Cross-Cultural Collaboration in the Modern Workplace

Cross-Cultural Collaboration

Culture shapes our lives to a considerable extent. Everyone is born into a culture of their own, and failing to take this into account could yield misunderstandings and conflicts, which is why it became a crucial topic in the modern workplace.

Our backgrounds define the way we interact with our peers and seniors and define our expectations from social interactions. Being knowledgeable and curious about other cultures doesn’t just help you avoid uncomfortable misunderstandings and flawed assumptions but will also allow you to improve your communication with your colleagues at work.

In this blog post, we’ll explore the intricacies of cross-cultural collaboration, and we’ll take a look at a few useful do’s and don’ts when it comes to making people around you accepted and understood.

Let’s dive right in, shall we?

Cultural metacognition

1. Cultural metacognition?

Cultural metacognition is a term coined by Harvard Business School professor Roy Chua. So, first off, what in the world is metacognition? Cognition typically refers to the process of thinking, perceiving, or reasoning. The easiest way to explain metacognition is “thinking about thinking,” in this particular case, it’s being conscious of the cultural assumptions you make about other people.

Developing this skill is essential in building trust with your colleagues and taking your collaboration to a whole new level.

Okay, but how does one even do that?

Fortunately, there’s a fairly simple analogy that can help us get to the bottom of this term. Imagine that you’re driving in a foreign city. Most people will experience a sense of heightened awareness since they need to take in a lot of details to navigate this new area efficiently. You need to pay attention to road signs, speed limits, means of transportation you’re not used to, and so forth. On the other hand, visiting foreign places can be a fulfilling and illuminating experience. 

So fundamentally, cultural metacognition is a heightened sense of awareness when thinking about other cultures, as well as how you interact with people from cultures different from yours. This will invariably enable you to be mindful and respectful of people’s differences and, as a result, ensure better cross-cultural collaboration.

Have you ever noticed that one of your colleagues gets continuously interrupted during meetings? Or that one of your colleagues very rarely makes contact with other people in the office? Consider whether those tendencies relate to their cultural background, their personal characteristics, or a mix of both.

Assumptions and value systems

2. Assumptions and value systems

People make assumptions all the time. Very often, these assumptions are incorrect, but, unfortunately, there’s very little we can do about it. This is a feature that we had to learn throughout evolution in order to increase our chances of surviving in hostile environments that we didn’t understand. Assumptions were an extremely important development for people, because they generally require very little thought, allowing us to react quickly.

Can we change that? Not really. At this point, this is just a part of how people operate in the world, and it will take many, many years to undo this if that would ever be necessary, so trying to stop making assumptions is pretty much futile. However, that is not to say that we can’t really do anything about the assumptions we make about the people around us, especially those that come from different cultures.

Something that would actually improve cross-cultural collaboration in your workplace is understanding that you’re prone to assuming things by default, and it’s always a good idea to challenge these preconceptions whenever you can. As a leader, it’s also a good idea to remind the people around you to do the same.

Eliminating erroneous beliefs about people that come from cultures that are different from your own will not only improve morale in your organization but will also enable people to collaborate more efficiently by getting to know each other on a more personal level.

An excellent way to dispel a wide array of misconceptions your colleagues may have about each other is a creating a questionnaire that would cover different critical aspects of their work-related preferences—stuff like the time when they’re most productive, how they prefer to interact with their colleagues, how they’d like to get the feedback, and so forth.

How is this useful? The things you can learn about your colleagues will shed light on their value systems that are partially derived from their cultures.

Fundamentally, a person’s values are expressed through what they prefer to work, how they behave, and how they expect others to behave. Respectively, understanding their values will help you tailor the best approach to collaborating with them and learning about how they prefer to execute tasks and interact with their colleagues.

Value systems contain a number of essential parameters to keep in mind. Here are a few of them:

  • Hierarchy—the extent to which people from different cultures welcome or accept a vertical distribution of power in an organization. Some cultures appreciate well-defined leadership roles, and people are expected to follow their managers’ orders. On the other hand, there are cultures that value a flatter distribution of power and questioning management’s decisions is accepted and normalized.
  • Ambiguity—the extent to which people are comfortable with uncertainty in their work. Some cultures value risk-taking and trying novel approaches, whereas others are typically inclined towards more structure and choose not to experiment with untested methodologies.
  • Individualism—the extent to which people from certain cultures value individual success versus collective success.
  • Achievement orientation—a spectrum that reflects the type of achievements a culture is typically drawn to. Some cultures value success, wealth, and self-actualization, whereas others seek to achieve a better quality of life and relationships with the people around them.
  • Long-term orientation—the extent to which particular cultures prefer long-term gain versus immediate gains.

It’s crucial to underline that while certain cultures have dominant value systems that define how well they tolerate ambiguity or how individualistic they are, they are but generalizations. It would be unreasonable to assume that everyone from that country will share the same views or values.

So going back to questionnaires—consider wording your questions in a subtle manner that will allow your colleagues to expand on their preferences, ideally on a video call. This insight into their personality and value system will be an invaluable asset when it comes to streamlining collaboration in your team.

People view time differently

3. People view time differently

An essential part of people’s cultural differences in how they choose to deal with time. All of us fall somewhere between monochronic and polychronic behaviors. The former is a preference for working on one task at a time, while the latter is an inclination towards multitasking. Monotaskers typically like to compartmentalize their time in order to start working on a task only after they’ve finished the previous one.

Members of both groups are subject to bias against one another. For instance, people that have a more monochronic attitude can sometimes see their polychronic colleagues as disorganized and even chaotic. In contrast, multitaskers can often be frustrated with monotaskers’ reluctance to jump in an ad hoc meeting to address an urgent problem.

To eliminate misunderstandings and promote a more mindful approach towards people with differing attitudes to time, it’s essential to create an environment where everyone can openly discuss their preferences.

Language matters

4. Language matters

A substantial part of effective cross-cultural collaboration and leadership in modern organizations revolves around the ability to deliver messages in a thoughtful manner. There’s a wide array of language parameters that can cause issues between people from different backgrounds. The things we have to pay close attention to is our vocabulary and language style, as well as non-verbal behaviors.

1. Language

In the vast majority of cases, international teams use English as a lingua franca (bridge language) in order to communicate with people from different cultural backgrounds.

Language problems may occur if all individuals within a team do not use the same first language. In these situations, for ease of communication, the team often chooses a common language that they can use for group communications. Language differences between individuals can occur at two different levels:

  • Vocabulary—the words native speakers use can often be a source of confusion in a cross-cultural workplace. It’s always a good call to tailor your communication in terms of vocabulary, pronunciation, and slang to accommodate your foreign colleagues.
  • Style of communication—different cultures have different styles of interacting across hierarchies. Some people are very direct by default, while others choose to be more cordial. The same applies to cultures that choose to be brief in their communication, while others prefer to be expansive.

2. Non-verbal behaviors

Non-verbal behaviors are a critical part of communication. However, unfortunately, there are very few gestures that have the same universal meaning. The same applies to body language. Making eye contact with people can be considered a sign of politeness in some cultures and rude in others. It’s essential to be mindful of these things in order to establish an effective cross-cultural collaboration at work. Of course, taking these things into account at all times can be a daunting task, but at least attempting to do so will surely eliminate a great deal of misunderstandings.

Microaggressions

3. Microaggressions

Derald W. Sue, a psychologist that published two books on microaggressions, defines them as: “The everyday slights, indignities, put-downs and insults that people of color, women, LGBT populations or those who are marginalized experience in their day-to-day interactions with people.”

Typically, these behaviors aren’t always intended as an insult, they’re often meant as a compliment, yet they carry a negative connotation that assaults the dignity of marginalized groups. Here are a few examples:

  • Asking a gay colleague, “Who is the ‘man’ in your relationship?”
  • Choosing to simplify or mispronounce a person’s name because it sounds too foreign or is hard to say correctly.
  • Complimenting a non-white coworker on speaking good English.

There is also a type of microaggression relatively common in the workplace called behavioral microaggressions. These are behaviors that assault one’s identity. Here are a few examples:

  • Assuming that a Latinx colleague is a service worker.
  • Suggesting that a female coworker should smile more.
  • Not inviting a disabled coworker to an after-work event because you assumed that they couldn’t participate.

While most of us are willing to learn how to behave in a way that’s accepting and inclusive of people from other cultures or marginalized communities, almost all of us have at one point committed a microaggression. Here are a few things you should take into account when you’ve been called out for doing so:

  • Don’t be defensive—while you probably didn’t intend to offend anyone, it’s important to empathize with the person you’ve committed a microaggression against.
  • Listen intently—if you happen to insult someone, instead of deflecting by saying that “it was a joke,” consider listening to what they have to say.
  • Acknowledge—it’s absolutely critical to recognize and verbally acknowledge that you’ve wronged someone.
  • Apologize, but don’t expect to be forgiven—people from minority groups have to deal with microaggressions throughout their entire lives, so it’s only fair to expect that you won’t be forgiven straight away. While what you said seemed like an inoffensive joke to you is an insult they are probably tired of hearing.

The bottom line

Developing cultural mindfulness and making the necessary adjustments when interacting with your colleagues from other cultures is challenging, but this is a critical part of creating an inclusive and diverse environment that’s also productive. Instead of viewing these changes in your behavior as a sacrifice, understand that they are critical in ensuring that the people that come from other cultures feel welcome in the workplace, and it’s one of the important things we can do to work towards creating an equal society.

The Undeniable Benefits of Proactive Problem Management

Proactive Problem Management

Do you ever go through periods at work that feel like a constant game of whack-a-mole? Just when everyone swarms to solve one problem, a new one surfaces, and you never get a chance to clear your head and get anything in order.

Proactive problem management is about rooting out some of these “work surprises,” and putting together a system and strategy for solving and preventing problems. It’s also helpful in developing a business strategy.

Let’s briefly define proactive problem management with examples, then discuss its benefits and how to implement it into the workplace.

What is Proactive Problem Management

What is Proactive Problem Management?

We’re presented with so many rapid changes and problems in the workplace, and wrangling them all requires some finesse. Proactive problem management is one facet of a successful strategy.

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) codified many of the concepts around problem management with clear terms and definitions. Let’s look into their definition of proactive problem management, and some of the key terms surrounding it.

An incident is anything that disrupts the regular workflow or the performance of equipment. It can also mean a decline in performance, such as a weak internet signal.

A problem is an incident where the cause isn’t known. Addressing a problem requires an investigation into the cause.

Let’s distinguish between an incident and a problem. An incident is something that happens, let’s say an email bounces. A problem is when the cause of the incident isn’t known; so the reason for the bounce is unclear.

Reactive problem management is the process for addressing a problem that has already occurred. This is the most common form of problem management. After investigating the cause of the problem, a team often swarms together to fix it.

Proactive problem management is about anticipating potential problems and preventing them. It entails looking at data and incident reports to identify trends and patterns, then putting systems into place to preclude or prevent incidents. It’s very similar to the risk management concept of mitigating controls.

Event Management Process is the system for monitoring proactive project management. It’s about stopping a problem before anyone is even impacted by it.

Examples of Proactive Problem Management

Examples of Proactive Problem Management

With these definitions in mind, let’s look into a few examples of proactive and reactive problem management, to see what they look like in real life.

A Doctor Visit

Let’s say you go to see the doctor about a stomachache, and he or she examines you, diagnoses it as an infection, then prescribes some antibiotics to treat it.

In this scenario, the stomachache is the problem, as you don’t know what caused it. The doctor’s investigation into the root cause is an example of reactive problem management.

On another occasion, you visit the doctor for a checkup, and everything looks fine. As part of the checkup, the doctor advises you to eat well, take vitamins, and exercise.

In this scenario, there was no incident. However, steps were taken to prevent one from happening, with the doctor’s advice for healthy living. And so this is an example of proactive problem management.

Audio Fail

Now, let’s look at a workplace problem. Let’s say a remote team is having a meeting on a conference platform, and the audio stops working halfway through.

At this point, the IT team swarms around the problem to identify the cause and fix it. This is reactive problem management.

Over the next few days, the IT team does its due diligence, investigating what caused the audio to fail and putting preventative measures into place. The very next week, the team has the same meeting, and everything proceeds without a hitch.

This is an example of proactive problem management: there was no incident, as preventative measures were taken to keep one from happening.

As you can see, proactive problem management is about researching and addressing causes before they have a chance to happen. And reactive problem management means rooting out the cause of an incident that has occurred, and fixing the problem.

How to Implement Proactive Problem Management

How to Implement Proactive Problem Management

Implementing proactive problem management is about planning, brainstorming, and looking ahead. It also entails collecting data and identifying patterns.

Proactive problem management benefits any department within an organization, not simply IT. Let’s look at a few ways to implement it into the workplace.

Track Data on Problems and Incidents

For most departments, particularly IT, you tend to see the same incident over and over again. Proactive problem management looks at what you’re doing to reduce these incidents.

Reactive problem management plays an integral role in putting systems in place to prevent further hangups. After a team has investigated a problem and identified the cause, they’ve developed a system. Codifying this system is a central component to mitigating and reducing incidents.

Keeping data on problems is important, too. By knowing the frequency of incidents, and when and where they occur, it’s possible to create procedures. Understanding which incidents occur the most frequently also helps with resource allocation.

Research and Know Customers

Customer needs change so rapidly with market trends that it’s necessary to constantly refresh and update products in order to meet these needs.

A proactive approach to product development means brainstorming ideas in light of current and anticipated trends. This forward thinking results in a product that serves customers, and prevents creating something that’s irrelevant or outdated.

Promote a Mindset of Growth

A company culture can cultivate a proactive approach to problems as well.
When a culture is open, welcomes debate, and listens to feedback and constructive criticism, it creates an environment where people are making improvements all the time.

One effective process for developing a proactive culture is with a weekly meeting, where everyone reflects on the activity of the week, and brainstorms ways to improve processes, products and services.

In sum, proactive problem management is helpful in many parts of an organization. It benefits the operations that allow people to communicate and use equipment. It also benefits the product and services a business produces.

