September 15, 2021September 15, 2021 Linky

4 Types of Task Boards to make you more productive

By Kaylee White

Most project managers use multiple methods and tools to keep organized. We’re tracking people, tasks, files, updates, and changes while trying to make sure the quality of work is up to standard and that deadlines are met. Many companies use Project Management software for collaborative task tracking and communication, and then we supplement with spreadsheets, notebooks, to-do lists, calendar reminders, and, for those of us who are visually minded, bulletin boards.

Task Board

If you need an easy way to keep track of your projects, you may find that a revamped bulletin board, called a task board, can help you maintain a bird’s-eye view of what you’re working on. It also helps when we need backup: the internet goes down, the PM platform is unavailable due to maintenance, or some other issue means you need a physical (not virtual) means of managing of your project.

Depending on how you use it, a task board can tell you what you’ve committed to, what you’re working on, what you’ve accomplished, and whether or not everyone on the project is collaborating well.

Poster Board

One example of a task board is a large piece of poster board divided into three sections: to do, doing, and done. You can color-coordinate sticky notes and place them on the board depending on your needs, whether it’s by the person doing the task, the project, or another system you’ve created that works for you.

Window Board

Another option is to use a window. This takes a little more time to set up, but it can look more elegant since it uses a clear background (glass) instead of paper or brown corkboard. Once you’ve decorated your window and created sections, you use this version of a task board the same way you would the Poster Board.

Corkboard

On a corkboard you can use icons representing the work to be done. Use different paint colours to indicate the To Do and Done sections on the board.

Magnetic Board

Beyond the poster board, window, and cork board, you can also use a magnetic board. Each of these options have their own pros and cons, and then you have more than a few options for how to organize your projects on each.

Whatever you end up doing, if you use the task board in your office, it may help your team if you hang it in an area with high traffic so they can see at a glance where a project stands. In Agile this concept is known as an Information Radiator.

Benefits of a Task Board

Furthermore, to make it more interesting for everyone, try using photos of each team member instead of just their name: This can reduce confusion and make the board and its tasks feel even more important. For PMs who work remotely, task boards can serve as a colourful way to decorate your home office space, with the added benefit of making the work visible. If you can, put the board on the wall behind you so that it’s visible on video calls and during online meetings.

Task boards are excellent tools for any kind of project, especially Agile projects. Your team will appreciate a task board because it’s easy to update and shows valuable information in a visually appealing, easy-to-understand way.

If you’d like to learn more about task boards, check out this infographic, with compliments from Quill. It goes into detail about each type of task board and different ways of organizing the information on your board. You can also, of course, make your own completely unique task board that suits your project and flow of work. This infographic will give you a great place to start.

How to create a customizable task board to prioritize your lifeInfographic by Quill

August 13, 2021August 13, 2021 Linky

Apply good Social Media Practices as a Project Professional

There are people who spend an extra-ordinary amount of time on social media daily. You tell yourself that you want to uncover news and industry trends in real-time, or perhaps you want to spy on your competition. Or you use social media to provide better customer service. You want to connect with colleagues and thought leaders. There are many reasons, some good, some less so. As a Project Management professional there are good practices to keep in mind when you engage on social media. Here are great guidelines on how to navigate social media with colleagues from Quill.com.

Some companies have have very strict social media policies, and if that’s the case, you’d best read up and follow these policies closely or risk accidentally committing a fireable offense. It is best to keep it professional considering your position at work. Generally, it’s easier to keep your personal and professional lives separate and not to become friends with your entire office.

Consider the platform you’re using as you would approach the various networks differently. Post with care and maintain your privacy by knowing how the privacy settings work on each platform. Always think before you post and a good rule of thumb is to stick to what you would say in public, as people tend to think they can hide behind account pictures and say anything they like when they are not seen in person.

One example of approaching it could be to use Facebook only for friends and family, whereas LinkedIn is a good platform for professional connections. If you receive a Facebook friend request from a colleague, you can politely decline with a reason and ask them to connect on LinkedIn instead. When you consider these guidelines and keep it professional, you should be good to navigate the murky online waters in a professional and respectable way.

