming. We keep logging all of the ideas our team and our clients suggest into Wrike project management software, and then every month we prioritize them with our clients for the next delivery cycle. And as we try to test ideas in action in the very early stages, even if one of them doesn’t work, we minimize the cost of this mistake. This way, we are able to find new, efficient solutions and make sure they work in the fast-changing digital market. And Wrike’s flexibility helps us a lot here! Also, check the videocast with Simon from our YouTube channel for more details: Do you have more ideas on how to maintain a creative environment for your team? “Unlike other project management solutions that we tried, Wrike has a very flexible structure that perfectly fits our workflow. During our daily meetings, we instantly see what has been done and what is planned to do on the timeline and can reprioritize our goals if something may potentially hold the project back. It makes us very agile, while everyone always stays on the same page – that’s just brilliant!” Simon Bestbier, CEO at Realmdigital Realmdigital believes that software development can be as interesting as design. They specialize in opening the opportunities of digital markets for their clients, which vary from large corporations to small businesses.
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
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
5 Ways to Show Your Remote Workers Some Love
Managing a team of remote workers can be tricky, especially when it comes to communicating and building rapport. Without careful attention, remote workers can easily start to feel that they're "out of sight, out of mind." So how do you help your distributed team members feel valued, keep them engaged, and even have fun working together? Here are 5 ways to show your remote team some love: 1. Engage With Them Just because you're not all in the same location, doesn't mean you can't enjoy team bonding activities. Try some fun activities for remote employees, send each other packages of goodies from your local area, and find ways to liven up conference calls and get to know each other. Use this list of team bonding activities for remote teams (scroll to the bottom of the article) for more ideas. 2. Include Them in Office Celebrations Include remote teammates in regular office activities like holiday parties, big announcements, and special celebrations. Live video streams, invites to participate in Secret Santa gift exchanges, ugly sweater or costume contests, online karaoke parties — the possibilities are endless. 3. Chat About Life Outside of Work Provide an informal place like Skype or Google Hangouts for the team to chat and get to know each other (and you)! Even though you may not meet face-to-face more than once or twice a year, you're still colleagues. Talk about the same stuff you discuss with your co-located peers in the hallways or kitchen: vacations, families, sports, pop culture, the works. That camaraderie and familiarity will be a huge benefit when it comes time for your team to collaborate, brainstorm, and creatively solve problems. 4. Don't Micromanage! When you can't physically see your team at their desks, typing away or making phone calls, it can be tempting to start micromanaging or checking in needlessly just to reassure yourself that things are getting done. Instead, set a regular schedule for how often you'll check in with your team, both as a group and one-on-one, and then stick to it. Focus on results and show your team that just because they're working remotely, doesn't mean they're being treated any differently than your local employees. Setting clear expectations and building trust can go a long way when it comes to keeping your employees happy, engaged, and motivated. 5. Send Them Company Swag As Jason Evanish points out, it'll help them feel like part of the team, boost morale, and reinforce the fact that they're valued just as highly as their colleagues who work from the office. 5 Ways to Show Your Remote Workers Some Love More Tips for Managing a Remote Team As part of a global team ourselves, we at Wrike have learned from experience how to avoid the common pitfalls of remote work and discovered strategies for effective collaboration. Download our free eBook for simple techniques that will keep your team productive, no matter how many time zones separate you.