Benefits of Proactive Problem Management

Benefits of Proactive Problem Management

Proactive problem management is a systematic approach to reducing the interruption of workflow. Let’s look at some of the ways it benefits an organization.

It Reduces Incidents

Most clearly, proactive problem management keeps systems running smoothly. It’s about looking ahead to things that might happen, and then avoiding or reducing the occurrence.

When organizations utilize proactive problem management, people don’t even realize they’re avoiding problems. Meetings run smoothly, the internet works, and a business consistently produces a solid product or provides top-notch service.

The Work Day is Predictable

When a department exclusively uses reactive problem management, it’s constantly swarming around one problem and then another. It forces a team to work on whatever fire happens to be burning at the moment.

Proactive problem management, on the other hand, is systematic.

It’s easier to know what to expect from a workday when energy is geared toward researching data and putting processes into place, rather than playing whack-a-mole.

A Time Saver

Have you ever noticed that the first time you do something, it takes forever, but then after you’ve done it a dozen or so times, it takes way less time?

Reactive problem management is about solving a problem for the first time. For this reason, it tends to be a time-consuming process.

With proactive problem management, on the other hand, a system has been put into place (thanks to the knowledge gained from reactive problem management). And so you’re doing something that you’ve already done many times before, which uses up much less time and energy.

You’re also not going out and fixing things, as many problems don’t happen in the first place.

As you can see, proactive problem management brings a lot of order into a workplace, so it’s definitely a boon to any department.

Conclusion

Proactive problem management is one approach for addressing problems. It is used in IT, company operations, product strategy and anywhere, really.

Developing the systems and processes for proactive problem management leans heavily on investigating and solving existing problems. It’s also important to collect data, in order to understand which problems occur the most frequently.

We see proactive problem management wherever we go. Even a stop sign alerts us to prevent the possible incident of hitting another car.

The forward-thinking aspect of proactive problem management allows an organization to run smoothly. People fix problems before they even start.

Get Rid of Virtual Clutter and Organize Your Digital Files

Digital File Organization

Thankfully, computers have virtually eliminated the need for any kind of paper clutter. Gone are the days of crowded filing rooms and physically searching for an invoice that was sent over a year ago.

While the amount of paper that fills our filing cabinets is significantly reduced, we’ve managed to shift the problem from one place to another – our digital space.

According to a recent survey by Wakefield Research, more than half of professionals admitted that they spend more time searching for relevant documents than they do responding to emails. This is significant considering that workers are spending more than a third of their time responding to emails.

At least back in the file room days, you knew that all documents existed in one physical space. Today, files can also live locally on personal or work devices or exist on the cloud. You can no longer physically see the space they take so it is much easier to have files floating around in the digital space. Programs such as Google Drive and One Drive that allow you to share files are fantastic for easy collaboration and updating, but without clear guidelines, they can also also be saved, edited, and emailed without ever once touching the original.

Is that _FINAL version actually the final one?

Digital file management will look different for each organization but they should all reach the same goal: find what you need, when you need it.

Why You Need a Digital Filing Organizing System

Why You Need a Digital Filing Organizing System

Understanding why you need a system in the first place will help to motivate you to create and maintain one that works.

Here are three reasons that you need to establish a digital filing system:

Unexpected Employee Absence

Whether they are ill or quit in a fit of rage, if that person is the only one who knows where everything is saved, you may be in trouble. A digital filing system should be understood and used by the entire team to ensure usability but also accessibility to any relevant file at any time.

The last thing your higher-up wants is an email in their already full inbox asking where client invoices are saved.

Legal Reasons

More often than not, your hiring contract will state that all work-related files are the property of the organization. Whether you drafted that document or not, it still belongs to the organization and they have a right to access it and keep it even after you leave.

Saving documents locally or otherwise only accessible by one person may breach your contract and could land you in hot water.

Productivity

Having a digital file organization system that makes sense and is easy to follow will ensure that people actually use it and spend less time searching and more time doing what they are being paid to do. Not only is wasted time frustrating, but it can also derail someone’s train of thought.

How many great ideas were lost in that search party for the missing invoice?!

Overview of Your Current System

Start Here: Overview of Your Current System

Overviewing your current system will take time but it will save even more time in the long run so it is worth doing right.

It is helpful to do some spot checks, invite someone from your team to find a certain document and observe their process. You may be surprised to witness that not everyone would think to take the same path to get to their destination. Record your observations and note the most common trends as these can form the backbone of your new system, already endorsed by the majority.

Common questions to ask the team include:

  • What is currently working?
  • What isn’t working?
  • What files were the hardest to find?
  • Which ones were the easiest to find?
  • What files do you need access to regularly?
  • Who needs access to these files?

In regards to that last question, it is important to make sure to maintain a list of who should have access to the files and consult with them individually (small team) or via a digital survey (large team) to gather as much input as possible on the effectiveness of the current system.

Communicate the System

Communicate the System

You could develop the perfect system but if you have not communicated the process or guidelines to the team, it will be all for nothing.

Be clear with the instructions for effective use of the system but, more importantly, set expectations that everyone follows the system. To ensure that people will comply, you will need to write it down and make the instructions and guidelines clear. Consider the following elements when drafting this guide:

Folder Hierarchy

How you organize your files will vary greatly depending on the organization. For one organization, it may make more sense to organize them by project, for others by the client. Start with the largest categories first and then use subfolders to further break it down.

Your structure should resemble a tree with the main trunk being the main shared documents folder containing your high-level categories. The branches represent subfolders, getting more and more detailed about their contents.

Naming Files

File names will also vary depending on the organization but it is helpful to look back at your notes from initial consultations with the team. Would they prefer a file that includes the client’s name or the date first? Do you need to include the project title in each name? Also, consider your operating system as well because you may not be allowed to use spaces in your naming and instead need to use underscores.

Names need to make sense to be useful. Choose something that would be easy to search in a pinch by the people who are most likely to access the file.

Date Format

Dating your files or the folders themselves can be incredibly helpful, especially for any year-end work. Establishing a dating system will ensure that files can properly and automatically order themselves on your screen and make it easier to find what you need. Gather consensus on the most used system, whether you use numbers (YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY-DD-MM) or fully write out the date (January 1st, 2022) does not matter so long as it is consistent.

Version Control

There is nothing more frustrating than realizing that you do not have the latest version of a document, especially after adding your own updates. To avoid this, set some ground rules for file updates and version naming. Using watermarks is one way but you can also ensure that “draft” is in the name of the file. It is also helpful to include vision dates in the title or the document itself. Make sure that “final” is only used on actual final documents and have a place where finished documents live.

Images

Images can be tricky to manage, but it’s doable! Depending on your organization and the number of images, you can include the following descriptors:

  • Date
  • Event name
  • Name of the people in the picture
  • Purpose (stock, website, headshot, etc.)

Avoid the automatically generated combination of numbers and letters as they are impossible to search for. Grouping by the event is helpful, especially if the event is a regular occurrence making it easy to pull photos for promotional purposes though some organizations will find it more helpful to name the people in the photo.

Tips to organize digital files

Top 10 Tips for any System

Your digital file management and organizing system will be unique but consider the following tips that can be applied to any system:

1. Have an Archive Folder

When it comes to work-related files, it is best to keep them but that doesn’t mean they need to take up valuable real estate in your folders. To stay focused on relevant and useful files, ensure that each category also has an “Archive” folder. This folder is where you will drag files you no longer use or need but still be able to reference them if need be.

2. Use Colour

Most systems will allow you to change the colour of the folders, for visual people, this can be super helpful! Whether by category or by the client, being able to distinguish between files quickly based on the colour will save you time but also look great in the process.

3. Schedule Regular Maintenance

Even the best systems benefit from regular maintenance. When you have a good system in place, be sure to schedule maintenance at least once a month to go in and ensure that everything is named and saved in the appropriate place. This could be the job of one person or a regular task for each team member to encourage accountability to the process.

4. Post a One Page Summary of the System

Whether it is a physical printout or a pinned document in a common area, ensure that it is easily accessible to be referenced. It may require several reminders to fully onboard the team to the new system so practice patience.

5. File as you Go

As tempting as it is to create a document in a shared spot and resolve to move it to the proper place later, we all know that doesn’t always happen. Getting in the habit of creating and saving the file in the appropriate place right away will keep the system organized and usable. Try screen recording this process and showing that it only takes an additional 5 seconds to properly name and save files to the appropriate place.

Back up Files Regularly

6. Back up Files Regularly

Thankfully, cloud technology has made it easier than ever to back up our files but it never hurts to be extra safe. If you have an IT department, be sure to consult them on the best practices for protecting and backing up files, chances are that they can automate the process for you. If your team is small or you are a solopreneur, you can always save your files to the cloud as well as back them up on an external hard drive regularly.

7. Use Abbreviations as Needed

To avoid excessively long file names, use recognized abbreviations to save on characters. It is helpful to have a standard list of abbreviations to ensure consistency but also to be clear, what may seem obvious to you may not be obvious to someone else. Some common and recognized abbreviations include:

  • Gov = Government
  • Org = Organization
  • V = Version, followed by the version number
  • ACCT = Account
  • Jan, Feb, Mar, etc, = The first 3 letters of the name of the month
  • EN, FR, SP = English, French, Spanish or any other language can be abbreviated

8. Keep Desktop Clean

While it may be tempting to have all your files front and center, things get cluttered quickly. Your desktop should ideally only hold your trash/recycle bin and one folder called “Files”. Some people find it helpful to have the files they are using that day on the desktop but that will only work if you can trust yourself to click and drag the files back to their home once you are done with them.

Avoid Going Overboard With Folders

9. Avoid Going Overboard With Folders

In an effort to be organized, you may end up with more folders than you need. If someone is having to make 30 clicks before finding what they need, you may have gone too far. While the number is not exact, too few clicks will also mean that your categories are too broad which will also make finding files difficult. Gather feedback along the way and use that to refine your digital file organizing system to ensure that you make use of the right amount of folders.

10. Make Use of Templates

Templates are a great way to save time but they also ensure consistency in your organization system. If your organization deals with external clients, having a standard file architecture for new clients will keep you organized and the client satisfied. The main folder may simply be titled the name of the client. Within that folder, subfolders can exist for invoices, contracts, and reports. Consider the services or needs of your clients and develop a series of folders that meets them that can be replicated each time you onboard a new client.

Implementing Your Digital File Organization System

Implementing Your System

After observing the most common pathways, consulting with the team, and drafting a one-page guide on how to use the system, it is time to fully implement it. All of the preparation in the world will not foresee every single bump in the process so be prepared to be flexible and responsive to feedback.

It is helpful to have an onboarding-type session with everyone who will be using the new system. This session is also a great opportunity for people to ask clarifying questions.

One of the most important components of the implementation process is that leadership models the correct use of the system, setting the tone. Leading by example and resisting the urge to fall back into old habits will ensure that the team embraces the new system and gives a real-world example of the process in action.

Conclusion

A clear and easy system will reduce stress as it increases efficiency. Stop sacrificing your valuable time with file search parties. Embrace an organized and consistent method for your digital file storage needs and reclaim lost time. Digital file management can help your team take back the time they spend searching and instead focus on the work that matters.

10 Strategies to Overcome Resistance to Change in an Organization

How to overcome resistance to change in organizations

In the Greek myth “Sisyphus,” the crafty and power-hungry Sisyphus tries to cheat death and life forever. In retaliation, Zeus curses him with the punishment of eternally pushing an immense boulder to the top of a hill, only to have it roll all the way back to the bottom, where he resumes the exhausting task all over again.

This may look familiar to someone encountering resistance while making a company-wide transition. Just when it appears you’ve achieved a hard-won vision, resistance threatens to push you all the way back to where you started.

It’s a very frustrating and defeating sensation. And it may cause someone to think that motivating a team to collaboratively work toward change just isn’t possible.

Don’t lean too heavily on messages from myths, however. Whether you’re making a digital transformation, going agile, restructuring the chain of command, or adjusting the culture, achieving a successful transition is well within the realm of possibilities.

It requires finesse. Partly, it entails having a good plan beforehand, mitigating various types of resistance and communicating the significance of the change to every employee.

Let’s look at some of the reasons why a company would want to make a big change, the types of resistance you typically encounter, and finally go over ways to overcome resistance to change in an organization.

Why Do We Need Change

Why Do We Need Change?

“He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery,” said former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

Change is inherent to growth and progress. No one changes simply for change’s sake. The ever-evolving landscape in which an organization interacts demands constant growth and adjustment.

Let’s look at a few reasons why an organization might need to make a significant transformation.

New Generations in the Workplace

Time marches on, and the working landscape constantly evolves as new generations come of age and previous generations retire.

Currently, it’s estimated that Millennials and Generation Z (everyone born after 1981) constitute 40% of today’s workforce. Around 10,000 Baby Boomers retire each day, and so before long these two younger generations will outnumber Generation X and Baby Boomers, who currently represent 58% of the workforce.

These two younger generations have distinct preferences and priorities. On balance, both Millennials and Generation Z are looking for meaning behind the work they do; it’s about much more than receiving a paycheck. When they don’t like changes they see in a workplace, or the culture doesn’t jibe with their needs, they are quick to move on.

And so this new landscape demands that organizations change. In order to accommodate Millennials and Generation Z, workplace cultures must provide the work-life balance they crave, and create a culture in tune with their core values.

The Gig Economy

Oftentimes, bringing a project over a finish line requires special skills and expertise. However, this need is only temporary. For example, it doesn’t make sense for a company to hire a freelance artist full-time, if it only requires these services periodically.

The gig economy of freelancers and contractors is a rapidly expanding sector of the workforce. The number of people working in the gig economy is increasing fifteen times faster than the regular job market of salaried employees. Almost one third of Fortune 500 companies utilize part-time labor, and some rely entirely on freelancers and contractors!

This trend forces organizations to change in all sorts of ways. Human resources must develop new protocols for onboarding and training freelancers and contractors.

And culture changes, too. Project managers have a different strategy for building rapport and fostering communication when as much as half the team is temporary.