How to navigate social media with coworkersInfographic by Quill

January 12, 2021January 12, 2021 Linky

The Rise of Remote Work

During 2020 many people started working from home, remotely, as a result of Covid-19. It happened fairly quickly and quite seamlessly, thanks to the technology we have at our disposal.

Now, in 2021 when most people are returning to work after a Christmas holiday break, the remote working arrangement is continuing due to the fact that the Pandemic is far from over.

It will be interesting to see if the remote work arrangement will continue when things do return to normal one day, or whether it may become a permanent arrangement, perhaps following a hybrid approach where employees may continue working from home 2 or 3 days a week.

With this trend, it is very beneficial for employers and managers to ensure teams have home offices that enables high productivity.

Find below an Infographic covering the rise of remote work, the challenges people experience with that and details of office accessories to help with success.

12 must-have office accessories for working from homeInfographic by Quill

January 10, 2020July 2, 2024 Linky

5 Coaching Tips for Human Resources Professionals

Coaching tips for Human Resource professionals

By Sandra Azura

The aim of this article is to take a closer look at the important role that the Human Resources function has in today’s economy. Organizations that have efficient Human Resources are twice as economical as those with poor people management.

In this context, the HR professional is very important. The days when HR’s main assignment was selecting the best professionals for each position is over. Now more than ever, the HR professional needs to be aligned with the company’s business.

I have been assisting many HR professionals through coaching. A question that is frequently asked at the hiring stage is: “What can the coaching process add to the career of the HR professional?”

First, it is important to clarify what Coaching is.

Coaching is a high impact methodology applied by a specialized professional who aims to develop another person. Focusing on the solution, it is a process that looks to the present to build the future, setting aside the past.

Coaching for Human Resources professionals should be focused on identifying problems to be solved and opportunities to be grasped, while always staying focused on people’s development.

Here are 5 Coaching tips for the HR professional to note:

#1 In the Past only Learning, Focus on the Future

Focus on the solution that will enable you to find opportunities to develop skills and to succeed in the medium and long term.

We must think of today, act daily, but have attitudes that lead us forward, otherwise, you can become a stressed, unmotivated, unproductive professional, endangering your career, and that of the company you are part of.

#2 Power Communication

Because it is an efficient process of human development, coaching should always pay attention to the communication used. HR professionals are responsible for managing all parties involved in a market relationship, for brokering the company’s relationship with its employees, customers, and suppliers, which should always be done with good communication.

When people are well informed, they feel safer about the situation. Whether in a time of good or crisis, communication can counteract negative impacts and strengthen a company’s image and reputation.

#3 Train The Leaders

The leader is not created, the leader is born with qualities that make him a leader. But even those qualities need to be developed. Improving this professional to have a multidisciplinary look that can achieve team cohesion for great results, is an interesting human resources task for a company.

The leader also needs to adopt self-learning and self-knowledge to develop and become more responsible for themselves, motivating themselves to achieve high performance. Coaching is the perfect technique to help with this leadership training to be applied by HR.

The presence of the leader is what will motivate your team to seek the best results. It is he who will develop people’s competence, keeping them focused on the goals.

#4 Don’t be a Generalist HR

A modern human resources sector is one that is concerned with perfecting the processes used in its best practices. This improvement has a major impact on business and people because it builds on a business mission, vision, and values.

An analytical HR is concerned with aggregating employees around one goal. This is only possible with coaching techniques that will awaken a self-awareness that targets the present and the future.

#5 Improve Behavioral Skills

Adopting coaching is encouraging employees to leave their comfort zone. For each problem, there is always a solution that the person himself will discover from self-knowledge.

The result of this immersion itself is the improvement of employee behavioral skills, directly interfering with the company’s success.

The HR that adopts these coaching practices has solid, confident and motivated professionals ready to put the company’s goals into practice. Always keep in mind that in many cases coaching techniques, when applied by company managers, may not be as effective when applied by an outside expert.

Today the role of an HR professional is vital to the company that wants to be successful and thrive among the companies that survive the ups and downs of the economy.

