How to plan effectively

Project management video presentation

How to manage projects with BeeDo

BeeDo is business management process and software. It’s scope is project or process (goal), work (task), resource (time), performance and appraisal, personal development management.

Here you can find short video about project planning with BeeDo.

More video about BeeDo and how to use it You can find in our Youtube channel.

Lets start! How to brainstorm effectively?

To Do list is a first step

Work management starts from creative part of work - what to do to get goal achieved We think fast, open our notes or diary, make morning meetings or sessions of brainstorming In the end we have a to do list, if this part of creative job was productive.

3 things why Beedo is effective tool for brainstorming and creating "to do" list

• Brainstorming becomes visible. You can brainstorm and create list of tasks just in on-line tool, so it starts be visible to You and Your team. When You see an output of Your brainstorming it is less dangerous to get into the cycle of ideas, wasting time. Click to find more about "Effective brainstorming".
  
  
• You get quality of idea. Only part of full picture can be laid down to screen at once. Usually 80% of main things are covered in the brainstorming session, but 80% of details are done afterwards in creative thinking of analytical people. So when You have started brainstorming in Beedo, you can continue developing Your ideas later. You brainstorm maybe the source of ideas for next project as it remains for ever.
  
  
• You can Do instantly. You can immediately start working on Your idea by planning tasks for Yourself or delegating brainstormed tasks to other team members.
  
  
  

To Do List

Create work structure

Output of brainstorming is not proper for project supervision, at least makes it very inconvenient. It is easy to monitor task groups of 5-10 items, with clear result to accept. So to make project supervision more effective, You need to create "to do list" or group of task with clear end result.

Prioritize the tasks

Always there are tasks - bottlenecks or ones that have main value and other ones that nice to have or "should be made at the end". It is better to prioritize tasks when You see full picture of the project. According to changes of situations You will be able to adjust the priorities.

Create time budget

Only very experienced specialist can promise and do tasks without planning and only when it is repeated work. Usually it is hard to promise and spontaneous announcement of deadline comes out of pessimistic or optimistic character of the promiser. More effective is to put budgeted hours and to get rough estimate of cost (hours) and deadline. BeeDo lets You to keep your initial budgets, which are confirmed by customers or project sponsors, and use it in later analysis of discrepancies between planned budget and factual hours.

Task is a piece of work you do or not.

Your biggest future goal or dream consist of many tasks that needs to be done!

• Whatever You dream about: more revenue, bigger bonuses, private home or car near Your home - it means that You will have to do a series of tasks to achieve it.
• Usually a team - a group of people like You, goes for common and at the same time - for individual goal.
• Task becomes main item of communication among team members, so

Good communication leads to better performance

• In less words we describe delegated tasks, more space we provide for interpretation.
• Statements of "what, why, how and when" in the description of task leads to more measurable result.
• If You delegate clear tasks, you are able to accept expected results and make appraisal of Your colleague more precisely

Be sincere by accepting task or guiding Your colleague to the result

• Questions and comments in the tasks shows who is the master and who is the trainee, what quality level is accepted or should be attained.
• This communication put in written form is subject for later appraisal who worth what.
• Not easy at first, but note: each time You face the problem, that due to misunderstanding something was not done or done in proper way - leave feedback in written form.
• Written form makes work transparent and educates invisibly all team to be correct while delivering work at high quality and speed.

Delegation of tasks is an art: what, how and why?

Check resources You have in the team calendar

• Check Your and Your team members loads.
• You may re-prioritize their work, but it is better not to overload with tasks. Human nature is far above individual greedy desire, so approach of overloads leads to less productive environment instead of creative idea: how to make more out of existing resources.
• We live in limited resources world, lets accept it and learn to live with it.

Assign and delegate wisely

• Specialization. Better skilled person will do tasks faster and at great quality. Trainee will do mistakes and somebody will have to fix it.
• Personal concentration. One day - one focus. Help Your team to concentrate by putting tasks of the same topic or project per 1 day.
• Team concentration. When team works near the same tasks, concentration leads at least to better communication and teamwork.
• Breath with tasks. Put more difficult tasks in the morning and more relaxed work in the afternoon.
• Bad quality - fix it ASAP. Quality of work is increased if information about made mistake/error comes instantly (or as soon as possible). Longer You wait, harder to make a return to the same person and appraise performance with feedback.

Ask colleague to plan his/her day or week

• It is very easy to do what comes spontaneously to mind and it's very hard to make promise of tasks for day or even week.
• If no planning done, no goal set - then there is no spirit of goal achievement. A hunter without target... Sounds strange?
• Despite how creatively Your team or Yourself will excuse that it is impossible to plan, remember that the only way to learn about work management and to see perspective - is planning. The only way to coordinate activities among team members is planning and the way to achieve effective team results starts also from planning.

Only tasks "done" might be sold for money!

Priorities change as customers needs change constantly

Exact goal can be achieved only by doing it with proper resources. But in real business life, priorities are related to customers and they bring first instability here. Second is internal lack of understanding what should be done to achieve results. Not so many managers live with clear understanding what needs to be done right now to get best results. For example we can live with goal to earn 100'000 Eur of revenue, but priorities how to do this, with what customers and with what products will depend upon customer's needs and You will need to make changes. So priority is a living and changing element of work management and adjustment of priorities should be constant daily or weekly job.