Attracting and Retaining Talent

Attracting and Retaining Talent

In the modern-day working landscape, people regularly move in and out of jobs for a variety of reasons. This makes recruiting and retaining talent a real challenge.

Culture is central to enticing an employee to stay with a company. A thriving culture invests in employees and provides them with opportunities to develop new skills and grow professionally. Additionally, it regularly demonstrates gratitude to employees for their time and contribution. Many younger employees are looking to work in a flat organization where the culture allows everyone to contribute to changes and leadership.

In order to keep ahead of the game, leadership looks closely at its own culture, and molds it to attract the workforce it needs.

Improving Products and Strategy

In today’s economy, products and customer needs change faster than ever before. If things like apps and online marketplaces aren’t constantly adjusted and improved, they’ll become obsolete in a matter of months.

As product managers vigilantly research customers and the market, it often becomes apparent that an organization needs to fine tune a product or develop new skills in order to keep up to speed with trends.

These transformations require flexibility, and an ongoing willingness for the team to make changes.

In sum, organizations are constantly forced to adapt and improve. Whether to suit employee or customer needs, change is integral to keeping pace in the world.

Why We Resist Change

Why We Resist Change

At the same time that change is unavoidable, resistance is guaranteed. We are creatures of habit, and from the very top of an organization all the way down through each rank in management, people easily become set in their ways, and generally prefer for things to just keep on as they are.

An effective transition plan anticipates this resistance, and seeks to understand the reasons behind it. Let’s look into various shades of resistance.

Comfort With the Status Quo

Most people find comfort in the familiar. They feel safe in a work environment where everything and everybody remains predictable, and they can expect their work day to proceed just as it did the day before.

When they suddenly have to report to a new boss, learn a new system or perform a different task, it threatens this sense of security and well-being.

They feel this loss of control especially when these changes come from the top down and they haven’t been given any say in implementing them.

Distrust the Leader

Any venture into the unknown is scary, and when an employee has a guttural dislike for upper management or certain persons in leadership, this poses an extra challenge to making structural or managerial changes.

A successful transition requires universal trust from the team, and so identifying distrust is the first step to overcoming it.

Challenge of Learning New Skills

Whenever we embark on doing something new and challenging, a little voice inside of us wonders if we’re really capable of it.

Whether a company is changing to a new software system, or going through a complete systematic transformation from something like waterfall to agile, everyone feels some apprehension. They wonder if they’ll be able to grasp the new concepts, and be able to keep up in time with everyone else.

In sum, change robs people of their sense of stability. We’re most inclined to remain in familiar territory, with known processes and systems. Letting go of the staid and steady requires courage and trust.

A healthy company culture is concerned with employee well-being. And so an effective leader understands these common forms of resistances, and anticipates them. In this way, he or she is able to assuage employees through change and transformation.

Types of Resistance

5 Types of Resistance

The classic image of resistance looks like someone slumped in her chair with her arms crossed, eyebrows furrowed and her mouth curved down in a distinctive frown.

“You can’t make me,” the posture suggests.

Some resistance to change is overt and in-your-face. However, more often than not, it’s far more subtle.

When a manager facilitates a transition, it’s good to know what kinds of resistance to look out for, in order to prevent or mitigate them.

1. Active Resistance

Sometimes employees resist change in direct ways. This includes things like acerbic exchanges with managers, hostility with coworkers, and a decline in work performance. Teams may exhibit more dysfunction than usual, and people may stop showing up to meetings or responding to emails.

Although it’s a challenge to work amidst active resistance, fortunately it’s easy to spot, and from there it can be diagnosed.

2. Passive Resistance

Sometimes employees look like they’re playing along agreeably with changes, while in fact they’re rebelling against them in barely perceptible ways.

Passive resistance includes things like someone showing up to a meeting, but not contributing much, or employees completing baseline work requirements, and then checking out.

Due to its covert nature, passive resistance is harder to recognize and diagnose. Having open dialogue and meetings where people are free to air frustrations are ways to decrease passive resistance.

3. Intellectual Resistance

Sometimes work procedures and protocol entail all sorts of requirements that make no sense at all to the person who’s doing the work.

When employees don’t ever see anything behind the curtain, they may not appreciate the need for the transition. For example, when an employee doesn’t know the bottom line and never interacts with upper management, they may not appreciate the need for a software transition or the reason behind a switch to agile.

The good thing about intellectual resistance is that it’s fairly easy to diagnose. It’s cured by good old fashioned communications. When people are let in on the reasons for a transition, this intellectual resistance breaks down.

4. Emotional Resistance

When you’re really in a groove, and know just what to expect from a software system or your weekly workload, making a change is just no fun.

It may feel like the “one more thing” that people just can’t take on at the moment. Or maybe it’s downright scary.

Handling emotional resistance is about creating space. It takes some time to learn a new system, or interact with a different team. Let people ease themselves into it, and allow for hiccups and a slower pace of production. Accept that workplace tension will be the norm for a time.

5. Personal Resistance

It’s pretty painful to make a change when you don’t want to. But when the orders come from a manager or boss you can’t stand, that really adds insult to injury.

When employees have marked dislike for the leadership, or good reasons to mistrust a company, then making a change is like trying to wade through concrete.

First, the management has to work on rebuilding broken trust and repairing relationships, and then it can proceed with the transition.

In sum, you’ll rarely have an employee tell you with perfect clarity: “I am resistant to this change, and here is why.”

Resistance, rather, manifests itself in all sorts of ways, and is caused by a variety of factors. It depends somewhat on the personality of individuals, as well as the type of change that’s taking place. Knowing what kind of resistance you’re up against is key to overcoming it.

Ways to Overcome Resistance to Change

10 Ways to Overcome Resistance to Change

Navigating change is an art. Even when leadership has conviction about where it needs to take a company, they still need to gauge how much a team can handle.

When a plan rolls out too rapidly, or it’s too ambitious to begin with, the entire effort collapses.

Additionally, “solving” resistance by pushing tension under the rug only makes things foment. And then change becomes impossible.

The objective with a big transition is to move past the growing pains, and bring a company into a new place: either with simpler systems, a transparent culture, or a better product.

Let’s look at ten strategies and methods for overcoming resistance to change within organizations.

1. Explain Why

Do you ever find yourself doing things at work just because you know you have to? And no one’s ever really explained the reason why?

No one performs to their potential when work seems meaningless, or they feel like a cog in the wheel.

Conversely, when people understand the reason behind tasks, they’re way more likely to perform proficiently.

Clarifying the reasons behind a change, with as much transparency as possible, is central to achieving compliance and cooperation.

If a company is transitioning to agile, for example, then it helps for employees to understand how the current system just didn’t cut it, as well as an explanation for how the new system should correct for these flaws.

When employees embrace the “why,” then they are more willing to accept the change.

Talk and Listen

2. Talk and Listen

As we’ve all experienced, when communication is limited mostly to emails, a whole lot gets lost in translation. The tone can be misunderstood, and it’s impossible to tell how the recipient receives the information.

Face-to-face communication has become a rare commodity these days, but as it turns out there’s really no substitution for it. All non-verbal communication comes across when people speak in-person. You recognize facial cues, and hear tone and voice inflection.

When making a big change, communicate 1:1 with employees, and then listen to their response. This allows for every perspective to be heard and alerts management to concerns and anxieties.

Written correspondence has a place, but when communicating major organizational transitions, it’s best used as a follow-up.

3. What’s in it for Me?

Leaders, clearly, are hugely invested in the success of their company. In order to navigate a big change, however, they also need to see the scenario from the employees’ point of view

Many employees, particularly Millennials and Generation Z, see their job as an opportunity to build a skill set and a personal brand. Even when they understand how a change benefits the company, this doesn’t entirely motivate them to get on board. Their loyalty, that is to say, is more to themselves than to the company.

This perhaps represents a kind of “enlightened self-interest,” as it’s important to look out for our own benefit and well-being. This is simply part of our nature. And so a leader needn’t condemn this tendency, but rather embrace it.

When rolling out a transition, communicate clearly how the change benefits individuals. Will learning a new software build their skills set and so help their career? Sure it will.

Clarifying the personal payoff helps bridge the motivation gap.

4. Embrace the Contrarian

When a company encounters outspoken, active resistance to change, the inclination is to silence it. Maybe this means excluding “difficult” people from meetings, or simply ignoring any dissident voices.

A healthy, transparent workplace, however, allows for the expression of all points of view. It welcomes debate and criticism and actively works through it.

Listening to dissident voices may well in fact help the organization. The person who’s voicing concerns sees things from a different point of view, and so hearing them out is tantamount to risk mitigation.

When an organization goes through change, it’s important to allow for open exchanges, and to actively listen to resistance, ask questions, and let anyone who wants to bring up criticism feel safe doing so. This benefits not only the employees, but the organization as well.

5. Monitor the Change Saturation Meter

Even when a team understands the reason for the change and is aligned to the vision, there is still a threshold for the amount of change it can handle.

If people are too overwhelmed by new processes or information, it generates apathy. This could lead to a mass exodus, where people collectively throw in the towel and move on.

In order to avoid this sort of disastrous pitfall, leadership must stage the rollout of a transition. This entails managers regularly checking the temperature of the work environment to gauge how things are going.

Troubleshooting includes active listening, as well as listening to what people aren’t saying. Is there a lack of camaraderie in the break room? Or decreased contribution in meetings? These both may be indications of passive resistance.

6. Cushion the Most Impacted Stakeholders

While drafting a plan for a major company overhaul, leadership can’t look at the organization as a monolith.

Big changes impact various departments and employees differently. Some are hardly impacted at all, while others have their entire routine upended.

Good leaders are highly aware of which employees and departments are affected the most. Providing these groups additional training, support, guidance and incentives helps to mitigate resistance and ease everyone through the process.

Enkindle Intrinsic Motivation

7. Enkindle Intrinsic Motivation

“It’s hard to hold someone accountable to a decision that they did not make,” says transformation consultant Pam Marmon.

Rather than being told what to do from leaders on high, people are more amenable to change when they feel as though they’ve played a part in the process. They want the freedom to be innovative.

Creating this freedom and internal motivation requires strategy. In his book Drive, author Daniel Pink outlines three central components to intrinsic motivation:

  1. Purpose: This means giving a team an aspirational goal to work toward.
  2. Mastery: This means expanding knowledge and developing new skills.
  3. Autonomy: This allows a team to be self-determined and plot its own course.

Cultivating teams with these qualities makes them feel like they’re helping to bring about the change. They are more aligned to the overall vision.

Of course this is a delicate balance, as the big tension of any change is allowing for autonomy, while at the same time steering the company in the direction the leaders feel it needs to go.

8. Align on the Vision

Change is about creating a new system within an organization, or introducing new methods for employees to interact and work together.

Before implementation, the entire company should understand the overall objective, as well as the specific changes in their day-to-day.

Aligning on this vision is accomplished most easily with an all-hands meeting, where the change is communicated in a few simple statements.

Coming up with a message for presenting and framing the change is key. When people hear “change” they synonymously hear “hard.” When it’s rather framed as an opportunity, this generates an exploratory attitude, and genuine interest in the endeavor. Passing out swag helps to further impress the vision.

Next, the leader implements processes to guide everyone through the transition phase.

A good process starts with leadership. Not only do the leaders model the change, but they also monitor performance and reactions across their department. Listening for feedback plays a part as well.

9. Harness the Middle Managers

Company culture in every organization is trickle-down, for sure. A manager who wants to facilitate a transformation needs to embody the change.

For example, when a team makes an agile transformation the leaders must demonstrate agile principles themselves. They discuss big issues with the team before making a decision, converse with each other face-to-face daily, and regularly take time to reflect.

Identifying the key influencers and managers, and getting them on board is instrumental to making a change.

When charismatic and well-liked managers model the new behavior, and encourage others to do so, then you’ve gotten the boulder to the top of the mountain, and it’s downhill from there.

Change the Culture

10. Change the Culture

Systemic problems in a work culture can pose huge challenges to a transition effort.

For example, a work environment with many rules and protocols generates distrust of leadership. A bureaucratic organization usually means that work performance is slow, and there’s always a ton of backlog.

When implementing a change, a company starts by evaluating its culture with complete honesty. It’s necessary to identify tendencies that would make a transformation unduly difficult.

If an impediment is found, the next task is to set about changing it. This is a slow process, as cultural habits are usually ingrained and cemented into a workplace. However, with a systematic approach, it is possible. Here are three steps to facilitate a culture shift:

  1. Establish Clarity

    First, it’s important to make sure everyone understands why a change is happening. Maybe you’re expanding the workplace to encourage more collaboration.

    Then, lay out the practicalities. Make sure everyone understands the new protocol around collaborative spaces versus work spaces and what not.

  2. Demonstrate Consistently

    When everyone understands the new system or protocol, it’s time to start implementing it. By following the plan you lay out for the team, grooves start to develop and new behaviors become habitual.

    It’s important for the leader to model behavior at this point. If the leader says one thing then does something else, it completely derails the initiative.

  3. Celebrate!

    A final step to making a cultural change is providing incentives for work performance and celebrating milestones reached. Appreciating employees for everything they do is central to creating a healthy company culture.

    Changing a culture won’t happen overnight, but with diligent effort, it is possible.

    In sum, in order to overcome resistance to change, leadership must anticipate it. Bringing the organization successfully through a transition means having a plan for assuaging and mitigating any tension and reluctance within the team.

Conclusion

Change is part of any successful organization. At some point, everyone faces unavoidable pressure to make a change. Sometimes this has to do with changes in the market, other times it’s about keeping up with competitors, or else it has to do with changes in the employee landscape.

At the same time, people push back on the change. It’s much easier to remain with the known and the familiar. Regardless of whether you’re handling a merger or acquisition, or streamlining processes, you will encounter resistance.

Making a transition in an organization needn’t be a Sisyphean effort, however. In order to overcome resistance, it’s necessary to anticipate it. People resist in various ways, and for various reasons, and so an organization needs to understand its culture and employees in order to mitigate the resistance. It’s good to have a plan going in and to know what types of resistance to expect.

