Now that we have planned what we want to see accomplished, the next step (Step 2) towards increased productivity is to share information effectively and involve others to ensure that you and they are as productive as possible, and that tasks and projects move forward on schedule.
The five components of this step are:
1. Schedule regular standing meetings
2. Plan for regular communication
3. Implement and utilize collaboration software
4. Delegate
5. Monitor and review processes
No project of scale can occur without clear communication. Everyone involved must know what needs to be done and how they’re expected to do it. Otherwise, you’ll quickly get a silo effect, under which team members work too independently and decrease productivity.
To help facilitate communication, consider scheduling daily standing meetings (often called morning huddles or daily check-ins). These meetings should be scheduled for first thing in the morning and kept short enough to comfortably complete them while standing.
Position yourselves in a circle and use the time to review the day’s tasks and individual responsibilities, as well as minor challenges that teammates may be facing. This will keep everyone in the loop and help work through small issues that can often halt progress. It will also build accountability as members don’t want to let others in the group down.
Separate from the morning huddles, plan regular 1:1 meeting time with each team member to check in in a more personal manner. The goal should be to motivate colleagues, get an update on their individual progress, and troubleshoot problems that arise.
The Table Group, led by Patrick Lencioni, advises that leaders schedule weekly time (45-90 minutes) for tactical meetings (to review activities and team metrics) as well as monthly meetings of a longer duration (2-4 hours) for more strategic conversations.
Of course, there can be too much meeting occurring in your workspace (with too little value to show for it). A study by Atlassian showed that, on average, employees spend an hour a day in meetings, for a total of 31 hours per month. The same study found that almost half of employees believed meeting to be the number-one timewaster at the office. This post offers ideas on how to make meetings more engaging and, dare I say it, fun.
If you lead a remote team you may be thinking that, while in-person collaboration is great, it’s simply not possible for team members to be present at the same time and place. Remote and geographically dispersed teams face lots of challenges streamlining their workflows and improving collaboration.
Some leaders continue to rely on email and other e-communication tools, such as WhatsApp, to share information. Despite the many benefits of e-communication, it can also present some meaningful downsides, including the fact that emails can be ignored, pile up, and/or be difficult to find.
Efficient and fast communication should be in the form of fluid dialogue, not asynchronous. Collaboration software, also known as groupware, can help any team, from the smallest startup to the largest enterprise, to quickly and easily share content in documents, messages, videos and other formats. Each employee can communicate additional information by making changes that the system tracks. The manager collects the inputs and sends the newly revised document to his target audience.
Another benefit of collaboration software is improved scheduling. Lack of scheduling can waste up to 36% of employees’ work time. Businesses that plan and schedule their goals and activities get more done and are more effective. Daily, weekly and monthly scheduling allows teams to organize their workflows efficiently. With collaboration software, for instance, employees can share public or personal calendars to know all meetings and deadlines. Workers can schedule daily meetings, planning meetings, conferences, brainstorm sessions and much more in just one click.
(There are other benefits from having quality software. According to a study by Ultimate Software, 92% of employees say having technology that helps them do their job efficiently affects their work satisfaction. In a CITO Research report, 53% of respondents stated mobile apps improve business processes and productivity.)
Of course, all of this assumes that you are prepared to delegate work. Delegation is a critical element to increased productivity because it allows leaders to focus on the things that they are uniquely positioned and/or required to do. It also clears the organizational bottleneck by not making all work dependent on the leader’s input.
(Check out past articles to read why leaders need to delegate, how to use situational leadership to delegate more effectively, what and when to delegate, how to create a delegation culture, and why delegate does not mean abdicate.)
The final piece of the “share it” step is to monitor and review the above processes with your teammates. Stay on top of things and correct/redirect when necessary. This motivates colleagues (who don’t feel abandoned) and helps you catch problems early. Recognize key milestones, such as completed sub-components, along the way.
When the process is complete, review everything to identify your successes as well as your failures. It is critical that complex processes such as communication, delegation, and, of course, execution, be reviewed openly and often to keep things humming. And, assuming there’s what to celebrate, applaud them. This can be anything from a simple “thank you” or “well done” to arranging for awards, gifts or bonuses.
Subsequent articles will walk us through the process of doing the work and sustaining it over time. For more tips on being productive, I invite you to sign up for my blog to get regular content delivered to your inbox.
Naphtali Hoff, PsyD, is a former executive who supports leaders and their teams through productivity coaching. Take his free productivity self-assessment at www.ImpactfulCoaching.com/Productivity-Assessment. Download his free productivity blueprint at www.ImpactfulCoaching.com/Productivity-Blueprint.