Concentration cycles

None of us are machines - we are living organisms. Our productivity depends on our motivation to achieve targets, sleep of yesterday, food of an hour ago, health we currently have, stress level in mind and body. Read more about productivity, influencing our everyday work. But! Even if we feel and are perfect we cannot work effective 8 hours a day. Mental work is adequate to breathing in and out. In the same way works our brains - concentrate and relax. Put tasks accordingly to Your effective day agenda with start time of task. This way You will use purposely Your concentration hours for hard work and easy - for relaxed work. If not - probably you will do what is easy and pleasant but less important at first, so You will delay the actual deadline of Your target.

Day plan

Use day plan for a coordination of priorities between employee and manager - to align for common goal, target for employee to finish day tasks with satisfaction and manage concentration cycles of employee. Day plan is a brick to productivity.

Task is "done" when comment and time is noted

That task is done might be seen in different levels:

1. When You think that task is done
2. When You are happy
3. When Your boss is happy or
4. Your customer is happy
5. When revenue is earned

Noting what You have done in the task or progressed in doing it by adding time You have spent - will let You understand:

1. How You achieved the result
2. How much time is used
3. Why postponed deadlines and what obstacles You met

Understanding of this makes You more vise and effective for next task. More effective in short term means more bonuses and more salary in long term.

Main 7 things of effective teamwork!

1. Make simple list of activities and share

• Make simple list of what You want to do.
• It's a team work - because everybody knows something.
• Classify which of activities are projects (with clear delivery and finish date) or processes (procedures, regular works e.g. take an order-delivery service).
• Brainstorm each project to details with tasks that need to be done to get the expected delivery.

2. Estimation of project time cost. Worth to invest?

• Try to estimate project budget hours to get a clue how much time will cost each project.
• Multiply time by employee hour rate to know the cost of investment.
• Write down assumptions of new customers, sales, revenue or gross profit.
• Do it in a teamwork - team will bring more ideas and critics. Use "Six Hats" method.
• Compare project's "investment vs. return" benefit.

3. Set a goal. Priority list is rated project list

• Make a priority list. Most beneficial projects needs to be on the TOP. Biggest profitability in shortest time. Or best return on investment (ROI).
• Show it to the team - everybody has to understand why we do TOP projects.

4. Personal responsibility for the project

• Assign responsible person and define project team. Responsible person is in charge of project plan, coordination, actual cost compare to budget, follow-up of uncompleted tasks.
• Does team respect assigned responsible person? Yes - good!, No? - why? - do teamwork to find reasons.
• Does dedicated project team knows the goal - what needs to be delivered, at what quality, price and deadline. If yes - they put the signature - at least virtual "I agree" on the budget, deadline and deliveries of the project. Again, not somebody alone - all the team.

5. Delegate or share concrete tasks, coordinate

• This may be done by You or by responsible person. Assign tasks. Maybe Your teamwork allows employee to take tasks by himself. What a great situation, when people pulls tasks and you are not forced to push them.
• Check if team is performing according deadlines and budgets of the tasks. Usually they don't, so =>
• Team member may be late with tasks, become sick, or leave for vocations
• Assign these tasks to working colleagues
• Be careful! Teamwork does not mean talking, chatting all day long. Teamwork means fast talk and concentrated work. Tight teamwork is the best way to get result at cheapest cost.

6. Results: celebration and learning

• If Your team did on time, good quality, in budget - make a party and celebrate. Say Thanks to team!
• If not - use the statistics to find the reason WHY?
• Sit with the team, talk about facts (talks without facts bring no results).
• Some tasks were not planned? Some tasks exceeded budget? Somebody did not do tasks, because You asked to do something different? Somebody did not do tasks, because didn't know what to do and nobody delegated tasks?
• All learning will point to 2 places: A) concrete people skills or knowledge B) lack of defined process.
• Agree with team that problem exist and find where the solution is.
• Fix them A) by doing feedback B) by agreeing new process and setup it in Beedo template.

7. Feedback: mutual and self-development programs, team building

• You find that person has a lack of skill or knowledge.
• Lack of professional skill - how to do his job (do accounting, sell, do coding, make research, do recruitment etc.) or =>
• Lack of organizational skill - how to organize day, concentrate to fulfill day plan, be creative to find shorter ways to complete task.
• Create a personal or team development project and agree to get skills. That project has tasks that employee needs to do at home or in training courses, or by You - to monitor the progress.
• Next project will also show - was the progress made or mistakes were repeated again.

Team buildings! What ir usefull and not?

• It is used to think, that team building makes people closer. To organize team building parties a lot of money are spent. And what result is achieved?
• People get an expensive party (usually more or less drunk and relaxed).
• Play funny games which are far away from things needed in work place.
• More about effectiveness of business training simulations You can find here trainings.beedo.net

We propose

• To build true and friendly relationships in the place You spend 8 hours a day - your workplace.
• We propose to simulate skills of real work at work time.
• When this bring results - celebrate achievements, but not progress to achievements.

All this teamwork can be done in Beedo.
Use the effective way of teamwork and
have profitable and growing business. Sign up!