Sometimes, systemic problems in the company cause resistance, and in this instance it’s necessary to adjust the company culture.

Change is hard. The dust will be unsettled for some time, and you have to accept that it’s just the way things are. But with a good strategy, it won’t be that way for long.

If you’re really looking to have a feather in your cap, then navigating your organization successfully through a huge transition will certainly be your pièce de résistance!

7 Steps to Successful Outsourcing for Your Business

Outsourcing Implementation Plan

So you’ve decided to outsource some work to a third party, but how do you make sure you get the results you’re after? You need to find the perfect partner, someone who can follow your design but has the autonomy to work independently. How well they perform will have a direct effect on your business, so this is a decision that you need to get right.

If you’re new to the outsourcing approach then this is the article that you need. We’re going to go over everything you need to know to create an effective outsourcing strategy. We’ll talk about the steps involved in outsourcing and how you can make sure your partner delivers the goods.

We’ll go over things such as how to transfer key information to a third party and how to build new processes to help facilitate an outsourcing relationship. You’ll also learn how to handle ending a contract whether it comes to a natural stopping point or the work isn’t up to standard.

Finding the right partner

1. Finding the right partner

The most important step of an outsourcing approach is finding the right company or person to partner with. Someone without the necessary experience is going to hold your company back. You want to choose a partner who has proven experience working to deadlines, meeting and exceeding expectations, and providing good value for the work.

As part of your outsourcing implementation plan, you’ll need to decide the scope of the project you are handing off. This will help to inform what kind of company you partner with, whether it is something small like logo design or something grander like creating assets for a video game.

A logo can be handled by a single person or a design firm. There are plenty of websites that can help you find a freelancer including Upwork, Fiverr, and 99Designs. On these websites, you’ll be able to review someone’s portfolio and professional feedback before approaching someone.

Sometimes it makes financial sense to outsource entire departments. Small businesses may need an accountant but lack the resources to bring someone in full-time. A great option is to contract an outside firm that can handle this for you. In these instances, you want to look at firms with outsourcing experiences that can deliver great results at cheap rates.

Finalizing the deliverables

2. Finalizing the deliverables

Once you’ve found the right partner, you’ll need to decide on the deliverables before a contract can be drawn up and signed. An effective outsourcing strategy will include a detailed contract that leaves no room for error on what is expected. A key part of early conversations should be about locking down expectations and making sure everyone is on the same page.

Here is where an outsource implementation plan is going to make the biggest difference. It may seem like a lot of work to make but it’s useful to have this document for both parties to refer back to. Include details about the goals of the partnership and how your business will support the third party.

One key thing to do is create systems and processes that are uniform between both businesses. Using a project management tool like Teamly means everyone can follow the same tasking system and be able to communicate effectively between teams. Each deliverable and every step involved can be included in Kanban boards on Teamly for quick reference.

Lastly, a dry run at this stage is going to be beneficial for both your business and your outsourcing partner. Set aside a few hours where both teams can pretend it is the first day of work together. Go about the day as you would expect things to progress and make note of any inefficiencies. A rehearsal helps to ensure everything works smoothly and there are no roadblocks between the two companies.

3. Partner Relations

Once the deliverables have been agreed and the contract is signed you should appoint someone to be the contact person. By having a single point of contact between your business and the third-party vendor, any issues or questions can be addressed quickly and coherently. An effective outsourcing strategy will avoid emails to and from multiple people as this can slow down progress.

You’ll likely have set a timeframe for the deliverables in the contract and if your freelancer or agency doesn’t know who to contact they may not be able to keep to it. Treat this as a relationship instead of a transaction and nurture it as you would your own employees. You may elect yourself as the point person, or a trusted member of staff. The key is to select someone who can take ownership and seek out information on behalf of the partner company.

This will create a closer working relationship and will help to grow a long-lasting partnership between the two companies. If your project is large in scope it may be worth assigning a project manager or team that can facilitate relations with the third party. As long as you can avoid communication breakdowns, the project should run smoothly, on time, and on budget.

Knowledge transfer

4. Knowledge transfer

One of the key steps involved in outsourcing is the transfer of knowledge from your business to the partner company. They need to be trained in how your business operates and how to meet your expectations. Other companies may not use the same software, so it will be important to get them up to speed if they need to use in-house software such as your CRM.

Sharing your tech stack with a third party can ensure that you’re working in tandem with each other. This will also help your in-house team to assist the outsourced team where it is appropriate. They may already be using the same tech you use but if they don’t it’s worth getting everyone on the same software.

They may also need access to design documents and knowledge of company tone and attitude. Knowledge transfer is a collaborative process that can be shared through a series of informal and formal discussions. Early in the project, you should arrange a meeting to discuss the brand as well as the deliverables.

Consider if it is worth creating templates and best practices (such as naming conventions, support, and codifying) that can be shared with the outsourced vendor which they can share with their new hires. Following Agile methodology can help to facilitate knowledge transfer by breaking the project down into short 2 week sprints. There will be ample opportunities to share knowledge during meetings and roadblocks can be addressed before the next sprint.

Implement transition plan

5. Implement transition plan

Here is the part of your outsourcing implementation plan that covers the transition to the third-party vendor. This will be a highly collaborative process and should be led by the in-house project manager if one has been assigned. Involved in this process are the various internal stakeholders as well as the important people at the new company.

You should make sure that the dry run has been completed successfully, the tech stack has been agreed upon, and the transfer of knowledge has everyone on the same page.

Now you’ll need to decide on the timeline for the deliverables and each component of the project. Send over the important assets that the third party needs to complete their work. This could include login information for certain software, or shipping necessary hardware to their address.

Once everything is in place, it’s time to take your hands off the wheel and entrust the developer to deliver the goods. Any third-party vendor will want to retain their autonomy during this process. Micromanagement is likely to rub them the wrong way and if you are unable to let go, it may be better to do this in-house.

Let your point person be there to answer any questions but allow the vendor to work away on the deliverables. They will use your design document and best practices to ensure the work fits your brand identity.

6. Assessing the deliverables

Before you sign off on the deliverables you’ll want to ensure they meet your expectations. Depending on the type of work being done you should try to build revisions into the contracts. For example, if you are commissioning a logo design from a freelancer or agency, make sure to add one or two revision requests. This protects you if the initial design misses the mark.

Other types of contracts may stipulate work will continue until the final product is signed off on. The important thing is to ensure you’re not paying for work that you can’t use or limit the amount of money spent on goods you aren’t happy with.

In a perfect world, the end result will be ideal and the project can be signed off. At which point you can look at commissioning a new project or ending your relationship there, with both parties happy with the result.

Sometimes, however, there will be issues with quality or deadlines missed which can sour the relationship. At this point, you’ll need to decide whether to cut your losses and find a new vendor, bring development in-house, or swallow your pride and accept the project as-is. In order to make this decision, you’ll need to look at the costs, resources, and time available for the project.

Ending the contract

7. Ending the contract

Ending a contract with a third-party vendor can happen for a number of reasons and not all of them are within your control. The most obvious reason pertains to quality but sometimes you’ll need to end a contract early if there are financial issues. If you are hit by an economic downturn, one of the first things a company will do is look to end outsourcing to save money.

An exit plan is a great idea in these instances to ensure you can end the relationship on good terms. While it is impossible to plan for every natural or economic disaster that may come into play, you can plan ahead for changes in the market and budget constraints. The exit plan should contain the steps you’ll take if your partner fails to meet expectations or other factors that mean you need to terminate the account.

In the plan, you should cover the steps involved with bringing the project in-house or transitioning the assets from your partner to a new vendor. Consider how to facilitate these changes without running into interruptions in your day-to-day business.

Conclusion

An outsource implementation plan is crucial to start working with outside partners. You’ll need to know how to set deliverables and timeframes in order to work effectively together. When selecting a partner you need to pick someone with proven experience of working with an outsourced approach.

Allow them the autonomy to work on the project the way they see fit while adhering to your tech stack and brand identity. Share design documents and culture with them through formal and informal discussions. If you are unhappy with the work they have provided, look at implementing your exit plan and choose a new provider or look at bringing the work in-house.

Ultimately, outsourcing should save you time and money for projects you can’t work on in-house. Creating a good working relationship with other businesses will be beneficial for your company’s growth in the long term.

The Right Way to Set up a Management Plan for Small Projects. How to Manage Small Projects in 5 Steps.

Small Project Management

Engineers are smart people, designers are creative people, marketers are persuasive people. But no matter what the skill set is, when it comes to working in the context of a team, your company needs organization. Especially if you want to be successful. Enter: The project manager.

Project management is a necessary evil. It’s vital to any business that’s seeking growth and improvement, but it can be difficult for small businesses to know how to manage projects. Especially since not all projects are created equal.

If you’re a project manager, at some point you’ll have to discern between small projects and big ones. The discourse on project management is often focused on managing large-scale complex projects because these are the most challenging to manage.

However, small projects are quite frequent in most businesses, especially when there’s a desire to evolve and improve. On one hand, managers see this type of project as a “piece of cake”, on the other hand, those that have been involved in project management know very well how complicated it can be.

In this article, we will discuss some of the problems that arise when dealing with small projects, how to handle them, and we’ll explore some principles and best practices to help you achieve your goals along with some advice that will come in useful when you find yourself managing a small project.

Small Projects

Small projects are very common…

Managing a small project is quite common, especially if you’re in a company with less than 100 employees. You might also need to deal with smaller projects if you work for a larger company, where the size of your department is limited.

For example, if you’re in charge of administration and finance within a section of an organization that has less than 100 employees. In this case, most likely, the tasks assigned to the office managers or administrators will be several smaller projects.

Another example is when you’re responsible for managing a sales team or sales representatives. In this case, you might need to lead the implementation of new software to improve the processes within your team. This would be another instance in which you are assigned to manage small projects.

Small projects are very common among professionals such as the ones mentioned above. That’s why even if you’ve led several larger projects with success, you might find managing small projects particularly difficult. Every work scenario has its quirks and challenges.

The problem is…

Most managers are not prepared to manage these sorts of tasks due to the fact that it’s thought to be less essential than large-scale projects. As a consequence, money and time are wasted, and your problems grow more perplexing as the outcome lacks clarity on what you were trying to achieve.

Managing Small Projects

In practice…

Managing a small project usually has the following characteristics:

  • It requires fewer resources and personnel.
  • There are fewer risks involved.
  • There’s less documentation and reporting required.
  • The project has a shorter time frame (it’s not unusual for deadlines to be set at just a few days).
  • It doesn’t have a large impact on the company or its resources.

Depending on the size, type of industry, function, etc., there might be a predefined project management methodology and/or a checklist that you need to follow. However, for most organizations, there might not be any specific guidelines or tools available to use—and you’ll have to create your own.

The fact is…

To successfully manage a small project, managers and professionals need to understand that it’s imperative to implement and follow a well-defined and established plan.

A clear plan regarding the project’s aims, objectives, resources, costs, deadlines, and responsibilities will help you stay on track to achieve the desired result, whatever that might be.

Also, your plan for smaller projects must be different from large-scale ones. Because there are fewer resources and the timeframe is shorter, you must plan in a more detailed manner.

Common issues with small projects

Common issues with small projects

Several problems can arise in the management of small projects, including:

  • Lack of planning
  • Bad planning
  • Poor communication
  • Frequent changes
  • Losing track of tasks
  • Lack of tasks
  • Overlap with other small teams
  • Poorly defined goals

Lack of Planning

In most cases, small projects are not planned as they should be. This usually entails a lack of time spent on planning at the beginning of a project. In theory, this process is fundamental to ensure that the team spends enough time tackling their objectives and they don’t feel rushed throughout a task.

Sometimes, managers leave the planning process for later, seeing it as unfinished business, something that they will take care of once they are in the thick of things. This can be a mistake because it’s better to plan first rather than neglect this crucial step.

Bad Planning

Planning is critical because it ensures that everyone understands what needs to be done and how it will be completed, which reduces the risks of failure. But plans must be realistic and well thought out, not a general-purpose plan that you will adapt to each small project.

In a project involving very little time and resources, you need to be as specific and detailed as possible about your plans. This way, everyone will understand what they should do and the team will have a clear idea of what they are trying to achieve.

Poor Communication

To avert misunderstandings and better coordinate tasks, you need to ensure that the people working on a project have a good line of communication. Keep in mind that different team members might be located in disparate physical spaces.

When people assume that communicating is something they’ll do as their work progresses this leads to poor results. Eliminate the idea that communication is not needed until it’s needed.

Frequent Changes

It might be close to impossible to avoid making changes in a plan, but they should be made only when there’s a solid reason for it.

With a project involving just a few resources, you must be able to keep tasks on track and avoid making changes too often because it could lead to delays in finishing or even missing deadlines.

Losing track of tasks

When a project is small it’s easy to lose track of what needs to be done. There are generally fewer people on the team, which often means each person is responsible for more work and must stay up to speed on all of the tasks that need to be completed. It’s easy to fall behind if someone isn’t careful.

Lack of tasks

Even small, focused projects can have a small amount of time where no tasks are available to be worked on for a period of time. This generally happens during the early stages, when the project hasn’t yet been completely thought out and planned.

Overlap with other small teams

Small businesses or small teams may find themselves with a lot of unfinished work when several small initiatives overlap. This can lead to confusion and inefficiency.

For example, your team members might find themselves working on the same tasks at the same time, not knowing that there may have been a small project previously that owned that component. It’s important to take into consideration what other small projects are going on in the company at any given time when planning out small projects to avoid overlap and wasted time.

Poorly Defined Goals

The lack of planning and poor communication can lead to poorly defined goals. Without a clear plan for what needs to be done, people may find it difficult to understand the objectives and choose their next steps accordingly.

Generally, this happens because people are so focused on getting things done that they forget about defining clear objectives for their work. Although most small projects have specific goals, they are often not detailed enough and therefore they aren’t prioritized.

Team members must have a clear understanding of what they’re trying to achieve and why, so they can do more of what needs to get done and less of the activities that don’t matter.