Your HR professional has a key role in this process, both in the strategic aspect and in inspiring the achievement of people’s success. Do not miss the opportunity to change people’s lives through your role.

Find an infographic covering more effective management, with compliments from Zoe Talent Solutions.

About the Author:

Sandra Azura is from Zoe Talent Solutions where she works as a content writer. She creates online courses related to Business Mangament. She is part of a team who is very passionate about Management Skills and who always strives to offer professional, comprehensive information about any Business Management Skills.

July 10, 2019July 10, 2019 Linky

Fun Facts about Project Management Software

Project management software refer to all applications that were designed to facilitate project delivery and make it more efficient.

Here are some interesting facts about the type of teams using PM software, how companies choose PM software, the most used features and what improvements will lead to satisfaction with PM software.

Enjoy the Infographic brought to you by Wrike project management web based software

How Successful Teams Use Project Management Software

June 18, 2019June 18, 2019 Linky

A Good Project Start is Smart

Recently, I had to start a new project with an estimated timeline of 12 months. With many of the project team members being contractors who are new to the company, the most important thing to do, after having an approved budget, is to plan for a proper kickoff workshop.

It serves an important purpose for many reasons. Some are:

to help with on-boarding of new team members
to establish the vision and objectives
to show the expected timelines with milestones
to explain the roles and responsibilities of team members and steercom members
to establish the governance framework and recommended way of working
to give guidance on tools and techniques to be used

Below you will find an Infographic with 10 steps for a successful kickoff. If you take the time to plan and prepare well for the project kickoff, you will have a great start with excited and motivated team members.

Infographic brought to you by Wrike virtual project manager

10 Steps to a Kickass Project Kickoff: A Checklist for Project Managers

May 3, 2019February 14, 2022 Linky

Is Project Management for Everyone?

Many project managers land in the project management profession due to being technical specialists with great success in their field of expertise. However, they are not always fully prepared for the important skills, knowledge and competencies that are critical for success.

Often there is a high expectation to succeed, especially if they come from a background of subject matter expertise or a general management. This begs the question: Is project management for everyone?

Career Path

Their career path does not typically begin with the goal of becoming a project manager, but rather evolves over time as experience builds. There is little to no clarity on the typical career options that project managers have in many organisations. When employees progress into project management positions, they are left to their own devices with perhaps only their line managers providing guidance and support.

According to a report published by Sage (2015), ’Is project management still an accidental profession? A Study of Career Trajectory‘, the study found there is no single project management career path. Rather, the project management role seems to emerge from employee experiences in different roles within the company over a period of years. The more knowledge and experience gained, the more likely it appears the employee will be assigned an integrative role such as project management that touches all functional groups.

Work Management Practices

Below is an Infographic from Wrike based on a Work Management Practice Survey. It was found that many people are expected to do project management at work, even though less than half had “Project Manager” in their title or description. To make it worse, it found that only a third of companies use standard project management approaches. Too much time is spend in meetings and much stress is caused by the use of various tools and platforms to track progress and to do reports, coupled with unrealistic project goals and not being able to find important information.

Without an organisational culture supporting programme management, a strong training program, strategic staffing and team autonomy, it will continue to be very difficult for project managers to succeed in their roles. This will lead to a profession in dire need for mature, professional project managers, to lose potentially good candidates who could have helped to deliver successful projects and programmes.

Although there are plenty Project Managers, not everyone can manage projects (#Infographic)

Infographic brought to you by Wrike

April 12, 2019April 11, 2019 Linky

Project Management Shifts: Then and Now

Project Management - Then and Now — Source: Wrike

We have seen how Project Management as a profession has matured over the past few decades. There were numerous shifts concerning tools, approaches and training, to emphasis on new skills and pursuing certifications.

Enjoy the summary in the Then & Now Infographic brought to you by Wrike project task management software

October 17, 2018 Linky

Technology Trends in Education

Although this Infographic, developed by School of Education, American University, has facts that are US based, it is quite applicable to any developed and in some cases developing, countries.