A Small Project Management Framework

A Small Project Management Framework

Small projects: how to identify them?

It might be tough to recognize the need for small project planning. What are the circumstances and how do you know when it’s time to formalize a project plan rather than just assigning minor tasks to your team?

Most small projects have one of two attributes that help define them.

  1. Duration: Most small projects are short. They will be completed in a few days or weeks, not months or years. This can be very difficult to identify because the individual tasks that make up your project may only take a few hours to complete, but combined they add up to more than a days worth of work.
  2. Scope: Small projects are more focused on fewer goals. These goals may be related to one another but they can also stand alone. The scope is usually more important than duration in setting the planning level for a small project. A short project with broad goals requires less planning than a long, narrow goal-oriented initiative.

How to create a small project plan

How to create a small project plan in 5 steps.

So, how do you create a new small project plan? The key is taking small manageable steps.

Step 1). Determine what tasks need to be completed.

First off – identify what needs to get done. Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize. Only include tasks that need to get done to complete your project. If you’re not sure if something should be included, think about its value or how it will contribute to the success of your initiative.

For example: if you’re managing a project that’s serving a dog daycare, you don’t need to include unrelated tasks like sending out invitations for other events.

What your looking for is a solid list of tasks that are directly related to your project like ordering dog food, cleaning, advertising, or cropping photos for the press release.

Step 2). Create a list of tasks in the order they need to be completed.

After you create a list of all the tasks that need to be done, sequence them from the most important goal to the least. When task order isn’t critical, it can be difficult for team members to determine which ones should be completed first.

The easiest way to avoid confusion is to create a scale from 1-5, 5 being the most important task and 1 being the least. You can highlight or mark each task as it’s completed so that you know which one will be worked on next.

You will probably have several tasks with the same score, so don’t be alarmed just be sure to prioritize the most impactful tasks first and go from there. Of course if you need to adjust the scale to 10 or 15 that’s fine. Just be consistant.

Assign team members to complete each major task

Step 3). Assign team members to complete each major task.

Assigning people to tasks is essential to the success of any project, large or small. Identify who is best suited to do each task. If you’re not sure who would be most successful at completing a specific task. Allocate some time to interview your team members and see who would be most competent in taking on your new project.

If you’re having trouble deciding who should complete what task, ask yourself: “Whose skills and experience would be best for this task?” or “Whose time can I take up without impacting other responsibilities.”

Step 4). Estimate how much time it will take to complete each task.

After you’ve identified who should complete each task, estimate how long it will take to complete the project. This information is essential for your project plan because it creates a tangible timeline that everyone on the project can follow.

Make sure you allow yourself a buffer of time to complete each task. That way, there’s no chance of falling behind and being thrown off track from your original plan.

Ideally, team members should be capable of completing their tasks in an efficient amount of time. If they’re not capable of completing their tasks in the time you allotted, your project plan will suffer for it.

Step 5). Find out what resources are needed to complete each task.

Each task requires specific resources to complete. Identify these resources and include them in your project plan. These may be employees or they could be materials that need to be ordered or purchased. The more thorough you are with your research, the better.

Small Project Management Case Study

CASE STUDY USING THE 5 STEPS

PROJECT PLAN: As an example, we’ll be creating a new project plan for creating content for our Youtube Channel. This is not a huge project and it can easily be completed within 2 weeks.

Our Youtube channel’s theme is around organizing and cleaning, so we want to have a variety of content that will appeal to our audience. In this example we specifically want to make a video on how to clean an oven.

Step 1). Create a list of tasks that need to be done.

Our brainstorming session came up with the following tasks:

  • Create graphics for the video.
  • Research how to clean an oven.
  • Create a script for the video.
  • Edit and produce the final video
  • Conduct an interview with a cleaning expert.

Because we want to know which activity is most essential before we sequence them, the list of things to do isn’t in any particular order.

Step 2). Create a list of tasks in the order they need to be completed.

We want to complete the tasks in the following order: 1. Research different methods on how to clean an oven 2. Create a script for the video 3. Conduct an interview with a cleaning expert 4. Design graphics for the video 5. Edit and produce the final video.

Step 3). Assign team members to complete each major task.

For this project, we’ll assign our intern, Laura, to take on non technical tasks. We will include our video editor, Sarah. And assign our social media manager, Bridget, to create the content for our video.

  • Task: Research how to clean an oven -Laura
  • Task: Create a script for the video -Bridget
  • Task: Conduct interview with cleaning expert -Bridget
  • Task: Design graphics for the video -Sarah
  • Task: Edit and produce final video -Sarah

Estimate how much time it will take to complete each task

Step 4). Estimate how much time it will take to complete each task.

1. Task: Research different methods of how to clean an oven –

  • Assigned: Laura
  • Estimated time: 2 hours

2. Task: Create a script for the video

  • Assigned: Bridget
  • Estimated time: 6 hours

3. Task: Conduct interview with cleaning expert

  • Assigned: Bridget
  • Estimated time: 2 hours

4. Task: Design graphics for the video

  • Assigned: Sarah
  • Estimated time: 3 hours

5. Task: Edit and produce final video

  • Assigned: Sarah
  • Estimated time: 4 hours

Step 5). Find out what resources are needed to complete each task.

In order to complete the research, Laura will need access to our Youtube channel’s twitter account and a list of 4-5 topics she can focus on.

In order to complete the script, Bridget will need access to our Youtube channel’s twitter account and a list of experts in housekeeping that we have worked with before.

In order to conduct the phone interview, Bridget needs a phone and wifi connection.

In order to design graphics for the video, Sarah will need access to a computer with internet connection and graphic design software.

In order to edit and produce the final video, Sarah will need access to your Youtube channel and a copy of the footage from the interview.

Case Study Conclusion

Putting together a small project plan is not as scary as it sounds. In the example, we took small steps to ensure that our project was achievable. Most importantly, we identified all of the resources needed for each task so no time is wasted trying to find them when you need them.

Project planning may seem like a lot of work but it is necessary in order to complete projects and tasks on time and in a well-organized manner.

What not to do with small projects

What not to do with small projectsThere are also several things you should try and avoid as a project manager when it comes to small projects. A few of these include…

  • Don’t assume anything – Make sure to take the time up front to understand each task and it’s expected outcome. Don’t assume you know everything about a topic.
  • Don’t skip the planning phase – Jumping into work before creating a plan will only lead to confusion, mistakes and wasted time.
  • Don’t micromanage – This will only add more to your plate and it’s likely that the employee already has a plan for what needs to be done.
  • Don’t expect perfection – You are still learning so mistakes will happen. Instead of berating yourself, take note of the mistakes and do better next time.
  • Don’t take on too much – Overloading yourself with too many projects or tasks will lead to stress and frustration. Make sure your work load is manageable and creates a balance in your life. It’s important to understand your limits and not take on more than you can do. Be realistic about your schedule and try not to commit to long hours or weekends of work.
    Small projects are just that, small. They may seem easier because they don’t require a lot of resources, however there is still plenty of room for error. Avoid letting your lack of time or resources turn into chaos by planning ahead and understanding how to complete each task efficiently.
  • Don’t forget to have fun – Projects can be tedious and time consuming but don’t forget that you’re working towards a goal that needs to be completed in order for your company or team to run smoothly. Make sure you take the time to enjoy yourself and practice self-care.
  • Don’t make small projects compete with one another – Make sure to plan your small projects around bigger projects. That way you can use the resources needed for larger, more important tasks without having to worry about finding them elsewhere.
  • Finally, don’t think of small projects as less important – A project is a project. Don’t forget that while you’re planning smaller ones, managers are looking at how efficiently.

Conclusion

It’s easy to underestimate the time and effort that goes into managing a small project. With so many other demands on your day-to-day schedule, it can be tempting to think you don’t need a formal plan for such a short endeavor.

However, without some kind of roadmap or general direction, things will most likely fall apart quickly. That’s why we recommend following the 5 steps above when setting up your next small project management plan.

Mapping Out the Daily Grind: Iteration Planning in Agile

Agile Planning Process

Did you ever get your car repaired, and it ended up taking WAY longer than the person on the phone told you it would?

What’s to account for this sort of inaccuracy?

Sometimes the job is too huge and complicated to make an accurate estimate. Or else, the person making the estimate isn’t the same person who’s doing the work.

In any event, it’s a very common, and sometimes a very frustrating, phenomenon.

The agile planning process helps to fix these sorts of conundrums. It’s about breaking a project into small pieces, and carefully gauging the amount of work to take on during an iteration. This makes it easier to estimate how long a given amount of work should take.

Let’s look at the steps an agile team takes to plan an iteration. But first, let’s look at an overview of agile planning, from the big picture to the daily grind.

Agile Planning

Peeling the Onion: An Overview of Agile Planning

The overall approach to agile planning, from the big picture to the granular, is oftentimes described with the metaphor of an onion. From the outer layer to the inner core, here are its essential components.

Strategic

Strategic planning is about setting direction and charting a course. This is the multi-year planning that looks at a company’s long-term goals. A method such as SWOT, that evaluates a company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, is one effective way to go about creating a strategic plan.

Portfolio

Given the course it’s charted, the company next determines where to put its labor and resources. At the portfolio stage, a company generates ideas and brainstorms specific projects to work on, as well as decides which projects to suspend.

Product Planning

The third phase is the realm of the product manager and other key stakeholders. It’s about looking at the market, identifying the customer’s problems, looking at competition, and planning specific products accordingly. At this stage, a company outlines product goals and builds a product backlog.

Agile project planning has more flexibility than a gantt chart. Although an agile map includes milestones, the development team pivots when it feels that altering the course would better serve the market and customer.

Team Level

With a definite product in mind, the team evaluates the work required to meet all requirements and bring the product over the finish line.

On its own, they organize this work into epics, features and themes based on the size of the work and how the tasks relate to one another. The product owner prioritizes this work in the product backlog.

Iteration Planning

Each iteration, or “sprint” in the scrum framework, is geared toward accomplishing work that really moves the needle for a project. The team carefully estimates how much work to take on during the iteration, which normally lasts about two weeks.

Daily Planning

Agile teams communicate daily throughout a project, and the daily meeting, or standup as it’s called in the scrum framework, is about discussing impediments, blockers, and assessing how the sprint is going.

As you can see, this “agile onion” looks at a company’s long-term goals, all the way down to the small daily duties.

While long-term objectives give direction to a company, the product goals may change as the team reflects on feedback from the end user, or notices shifts in the market. And although management and leadership weigh in on big-picture goals, the team has more autonomy as the planning becomes more granular.

Creating User Stories

Creating User Stories

Now that we’ve seen the big picture, let’s look closely at the inner-layers of agile planning: the team’s process of planning iterations and daily work.

The planning aspect of agile project management is a time consuming process, and entails breaking a large project into small pieces, then determining how long each task should take. An agile team spends 10% of its overall time planning and then reflecting on an iteration.

A user story is a small batch of work created with the end user in mind. Creating user stories is the first step toward building a product backlog, which is basically the agile team’s to-do list. Let’s discuss what it entails.

Define User Personas

The first step to creating a user story is to clarify the end user.

It’s helpful to brainstorm several types of end users, giving them details such as an age, gender, likes, dislikes and a background. All these details help identify the user’s problems and needs.

The creation of these personas doesn’t come from the development team’s imagination. Rather, stakeholders and product owners, who have researched the customer and the market, supply key information.

When the team has specific ideas about the customer, they’re able to create a product that solves real-world needs.

Gather Input From Stakeholders

A stakeholder is anyone involved with the creation of the product or anyone who is affected by it. This includes someone who uses the product, someone who interacts with the customer, business experts, the product manager, the marketing team and the development team.

Together, these stakeholders outline the product requirements, which are stated in the user stories.

Hold a User Story Session

With the end user in mind, all of the stakeholders, together, create user stories, including as many requirements as they can think of. These are put into the product backlog, and provide the team direction when planning iterations of work.

Each user story clarifies the end user, the requirement, and what “done” looks like. It’s given a point estimate to indicate the level of complexity.

While initially the user stories may outline immense tasks, they are broken down when planning iterations.

These stories are constantly being updated as the project progresses, based on the review at the end of the iteration and user feedback from any increment developed.

User Story

When all of the user stores are created, an agile team organizes the work and breaks it down. This gives them a sensible way to go about creating the product.

Decomposing User Stories With INVEST

Decomposing User Stories With INVEST

When they’re first created, some user stories are so large and complex they’d take several iterations to complete. The team breaks down, or decomposes, a user story into tasks that can be completed in single iterations.

The INVEST approach outlines the criteria for determining if a story is suitable for one iteration.

Independent

The task must be independent from any other work. This means it can be completed all on its own, without having to work on any other stories.

Negotiable

The task isn’t laid out precisely. This allows for flexibility and interpretation during the iteration.

Valuable

The story is created with the end user in mind. Any potential user would be able to identify how the task adds value to them, or helps to solve their problem.

Estimable

The story isn’t overly complicated, and is easy to break down into individual tasks. This allows a team to gauge whether or not the work can be completed in the iteration.

Small

One individual story should be a small amount of work, something one developer could complete in half a sprint. This allows a team to take on several stories within one iteration.

Stories are measured in points, and a single user story generally never has more than 8 points.

Testable

And the final gauge for measuring whether a story is appropriate for an iteration is whether or not it’s testable. This means that the completed product has definite, clear metrics.

When a user story meets all of the requirements in the INVEST formula, this means it is suitable to include in one iteration.

Assigning Points to User Story With Planning Poker

Assigning Points to User Story With Planning Poker

After decomposing user stories, the team collectively assigns each task “story points” to measure its level of complexity.

One common method for estimating and assigning story points is the “game” of planning poker.

To begin this game, each member of the development team is given a stack of cards with Fibonacci numbers on one side. (Fibonacci are a rapidly increasing number sequence: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55.) They also select one small user story, and assign it an estimate (so a small number of 2 or 3), which becomes the baseline throughout the game.

As the product owner presents stories, the development team gauges the complexity of the story, comparing it to the base story. They place their elections face down on the table, then reveal the estimates at the same time.