When technology meets education there are 5 emerging trends. They are:

#1 Learning Management Systems (LMS) which is often used by training institutions and even Corporates, for distance learning.

#2 Gamification where algorithms are deployed to build educational games.

#3 Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) where tech-driven information is overlaid onto an existing environment.

#4 Coding and robotics which have been introduced at schools at a rapid pace

#5 The development of the smart classroom where technology is used to create a personalised learning experience for students

October 2, 2018July 2, 2024 Linky

Big Data and how Psychologists help make companies more profitable

By Quinn Cooley

It is estimated that by 2020, we will be creating 1.7 megabytes of information for every single person on the planet–every second of every day. It’s hard to wrap your mind around numbers this big, but the data influx continues to grow. Fortunately, we now have the tools to actually use a lot of this big data. Companies of all sizes are now collecting and analyzing these large datasets to find insights that help to improve everything from decision-making to streamlining organizational processes.

Although we typically think of big data as a purely logical aspect of business operations, proper analysis isn’t just about the algorithms and asking the right questions. It also requires knowledge of psychology and emotions. Why? Because the customer behavior big data collects is a direct reflection of what humans do. A data scientist may not be able to make sense of these patterns and pull out relevant insights—but a psychologist will.

Past behavior typically gives psychologists a good idea of what future behavior will look like. Customers with certain behaviors are more likely to exhibit seemingly unrelated behavior. For instance, you wouldn’t think that a credit score might affect someone’s likelihood of getting into a car accident, but these are just the kinds of links that psychologists can pull out of large datasets during analysis. Psychologists have made some other surprising discoveries based on big data as well. For example, Google’s Project Oxygen discovered that technical ability was actually the least important skill for effective managers—counterintuitive at a tech company.

It’s early days for psychologists on the analytics team. Many small and medium-sized businesses simply don’t have the budget to hire someone else to look over their data—data scientists are in demand and command high salaries. However, large Fortune 500 companies are beginning to see the value in having someone with a background in human behavior. Big data has enormous potential for return on investment, however. The healthcare industry could save up to $300 billion a year, and retailers could increase operating margins by up to 60%. With that kind of potential, it’s no wonder that large companies are starting to put more resources into their big data departments and hiring psychologists.

Check out this infographic from the University of Southern California’s online Master of Science in Applied Psychology to learn more about big data’s role in business and how psychologists are helping to make data even more profitable for companies.

University of Southern California

September 18, 2018July 4, 2019 Linky

Is your Marketing Skills Modern enough for Future Generation Consumers?

By Quinn Cooley

Digital marketing has evolved rapidly and social media, mobile devices, and the way customers shop, have turned traditional marketing on its head and brought in new best practices.

This wouldn’t be a problem if marketers were prepared for these changes, but many are not. Over 75% of marketers do not believe their departments are modern or nimble. If you and your company aren’t up to date on what the newest generation of buyers (Generation Z – born 1996 – 2010) wants from their online experience, it may be time to modernize and update your marketing skills.

Many of the members of Generation Z aren’t yet able to make their own purchases, but they account for 22% of the US population. They have a big influence (up to $333 billion) in household spending. Younger consumers are digital natives, and it’s crucial to meet them on their own preferred platforms and devices.

Marketing in 2018 has to combine multi-channel approaches with big data, SEO, and exciting new mediums for content. Content marketing has become a long-term must for everything from branding to loyalty. The catch? Young readers need a hook, and they like a variety of written and visual mediums. Beautiful designs, videos, interactive content—marketers have the challenge of creating fresh content that has a consistent voice and message at all times.

The modern marketer needs a wide range of skills, particularly in a smaller company. Strong writing and social media skills, the ability to shift between long and short-form content, design, analytics and more. As if the creative aspects of marketing weren’t enough, marketers also need to have strong operational skills. Being able to keep on budget, keep the goals of the department aligned with the company goals, and measuring relevant metrics and ROI are all key for ensuring that digital marketing has a long-term eye toward profits. It’s all about the numbers, especially as companies move toward lean initiatives.

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infographic