The team members with the highest and lowest numbers discuss how they came up with their estimates. The product owner weighs in as well.

After this feedback, the team estimates again, up to three times, until they agree on a story point value to assign to the user story. Again, it’s good to note that story points aren’t measurements of time, but rather are measurements of a product’s complexity.

The planning poker allows each member, using their individual experience, to weigh in and gauge the complexity of the story. This ensures that stories receive an accurate point value, which in turn enables the team to select an appropriate amount of work during an iteration.

When assigning point values to user stories, a team needs to hone its definition of done. Usually, this entails more than completing the code, and may include processes for testing and reviewing increment before its release.

Experimenting With Iterations

Experimenting With Iterations

When a team has a backlog of decomposed user stories, all with points assigned to them, it’s ready to select work for the upcoming iteration. The product owner grooms the backlog to determine the tasks with the highest priority.

Since the team is doing the work itself, they determine how much to take on during an iteration. Even when management is pushing to reach a milestone by a certain date, respecting this boundary is necessary for the agile team to be autonomous and self-motivated.

Agile is about doing, reflecting, then pivoting if necessary, and so it’s good for an agile team to experiment with a system for about three iterations to see what works and what doesn’t. Then it adjusts and tries something new, if necessary.

In a scrum framework, the scrum master’s objective is to get the team to a place where it estimates stories accurately and selects the right amount of work for a sprint.

In sum, the agile planning method is about breaking work down into small daily tasks, and allowing the person doing the work to determine their own workload. This autonomous, small-batch approach prevents cognitive overload, and allows the team to work at a steady pace throughout the project.

Conclusion

As with most planning and estimating, agile planning requires a little bit of groping in the dark.

The iterative approach keeps the team focused on the work at hand, rather than looking ahead to an end goal, far off in the future. Many necessary product adjustments reveal themselves late in production, so the team doesn’t need to stress about having all the answers right away.

After a while, a good agile team is skilled at breaking down user stories and assigning accurate story points. They become about as industrious as a raccoon in the middle of the night: they can get all sorts of work done, while still being in the dark about some major details.

Give Your Business A Leg Up With A Virtual Assistant

How can a virtual assistant help your business

Sometimes the most challenging part of running a business is allowing others to take some of your load off. It’s not just control freaks who feel they have to do it themselves if they want the job done right. Many of us try to do it all because we think it’s easier than training someone else. However, letting go and offloading tasks allows us to focus on what we’re truly good at. Not only does this help avoid burn out, but it makes us better at what we do and facilitates our business growth.

If you want to focus on growing your business or are even at the stage where you really need support, hiring a virtual assistant could be your next secret weapon. A virtual assistant is an independent contractor who can provide a wide range of services to clients, operating outside of the client’s office.

Virtual assistants are great because they don’t need to occupy space in your office and are usually less of a financial commitment than a full-time employee. You can hire them for precisely the amount of hours you need them for and have the flexibility to adjust this based on the needs of your business.

Wondering how exactly a virtual assistant can make your life easier? Here are 10 services that you can use them for:

1. Administrative Work

Does anybody really enjoy doing admin work? Admin tasks such as filing, data entry, and scheduling are of course important, but can be a massive time drain, cutting into the time you have for more interesting tasks. Fortunately, since much of these tasks are straightforward, a virtual assistant can take the load off. Even if admin work is your jam, the ‘as needed’ work structure of a VA means that if your workload increases, you can always have the option of offloading admin work. Have a think about how offloading some of the admin work you do could give you more time to focus on growing your business.

Social Media Management

2. Social Media Management

Many businesses need to harness the power of social media these days. And yet, it’s an area that many business owners don’t have the time (or patience) for. Since hiring a dedicated social media manager or marketer isn’t always in the budget, a virtual assistant can help. On an as-needed basis, a VA can create content calendars, interact with the community, manage posts, and fulfil many of the duties of a social media team, without breaking the budget.

3. Bookkeeping

One of the most essential elements of running a business, but also one of the most tedious (particularly for us creatives), is bookkeeping. If the thought of invoices, bills, and keeping track of finances makes you just want to get back in bed, a virtual assistant can help. Some tasks a virtual assistant can take over are generating invoices and following up, issuing refunds, preparing balance sheets, helping you prepare your tax statements, and paying bills and wages. If you have tears of boredom in your eyes after just reading that list, get in touch with a virtual assistant who can help.

4. Customer Service

Sometimes when we’ve grown a business ourselves from scratch, interacting with our customers personally means a lot. They’ve helped us get where we are today, and we want to make sure we’re continuing to develop those relationships. But needing someone to take this on for you is a great sign that you’ve grown. And in order to do what you do best and ultimately keep making those special customers happy, you need to have someone take care of the day-to-day customer service tasks. This can include answering emails, phone calls, live chat, and social media messages. And there are still many ways you can make your customers or clients feel the personal touch; you could send a gift during the holidays, handwritten notes with big orders, or host events.Creative Writing

5. Creative Writing

As a business owner, it’s hard to ignore the power of creative writing content such as blogs, ebooks, courses, etc. Whether you want to appear higher on a search engine search or find new and exciting ways to generate leads, creative writing can be the key. Virtual assistants can help by writing blog posts, writing ebooks, newsletters, email funnels, social media post captions, email marketing, product descriptions, brochures, and packaging.

6. Research

Another interesting way a virtual assistant can help you take your business to the next level is through research. The research that a virtual assistant can help you with varies greatly. It could be hashtag research for your social media, speaking opportunities, market research, or even creating a SWOT analysis. Research is important but time-consuming, so consider outsourcing this aspect of your work to improve productivity and streamline business growth.Graphic design

7.  Graphic design

You don’t need to be a graphic designer to create excellent graphics nowadays, with platforms like Canva offering services that make it easy to learn and execute. A virtual assistant can help you with several simple graphic design tasks, such as photo editing, creating content for social media, or creating a brand style guideline.

8. Tech

Not a tech guru? Or just don’t have the time for it? A virtual assistant is a great option to help you with all of your tech needs. You can have them format your blog posts, edit your videos or podcasts, troubleshooting, or even create reports on your analytics.

9. Recruiting

Hiring is tiring. So get someone else to do it for you! If they understand your vision for your business, a virtual assistant will significantly assist with the recruitment process. You can brief them on what you need, get them to upload the job advertisement to various sites, filter through applicants, set up interviews, and so on. Not comfortable with outsourcing the entire recruitment process? Even just having a VA do the leg-work and leaving the interviewing up to you will streamline your work day massively.

10. Project management

While a project manager can play a pretty massive role in itself, a virtual assistant can be of great help in this area. They can help outline project scopes, create and manage timelines, create contingency plans, and schedule meeting and tasks. This will help your business and projects run super efficiently. Use Teamly to empower your virtual assistant to finish projects faster and efficiently.

You should have a pretty good idea of how hiring a virtual assistant can help your business grow. And remember, these are just a starting point! Some virtual assistants specialize further and could be familiar with the ins and outs of your industry.

So how should you find the best virtual assistant that will make your life easier? You want to take the necessary steps to make sure that you find the right fit. A few things you’ll want to think about before you start your search are:

  • What your goals are. Do you want someone who can bring a new fresh perspective on something you’re not as well-versed in? Do you want someone who can lighten your load in general? The answers to these questions can determine the qualities and skill level your future virtual assistant should have.
  • Your budget. Virtual assistants can range in price. If you need someone who goes above and beyond, you might want to evaluate what you can afford.
  • What a good personality fit looks like. Chances are, you want this to be a mutually beneficial and long-term relationship. You’ll want to make sure that you get a good vibe from the virtual assistant and that they seem like a good fit for your team.

You can go down a few different avenues to find the right virtual assistant. Platforms like Upwork and Fiverr allow you to easily find experienced virtual assistants from all over the world that meet any budget or other requirements. Another great way is to ask your network for a referral. Prepare some thoughtful questions to ask the potential candidates to give you insight into their experience, personality, and skill set.

Tasks a virtual assistant can do

Conclusion

Got a lot of pain points in your business that you want help solving? Just want to lean into the growth you’re already experiencing and accelerate? It could be time to get yourself your very own virtual assistant. Focus on what you’re great at and leave the rest up to a virtual assistant. Who knows how your business will take off when you have the time to put all of your eggs in the right basket!

What is the Difference Between a Project Manager and a Product Manager, Really?

Product vs Project Management

Did you ever watch The Patty Duke Show from the 1960s?

It was a sitcom that followed the misadventures of cousins Patty and Cathy Lane, both played by Duke, living together in Brooklyn Heights.

“They laugh alike, they walk alike, sometimes they even talk alike,” the intro song sings of the duo. “But they’re cousins, identical cousins.”

Although identical in appearance, the two girls really are quite different. Patty is the All-American girl next door, while Cathy is European-born, demure and studious.

You could probably write a corresponding show about a project and product manager. With only two letters differentiating the two job roles, and an identical “PM” abbreviation, at first blush the titles sound interchangeable.

It’s easy for anyone to conflate the two, and think they’re basically the same thing.

Just like the Lane cousins, however, the resemblance is only skin deep.
Although product and project management require many of the same skills, each is a distinct role with different objectives and duties.

Product management is about honing a specific product to serve a market need, while project management works in the realm of timelines and budgets, with a set goal in mind.

Just like two identical people, their surface similarities create no small amount of confusion. So let’s clear some of that up by first defining the roles of project and product managers, then looking at some of the similarities and differences between the two.

What is a Project Manager

What is a Project Manager?

A project manager is the “organizer in chief” for a defined set of tasks with a specific objective, budget and scope. Although anyone can come up with a task list, project management is about following a systematic structure with benchmarks and quotas that generates repeatable results.

A project manager plots a timeline, generates consensus amongst all stakeholders, facilitates ongoing communication amongst the team, and monitors a project through to its completion.

A Brief History of Project Management

Project management is an ancient discipline. It was utilized in building the Great Wall of China in 200 BC and in erecting the Egyptian pyramids over 4,000 years ago.

The beginning of modern project management is cited with Henry Gantt’s invention of the Gantt Chart. This chart, which plots tasks along a project’s timeline, was used by the US military in WWI to organize the deployment of troops to France.

It was also used in building the Hoover Dam in 1931 and in developing the modern US highway system.

The project management discipline really started to unfold in the 1950s. The Dupont Corporation developed the Critical Path Method for estimating a project’s timeline by using the least-flexible tasks as a guidepost. And the American Association of Cost Engineers formed in 1956, using sophisticated systems for estimating a project’s cost and schedule.

In the 1960s, the establishment of the International Project Manager Association (IPMA) in Vienna gave deference to the actual role of project management. IPMA helped to crystalize the position and its job duties.

The approach to project implementation and planning continued to evolve over the next few decades.

With the publication of his bestselling book The Goal in 1984, Eli Goldratt introduced the Theory of Constraints, which says that an organization must first look at its slowest or most difficult processes, and build its entire system around them.

And the 1980s marked the beginning of agile methodology, with the introduction of the scrum framework for software teams. This iterative approach to projects, that allows for constant change and pivoting, didn’t take long to catch on. A team of software developers wrote the Agile Manifesto in 2001.

As you can see, project management has come a long way since the Egyptians built the pyramids in 2500 BC. It’s become an established profession with very specific roles, systems, and methodologies, and several distinct approaches.

The Project Manager’s Objective

Essentially, the project manager’s benchmark for success is the completion of a project on time and within budget, with high attention to detail and quality.

The “scope, cost, time” triangle

The “scope, cost, time” triangle, which emerged around the 1950s, helps illustrate the constraints that a project manager works within to achieve this objective.

Whenever a manager makes a change to any one of these constraints, it affects the other two. When the scope of a project increases, this increases the budget and the timeline. However, if the budget decreases, the scope and timeline also need to decrease, or else the quality declines.

Roles and Responsibilities of a Project Manager

The duties of a project manager revolve around controlling, monitoring, planning and communicating throughout a project. The project must be determined to meet a business need.

Here’s an overview of some of the central duties of a project manager:

Establish Goals and Priorities

Establish Goals and Priorities

When a project’s goals are not properly defined, it creates huge problems in the long run.

When first receiving the assignment, a project manager meets with stakeholders to discuss the goals, budget and timeline. Oftentimes, they use a method called MoSCoW prioritization, which outlines all of the project’s musts, shoulds, coulds and won’ts.

In this meeting, the project manager seeks to establish clarity around expectations, and consensus around the project’s overall goals.

Assess Risks

Knowing and anticipating risks keeps costs low, and allows the project to keep to its timeline.

At the beginning of a project, the project manager lays all the project’s risks on the table, and creates a risk management strategy in collaboration with the project stakeholders. The strategy usually includes compensating controls, asset protection, and mitigating controls.

Plot a Timeline

After determining all of the tasks, and the desired outcome, the project manager plots the timeline. Using the Critical Path Method the project manager can create an accurate estimate by determining those tasks with the least amount of flexibility.

The Gantt Chart is an effective visual for plotting work that needs to be done at various points along the timeline. Throughout the project, the project manager continually monitors the ongoing tasks and updates the Gantt chart accordingly.

Communicate Constantly

Communicate Constantly

A project’s team is oftentimes composed of a hodgepodge of people, from all sorts of disciplines and cultural backgrounds, in various locations, some of them contractors and others employees.

This diversity poses a serious communication challenge, which translates into a huge risk to the project.

The project manager keeps everyone abreast of what’s going on by facilitating open dialogue. Sometimes this entails having a weekly scrum, where people discuss challenges and ways to move beyond them.

He or she also chooses a communication platform that easily allows everyone to correspond with each other daily throughout the project.

Control Scope

Handling scope creep is central to keeping a project’s cost, schedule and performance on track.

When an added task affects a project’s budget and timeline, the project manager establishes protocol for submitting the change for approval.

Evaluating each task individually allows the leader and the project manager to judiciously decide whether or not it should be approved.

Communicating effectively with the client is also an important aspect of scope creep. It’s good to address requests with some flexibility, while also keeping the project on schedule.

Meet Deadlines

And last but not least, a project manager’s role is about driving the timeline. Vigilant planning and monitoring, along with good communication allows the project to stay on track.

In sum, the project manager’s role is to motivate the troops, and then to synchronize and organize resources in order to complete a project.

Misconceptions About Project Management

Misconceptions About Project Management

It’s easy to make generalizations about project management, or to be fuzzy about the job role, and here are two common misconceptions.

It’s the Same as a Scrum Master

Roles like “scrum master” and “product owner” are part of the agile framework. The project manager role, however, is used in all sorts of disciplines and companies, and not exclusively in agile workplaces.

In companies that use the scrum framework, it’s generally not a great idea for the scrum master to be the same person as the project manager. A project manager continually monitors and moves the team along, whereas the scrum master facilitates an autonomous team by taking a “hands-off” approach to leading.

It’s Only Soft Skills

Project management is very much about having “people” skills. Although active listening and team building are critical to the role, a project manager also needs technical know-how in order to be successful.

For example, when project managers oversee a construction job, they should understand how to install drywall, even if they don’t plan to do it themselves. This allows them to hire a good contractor and inspect the job after it’s completed.

For this reason, a lot of project management skills are learned on the job, and it’s not easy for a project manager to jump from one industry to another.

Why is Project Management Necessary?

Project management is about creating structure for a body of work, and giving it a timeline.

Without this structure, it’s easy for a company to waste resources and time doing things with no coherent goal.

A project manager is like a disciplinarian who comes into a lagging workplace and whips things into shape and brings tasks over the finish line.

In sum, a project manager is about the “how” and the “when” of a project, not so much about the “why” and the “what.”

We really use project management in all areas of our lives: any time we have a task list with an end goal in mind, we’re a project manager. So we’re all experts at this, in a sense. However, a professional project manager takes a systematic and disciplined approach to a project, and develops skills and techniques in order to bring about the successful completion of a project over and over again.

What is a Product Manager

What is a Product Manager?

A product manager is dedicated to the financial and commercial success of a specific product. Products are anything a customer buys, including services. Oftentimes, a product is bundled with others, such as one module on an automobile.

The product manager uses market and customer research, as well as feedback from stakeholders to refine an existing product or develop a new one.

A Brief History of Product Management

Product management, to our knowledge anyway, doesn’t have prehistoric origins like project management does.

The position is credited to one Neil H. McElroy, who, while working at Procter and Gamble in 1931, outlined a new position called “Brand Men. This position was about assuming a “very heavy share of individual brand responsibility” that had until then been held by the District Manager and Sales Heads.

The brand men were to study a product closely, particularly one with lagging sales, and then improve upon it. Next, they oversaw the creation of all copy and advertising material for the product. Finally, after making these improvements, they tracked the results. Brand men offloaded clerical work to assistant brand men.

This envisioned position freed up Sales Heads, who would no longer have to “give up such a large proportion of their time to thought on how to bring up volume on a certain brand in a certain part of the territory.”

McElroy went on to work for Hewlett Packard, where he honed the position. “Brand Men” or “product manager” became about establishing a direct line between the product and the customer: the product manager identified the customer need, then created a product that solved that need.

In the 1980s, software companies started coming on board to product management, with Intuit leading the way. The agile methodologies of lean, scrum, and kanban that emerged in the 80s and 90s gave deference to the product manager duties by remaining hyper-focused on the end-user experience.

The Product Manager’s Objective

Essentially, a product manager’s measure for success is the development of a product that generates revenue for the company.

The Product Manager's Objective

As a happy customer is at the crux of financial success, a product manager’s role is the crossover between user experience (ux), the creation of the product (tech), and the business of the product.

Product managers research customer’s needs, and brainstorm creative ways to solve and address them. They also understand how the product is developed and created, even if they can’t do it themselves. And finally, product managers closely study competitors, markets, and development costs in order to create a profitable product.

Roles and Responsibilities of Product Managers

A day in the life of the product manager revolves around researching and possibly speaking with customers, as well as motivating and gathering information from all stakeholders.

Here’s an overview of some of the central duties of a product manager.

Assess Markets and Competitors

Although not marketers themselves, product management is very much about assessing the needs of the market. It looks at the big picture of a product’s timeline, and forecasts how the product might evolve as the market changes. It researches competitors and identifies its competitive edge.

Then, the product manager creates goals and strategies based on this knowledge.

Develop Product Expertise

Oftentimes, product managers oversee products that are bundled with others, and so they understand how the product interacts with everything else.

A product manager also understands how the product is manufactured or developed. For example, in a software company, the product manager understands the rubrics of writing code.

Know the Customer

Ideally, product managers talk with customers. They understand what the customer’s problem is, and brainstorm and collect information from stakeholders to solve this problem.

The product manager creates user stories and customer journeys to formulate the ideal product.

From this research, they advise the company on how to proceed with product development and marketing.

Lead and Manage

Management, naturally, is central to the role of the product manager. It’s about creating consensus around a product, which entails gathering and negotiating with anyone who has a stake in it.

The product manager leads a team to develop features and capabilities that address customer journeys.

Develop a Vision

Develop a Vision

Product owners develop an idea for the direction to take a product, with respect to design, production and marketing. They also know the customer problem that it solves.

This vision is developed through brainstorming, researching the market, understanding production processes, talking to customers, and listening to feedback from stakeholders.

Tell Stories

The position requires strong communication and persuasion skills.

Product managers take their customer research and user stories, and communicate the “why” of the product to the engineering or production department. They utilize the craft of storytelling and user stories to communicate the problem that a product seeks to solve.

Use Business Acumen

Generating profits for the business is central to product managers. They look at the impact of a product one or two years down the line.

Usually, a product manager competes with many others within the company for resources, funding, and marketing attention.

In sum, a good product manager is concerned not only with the company’s bottom line, but about the product and the end user as well. The position is about meeting the needs of the customer in a way that brings in revenue for the company, and about corralling stakeholders to move in that direction.

Misconceptions About Product Management

Misconceptions About Product Management

The product manager works in the balance between development, marketing and sales. This naturally generates confusion about the role. Here are some clarifications to common misconceptions.

It’s a Mini-CEO

Usually, a product manager is one among many in an organization, and so they certainly don’t have tons of power.

Although a product manager has opinions about a product, the role has more to do with communicating his or her perspective on where to take a product, rather than making decisions.

Product managers bring a lot to the table: a vision developed through research and feedback. However, the CEO has the final word in the direction and development of the product.

It’s a Product Owner

A product owner is a specific role within the scrum framework, which is an agile approach to project management. It’s a position entirely separate from the product manager, and is focused on the scrum team, and prioritizing the work to be done in the upcoming iteration.

Generally, the product owner and product manager wouldn’t be the same person. However, the product manager works very closely with the product owner to develop the user stories for the product backlog, and to determine test and evaluation criteria for deliverables.

It’s Marketing and Sales

Although the product manager understands the customer, they themselves don’t create copy and advertising, nor do they hit the pavement and knock on doors.

As McElroy said in his memo about brand men, the product manager, in part, is about taking the weight off the shoulders of sales teams by focusing on the improvement of the product and honing the marketing message.

Why is Product Management Necessary?

A cost-efficient and quality product is at the crux of a business’ success. Product management creates a clear line between the product and the end user, so it’s laser focused on serving this need.

As McElroy said of Proctor and Gamble in the 30s, when this crucial task of product management is deferred to sales and division managers, it gets lost among all of their other duties.

In sum, product management is the “why” and the “what” of a company’s production, and isn’t so concerned with the “how” and the “when.”

Product management allows a large company to have a small-company, entrepreneurial approach to the product. This individualized focus on the development of a particular product keeps a company in tune with the customer and allows it to turn a profit year after year.

Comparing and Contrasting the Project and Product Manager

Comparing and Contrasting the Project and Product Manager

As you can see, the product and project manager are distinct roles with their own objectives and responsibilities. The roles work in symbiosis and help each other accomplish these objectives.

To make a comparison, consider an orchestra. The product manager is like the conductor, who has a vision and leads the group to execute on it. Whereas the project manager is more like the producer, and is tasked with scheduling rehearsals, finding a venue for the performance, promoting the performance, selling tickets, and designing the program.

The product manager is focused on the overall vision, whereas the project manager is about carrying out the practicalities in order to realize the vision.

Let’s look a little closer at the differences and similarities between the two roles.

Key Differences Between Project and Product Manager

As the project and product manager are two distinct roles, it’s not too hard to find significant differences between the two. Here are some of the clearest ones.

Project Completion versus Satisfied Customer

The product and project manager have completely different criteria for success.

As discussed, the project manager’s objective is to complete and deliver a task within the constraints of the timeline and budget.

Product owners however, measure their performance by overall customer satisfaction with a product, as well as with the company’s bottom line.

Roles and Responsibilities Differ

These two positions are given ownership over completely different areas of a business’ operations.

A project owner’s work is centered around estimating the timelines, plotting tasks and budgeting resources. He or she also clarifies the project’s overall goals, prioritizes tasks and assesses risks.

The product owner, on the other hand, is concerned with the customer and identifying the customer’s problem. He or she researches markets and competitors, and also understands how the product is developed. The position is about solving the customer need with a lucrative product.

Agnostic versus Visionary

Project managers work in the realm of strategy and practicality. They’re given a vision and an objective, and their objective is to execute on it. They play no part in developing this vision themselves.

Product management, however, is more about creating this vision. Product managers develop strong opinions about the development and placement of a product, after they’ve completed customer and market research and taken input from stakeholders.

Long versus Short Horizon

The product has a long, indeterminate life span, whereas the project usually has a fixed, predetermined deadline.

When a project manager is given an assignment, the timeline is usually very specific. Their line of sight is from the beginning of a project to its completion. They look closely into the granularity of a project, and to the day-to-day duties.

Product managers, on the other hand, look several years down the pike, into changing markets and evolving consumer trends. They want to forecast and understand how to serve the customer need both now and in the short-term future.

Anywhere versus Specific

Another key distinction is that project management can happen anywhere. We’re always managing projects, even though we may not formally acknowledge it. Creating a grocery list and meal planning for the week is project management, as is planning and purchasing gifts for everyone on your Christmas list.

Basically, anytime you create a task list with a specific end goal, you’re project managing.

Product management, however, is very closely related to the functions of a business. It’s about addressing consumer needs in order to improve the bottom line.

In sum, the project manager and product manager are two very different positions. They work on a different timeline, have different responsibilities and different criteria for success. The two positions mutually benefit each other, however.

And they do share some common characteristics.

Key Similarities Between Project and Product Manager

Key Similarities Between Project and Product Manager

Both these positions are managerial, meaning that they require charisma, leadership and team building skills.

Here are a few commonalities between the two positions.

Technical Expertise

In addition to requiring soft skills like organization and team building, both the product and project manager require rigorous technical knowledge as well.

The product manager must understand the technical side of the product development, in order to make good financial decisions about design and production.

And the project manager needs to have a lot of know-how about all of the tasks on the Gantt chart, in order to hire the right people and determine if the job has been done well.

Negotiation Skills

Corralling a group of disparate stakeholders is part and parcel to both the product and project manager. This entails no small amount of negotiation skills.

A product manager needs to persuade a group to his or her vision regarding the best way to position and pitch a product.

And the project manager needs to keep the project within the constraints of the cost, scope, and timeline. This oftentimes entails convincing people to cooperate and give a little.

Team-Building Skills

Teamwork is at the heart of both product and project management. Both collaborate and communicate constantly with a variety of departments and disciplines, including the customer and client.

Each needs to know how to organize their thoughts and communicate to various departments using terminology that the recipient understands.

Building rapport within these disparate groups allows each to reach their respective goals: the project manager completes tasks with greater ease, and the product manager achieves greater cooperation and contribution toward building an excellent product.

In sum, while still being distinct roles, both the project and product manager require skills part and parcel to any managerial position.

Product & Project Management

They Sound Alike, But…

Just like the intro song to The Patty Duke Show, you certainly could say that the project manager and product manager “walk alike and sometimes even talk alike.”

Both are managerial positions, and so skills such as team building, negotiation, and communication are integral to both roles.

However, a product manager and a project manager are also distinct, and have completely different objectives.

The product manager is a “cheerleader” for a specific product, and seeks to generate revenue for the business by meeting the needs of the customer. While a project manager organizes and oversees an assigned task from beginning to end.

The relationship between the two is symbiotic: they dance around the office in the same milieu, perhaps sometimes stepping on each other’s toes, but with their eye on a different prize.

Time Blocking – A Time Management Trick to Get in the Zone

Time Blocking Method

Everyone (even Oprah) has the same 24 hours in a day, so why is it that some people seem to accomplish an inhuman amount of work when you can’t even manage to reply to that one email?

No, it isn’t just you.

Time management is a hot topic these days for good reason and there is no shortage of books, articles, and blogs on how to hack the clock and be productive. It seems that we are all looking for the next big thing to help us manage the seemingly impossible task of our work and personal lives.

Look no further because you have found time blocking.

Time blocking involves breaking down your available hours into chunks and batching work in a way that makes the best use of your energy and attention. This technique allows you to focus on a single or batch of similar tasks by carving out a specific time in your day for that activity.

Some of the most productive people on the planet make use of time blocking to manage their incredibly busy schedules. If it is good enough for Bill Gates and Elon Musk, it is good enough for you.

Before diving into the specifics of time blocking, it is important to understand why it is such an effective productivity tool in your toolbox.

The Multitasking Myth

The Multitasking Myth

The main reason why time blocking is so effective is that it designates a time and space for you to focus on a single or related task. Contrary to popular belief, you do not get more done when you attempt to do more things at once – multitasking is a myth.

You may argue that washing the dishes and listening to a podcast is a great example of true multitasking and you would have a valid point. The difference in this scenario is that you are combining two low energy activities that require very little input from your brain.

How many times have you gone through the motion of washing dishes? Probably thousands.

This type of combo activity is more appropriately called “background tasking”. While your body is physically occupied doing the dishes that you have done a thousand times before, your mind is taking in some audio entertainment. The podcast may even make the dishes more enjoyable – nothing better than some true crime mixed in with the monotony of domestic chores, right?

However, the argument that you can truly manage two tasks at once loses its weight when it comes to managing work related tasks that actually require your full attention and input. If you try to answer emails while participating in a meeting, you will surely miss out on important information as you will be dividing your attention between two competing tasks.

Plus it is just rude.

While we may feel like we are being productive when we jump from our inbox, to a meeting, to our inbox again, the reality is that switching between these activities costs valuable energy and is more appropriately called “switchtasking”. Switchtasking is a sneaky thief that steals valuable minutes and hours from your day.

The truth is, no one is actually good at multitasking and your work suffers when you attempt it. Our brains do not work this way so when we try to take on more, the quality of our work suffers and we tend to make more mistakes. This defeats the purpose of trying to do more at the same time when both quality and quantity suffer.

Dr. Sandra Bond Chapman explains that multitasking drains your brain because it is not designed to handle more than one task at a time. She is a big proponent of single-tasking for productivity but also overall brain health and development.

The time it takes to shift attention between tasks can vary, but the general consensus among experts is that it takes between 20-25 minutes to fully switch between different tasks. This adds up quickly if you are constantly switching your attention, leaving you with very little productive time to produce good work. If you are a chronic multitasker, this will be a struggle but being aware of this cost is a great start and will help justify the switch to a time blocking system.

The Perfect Storm

Corporate culture as well as remnants of factory assembly line mentality created the perfect storm for our current time management crisis and the modern workplace makes it nearly impossible to be productive. With unrealistic expectations of what can be done in an 8 hour work day with 100 distractions and interruptions, most people are just barely getting by and burnout is higher than ever.

It isn’t all doom and gloom though, the global pandemic has caused a welcome shift in how we work and manage our time. With the largest case study in history, we are learning the conditions and systems that are most conclusive to productivity and discovering that less is actually more. There is a better understanding of how our brains work and the best conditions in which to produce quality work. Because of this, attention on time management and productivity is at an all time high.

Time Blocking Basics

Time Blocking Basics

While the concept of time blocking is a relatively simple act of blocking together similar tasks, it helps to break it down further into task batching and day theming.

Task Batching

The best way to start time blocking is to write down all (yes all) of the tasks that you may be required to perform for your work. This may sound like a to-do list but it is different in that you are recognizing the generic tasks themselves and not attaching a specific date to them, more like a “when” to-do list.

Let’s say that you are a freelance content creator, your regular tasks may include:

  • Blog writing
  • Website copywriting
  • Social media content creation
  • Bookkeeping
  • Invoicing
  • Regular client check in’s
  • Emails
  • Social media metrics review

While there are likely dozens more tasks, for simplicity sake, let’s assume that all tasks fit within these categories. When you look at this list, it is clear that some items can be easily batched together.

Writing and Creative Type Tasks

  • Writing and Creative Type Tasks: Blogging, website copy, and social media content creation all require the creative part of your brain and would make sense to batch in a half or even a full day of work. While they may be different tasks with different outcomes, they require the same skill set and allow you to focus your energy and truly get in the zone to complete the tasks.
  • Administrative Type Tasks: Bookkeeping, invoicing, and reviewing social media metrics can also be batched as they make the most use of the analytic part of your brain. Working with numbers is obviously different than working with words so blocking separate times for these activities will ensure that they get the attention they deserve.
  • Communication Type Tasks: Client check in’s and emails may form another category involving external communications. This category is often the most difficult to manage because our society has gotten used to being on call 24/7, answering phone calls on the weekend or checking email on the toilet (admit it).

While this is not an exclusive list of batch categories, you can use this list to start assigning your own to-dos to time blocks. Be sure to consider the time attached to the individual to-dos and whether they will fit in the allotted block of time. If they won’t, shift the to-do into the next available time block.

One of the most obvious and relatable examples of task batching is email considering the vast majority of people use it. It may seem counter productive at first to not answer emails as they come but it is important to understand the true cost of switching into email mode from a more important task. Start slow with batching emails for morning, afternoon, and end of day just to get in the habit of only checking at set times. If you want to manage your emails better, you can check out Endless Emails are Killing Your Time, Take it Back with These Email Management Strategies from fellow Teamly blogger.

Pro-Tip: include a block or two in your work week for catching up. This is a catch all space for anything that you didn’t manage to do in the designated blocks that day. It can also serve as a nice reward if you manage to get everything done, start on tomorrow’s work or take that time to relax instead!

Day Theming

Some people find it helpful to dedicate whole days to their task batches or blocks. Not only does this reduce task switching but it can also be helpful in managing your schedule. Using our freelancer example, you may see day theming that looks something like this:

  • Monday: Social media related work
  • Tuesday: Writing and content creation
  • Wednesday: Client check in’s and meetings
  • Thursday: Writing and content creation
  • Friday: Business related activities and development

While unrelated activities will inevitably find their way into your day and some meetings may have to happen outside of Wednesdays, having these themes will help keep you on track and focused on the main tasks. Communicating these themes to clients or team mates is also a great way to set reasonable boundaries and expectations of your time.

If full day themes are too broad to manage, it may be helpful to divide your days between morning and afternoon (assuming traditional hours). Say that our freelancer works five days a week, that would leave you with ten blocks which can be themed.

Are you a CEO? How Successful CEOs Stay Organized Every Day of the Year provides a great example of day theming for this position.

Setting Boundaries and Buffers

Setting Boundaries and Buffers

It is easy enough to block out your time in your calendar but to actually set and maintain these boundaries can be a struggle, especially if you have co-workers or a demanding work environment. It is important to make your boundaries clear and known and set buffers for when life happens. Let’s define the difference between boundaries and buffers, shall we?

Boundaries

How many times have you been derailed from good work by a knock on your office door or the ping of a notification on your smartphone? There are a number of studies that show people are interrupted multiple times an hour whether by co-workers or distractions in their surroundings.

Research from the University of California has found that, after an interruption, it takes about 23 minutes to refocus on whatever you were doing. Say your task was as short as finishing an email update to a client which would normally take you about 10 minutes. With a knock on the door and a quick conversation, that simple email will cost you at least 33 minutes of your workday.

How do we get anything done?

Short of putting a large “do not disturb” sign on your door, boundaries only work if you communicate them with others. You can do this by:

  • Including your estimated response time in your email signature
  • Having set office hours
  • Making your schedule known on a shared calendar

It isn’t enough to have boundaries, you need to respect them if you expect others to. If you say that you answer emails at 2:00 each day, do just that. Resist the urge to work outside of your time blocks and remind yourself that you are not saying no to an action, you are saying later.

As Parkinson’s law goes, your work will fill the available time. What this means is that there are external pressures added with the implementation of boundaries that will actually help you complete tasks in the designated time. Eventually, you will learn how much time a task actually takes you when interruptions and distractions are eliminated which will streamline your process.

An often unintended bonus of setting and committing to your boundaries is that it gives others permission to do the same. Everyone wins!

Buffers

Buffers between tasks will give you some wiggle room when life happens… and life happens.

Collectively, we are terrible at judging how much time we need to complete a task. More often than not, we tend to underestimate instead of overestimate which can make us feel rushed and compromise the quality of our work for the sake of a deadline. While the bigger issue here is learning how to better estimate the time it takes to do something, allowing yourself buffer space in your day will ensure that you can at least capture some of that underestimation until you learn better.

Ideally, buffers would not be used for work at all and instead be used to collect yourself and your thoughts as you prepare to transition between tasks. It may seem like a waste of time to factor in 15-30 minute buffer periods but remember, there is a time cost as your brain switches gears. You will pay for this switch with or without a buffer so it is best to count it as its own block than consider it part of an actual work one because that isn’t true work time.

As you learn how to better manage your time, you will spend less and less of it working in your buffer and instead make a more peaceful transition between activities.

Make Time to Make Time

Make Time to Make Time

Consistency is key. In his book, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, Cal Newport advocates for time blocking. Among other great productivity related advice, he admits to scheduling time in his day to schedule his time for the next day.

Yes, make time to make time.

A planning or scheduling block should be standard in every calendar, no matter what line of work you are in. Often, this planning block exists at the end of your day or week. If you work traditional hours, this may be your Friday afternoon activity. While it may seem as though you are taking time out of possible work related blocks, planning the following week will help you stay on task and be more reasonable with what you can accomplish.

This time is valuable for more reasons than one, it is also a great opportunity to review your previous week and develop a more reasonable expectation of what you can actually accomplish.

Benefits of Time Blocking

Benefits of Time Blocking

Reduced Disruptions

Remember your boundaries? By blocking your time, you are saying yes to what is in front of you and no to distractions and work outside the time block. Creating an environment where you can engage in deep and productive work is key and is made easier with this technique.

Unless you live in a vacuum, disruptions will happen but will be significantly reduced knowing that all of the tasks that you plan on undertaking live in a time block on your schedule.

Increased Focus

It happens to the best of us, you are working away and suddenly a thought pops into your head about another task that you will need to work on. When you time block, you can more easily resist the urge to immediately switch to that task because you know that you have set up a specific time to accomplish it. You are not forgetting it, you are reminding yourself that you have designated time already for this task and that it will get done.

Being able to easily dismiss these intrusive thoughts will help you stay on track and focused on the one right in front of you.

Increased Productivity

We now understand that multitasking is a killer of productivity. Not only does it take more time to do a single task, the quality suffers because your attention is pulled in multiple directions.

Initially, it will feel like blocking your time is stopping you from getting things done because you are no longer doing things as they catch your attention. Resist the twitch because (if you are being honest with yourself) you were not accomplishing as much as you think you were in your workday before you discovered this technique. Your to-do list may have been long but checkboxes were not being checked. Time blocking lets you focus and get things done, increasing your overall productivity.

More Realistic Expectations

Your time blocking system will always be under development as you learn what works and what doesn’t. In this process, you will inevitably develop more realistic expectations of what you can complete in a designated amount of time.

Time blocking will also help to set other people’s expectations of you. Once you have found a system that works, others will be impressed by your consistency and ability to set up boundaries that not only protect your time and attention but also ensure that good work is being produced.

Visually Prioritize

Using your email inbox as a to-do list is a terrible habit but most of us arrange our work days based on these and other notifications. In this case, priorities are determined by other people and the most recent ping or notification. Time blocking allows you to take these emails or notifications, turn them into a to-do and place them in the appropriate slot to be dealt with at a time that your brain is focused on similar tasks.

Sometimes, things will come up that need to be done right away. A website crashes and it is a priority to get it back online or there is a PR emergency that must be dealt with immediately.

Life happens.

That said, these are not everyday occurrences and will only disrupt your schedule on occasion. The rest of the time, you can maintain a time blocked and organized schedule.

Time Blocking Tips

Time Blocking Tips

Find Your Rhythm

Thankfully, workplaces are increasingly offering flexible hours giving employees more freedom over their schedules. This isn’t a completely selfless act on behalf of the companies though, they have learned that when people are allowed to work with their natural rhythms, they actually produce better work!

While you may already have some insight into the more productive times of the day for you, it is helpful to ask yourself:

  • When do I have the most energy and motivation?
  • What time of day do I see the fewest interruptions?

This will take some experimenting but finding this sweet spot will help you better arrange your time blocks for your most important work.

Be Realistic With Your Time

As humans, we constantly underestimate how long something will take, even worse we assume that everything will go perfect and nothing will derail us. The vast majority of time, things take longer than we expect and something is bound to throw us off.

To counter this, it is important to estimate the time something will take you and then add more time in your time block to account for the unaccountable. Eventually, you will be able to refine your estimates but it will never be an exact science. The trick is to always give yourself more time than you think you need.

It is important, however, to not give yourself too much time. Remember Parkinson’s law? You will fill the time that you have available so while you should be generous, you should also be reasonable to avoid wasting valuable time.

Schedule Personal Time First

It is important that you also make time for what is truly important like your friends, family, and personal interest.

You can avoid overscheduling work by starting your schedule with the non-negotiables, the first one being sleep. Yes, a full chunk of 8 hours, be sure to include any kind of wind down ritual you like. Next schedule in time to eat, be sure to include the time it takes to prep and clean up.

Don’t forget to schedule your breaks during the day and resist the urge to overschedule your time in an attempt to hack productivity because you now know that doesn’t work.

Plan a Week in Advance

Plan a Week in Advance

As suggested earlier, make sure to make time to make time, this usually looks like a dedicated block at the end of your work week. Once you have found your system, this will actually take very little time because you will only have to plug your to-dos into the appropriate time block.

It is important to start with a good planning system that you will actually use. While paper is great, it is difficult to properly block using traditional planners. Our friend Cal Newport, time management guru, has a great planner that was specifically designed for time blocking. When in doubt, a spreadsheet is a great place to start.

Decide Your Increments

This varies greatly between people but anything less than a 30 minute block is difficult to properly manage because of the time needed to switch between tasks. The most common blocks are at least an hour in length, giving you time to focus and enter the zone.

Communicate with Clients and Team

Ensuring that the people around you understand that you are undertaking a new time management system is important, especially if they are used to a prompt turnaround. Time blocking is a deviation from the unfortunate norm of being available at all hours so it may initially frustrate or confuse some people.

Heaven forbid they have to wait until 2:00 before you look at your emails.

Luckily, the results will speak for themselves. People will notice that you are more relaxed and focused, that the quality of your work is drastically improving. Eventually, you may inspire others to do the same.

Schedule Catch Up Time

While having a small block in your week for unfinished tasks was mentioned, it is also helpful to dedicate a full day a month to catching up on anything that may have slipped through the cracks. It is an opportunity to review the work you have done this past month and re-evaluate and refine your system to better work with your realities. This is a practice in being realistic and not working against your natural tendencies and flows.

Conclusion

With this technique, you can stop wasting time looking at your to-do list and trying to figure out how to fit it all in one day and instead get right to work. Time blocking will ensure that you remain focused and dedicated to the task at hand and protect your valuable energy and attention.