Help me help my team become more organized
July 20, 2018 10:57 AM Subscribe
I work on a team of four people. Our boss and three others. We work in a large organization on projects that involve multiple departments. There are a lot of aspects to what we do and no clear lines of organization on just our little team. As a result everything is a mess and people are getting pissed off at each other.
Our boss is kind of a high-level thinker and has said he wants all of us to work on everything so that we all know everything there is to know (this as opposed to giving each of us specific tasks or jobs that we should each focus on).
While I understand his reasoning, this concept doesn’t really work unless everyone on the team is committed to open communication and sharing information. I and the other woman on my team (I’ll call her Jane) are both like this – we’ll include everyone on our emails and meetings, even if just as an FYI; and we both find it hard to do our jobs properly when we are not included on meetings or email chains where things are being discussed (I get that this causes lots of emails and a lot of people would prefer not to have that, but it makes me crazy when a big decision was made through a long email chain and I never knew about it because the first person didn’t include me on the email. I end up doing my job based on BAD INFO, which is objectively not good).
I do understand that there will always be things where people are missed and you can’t always have perfect communication and collaboration. But this is happening way more often than it should.
The other guy on our team is (IMO) the weak link. He tends to not include Jane or I on emails and meetings a lot of the time. He will also unilaterally make decisions relevant to our shared projects and not inform us of them. It is very likely that, at least some of the time, this is pure oversight on his part (he is younger, junior and less experienced than us), but I also kind of suspect that he does it on purpose because he wants to take charge of things and be the go-to person on everything. Basically Jane and I feel like we are pushed off projects, which has a cascading effect, because then the other departments don’t think to put us on the email chains because they didn’t see us at a specific meeting or whatever.
I’ve asked this coworker in the past to please include me in communications he has regarding anything I’m also working on, as I do need to know what’s going on for the parts of the work I’m doing and he has said he would, but nothing has changed. Both Jane and I have also mentioned it to our manager (while trying to not complain about the guy), but my manager has just waived it off because he LOVES this guy.
I was having a one-on-one today with my manager’s manager, who is more aligned with our mindset – that communication and organization on teams is super important (we tend to waste lots of time by duplicating work, for example). He talked with Jane yesterday, who was complaining about this and I agreed that I thought it was a real problem on our team.
So he has tasked me with putting together a proposal to give to my manager on how we can make this better. I have thought about it a lot and am having some difficulty coming up with a good plan and am hoping to get some tips. A few things to know:
- We do have a weekly one hour team meeting which we could definitely utilize better
- We cannot use web-based software as a tool (as much as I love Trello, our company is strict about these things)
- We can use One Note
- My manager will be supportive, and, I believe, will enforce the new “rules” I come up with, because I will ask him to, and I know his manager also thinks it’s important (no point in putting a system in place if no one uses it and the manager doesn’t make them).
The way I see it, there are two options. One: we all work on everything, which is what my boss likes, but we would also need to improve communication and collaboration, and I’m not hopeful about that, given that I’ve already asked for it with no improvement.
Two: we all have very specific roles/tasks, so that we can work on our stuff and give high level updates to each other in the weekly team meeting. This way, if I know Jane is the person in charge of Project A, I can refer people to her with questions I can’t answer and I don’t have to worry about knowing everything and missing emails/meetings. I can also be confident that if I go to her with a question about some aspect of Project A, the answer she gives me will be right (and won’t have been changed by someone else on the team, unbeknownst to both of us). I would prefer this method, but it would still require a certain degree of communication as our projects are all connected to varying degrees.
So, what are some things I can suggest that would help our team to better collaborate?
Our boss is kind of a high-level thinker and has said he wants all of us to work on everything so that we all know everything there is to know (this as opposed to giving each of us specific tasks or jobs that we should each focus on).
While I understand his reasoning, this concept doesn’t really work unless everyone on the team is committed to open communication and sharing information. I and the other woman on my team (I’ll call her Jane) are both like this – we’ll include everyone on our emails and meetings, even if just as an FYI; and we both find it hard to do our jobs properly when we are not included on meetings or email chains where things are being discussed (I get that this causes lots of emails and a lot of people would prefer not to have that, but it makes me crazy when a big decision was made through a long email chain and I never knew about it because the first person didn’t include me on the email. I end up doing my job based on BAD INFO, which is objectively not good).
I do understand that there will always be things where people are missed and you can’t always have perfect communication and collaboration. But this is happening way more often than it should.
The other guy on our team is (IMO) the weak link. He tends to not include Jane or I on emails and meetings a lot of the time. He will also unilaterally make decisions relevant to our shared projects and not inform us of them. It is very likely that, at least some of the time, this is pure oversight on his part (he is younger, junior and less experienced than us), but I also kind of suspect that he does it on purpose because he wants to take charge of things and be the go-to person on everything. Basically Jane and I feel like we are pushed off projects, which has a cascading effect, because then the other departments don’t think to put us on the email chains because they didn’t see us at a specific meeting or whatever.
I’ve asked this coworker in the past to please include me in communications he has regarding anything I’m also working on, as I do need to know what’s going on for the parts of the work I’m doing and he has said he would, but nothing has changed. Both Jane and I have also mentioned it to our manager (while trying to not complain about the guy), but my manager has just waived it off because he LOVES this guy.
I was having a one-on-one today with my manager’s manager, who is more aligned with our mindset – that communication and organization on teams is super important (we tend to waste lots of time by duplicating work, for example). He talked with Jane yesterday, who was complaining about this and I agreed that I thought it was a real problem on our team.
So he has tasked me with putting together a proposal to give to my manager on how we can make this better. I have thought about it a lot and am having some difficulty coming up with a good plan and am hoping to get some tips. A few things to know:
- We do have a weekly one hour team meeting which we could definitely utilize better
- We cannot use web-based software as a tool (as much as I love Trello, our company is strict about these things)
- We can use One Note
- My manager will be supportive, and, I believe, will enforce the new “rules” I come up with, because I will ask him to, and I know his manager also thinks it’s important (no point in putting a system in place if no one uses it and the manager doesn’t make them).
The way I see it, there are two options. One: we all work on everything, which is what my boss likes, but we would also need to improve communication and collaboration, and I’m not hopeful about that, given that I’ve already asked for it with no improvement.
Two: we all have very specific roles/tasks, so that we can work on our stuff and give high level updates to each other in the weekly team meeting. This way, if I know Jane is the person in charge of Project A, I can refer people to her with questions I can’t answer and I don’t have to worry about knowing everything and missing emails/meetings. I can also be confident that if I go to her with a question about some aspect of Project A, the answer she gives me will be right (and won’t have been changed by someone else on the team, unbeknownst to both of us). I would prefer this method, but it would still require a certain degree of communication as our projects are all connected to varying degrees.
So, what are some things I can suggest that would help our team to better collaborate?
can you purchase microsoft project? there is still the option of having local (non-cloud) software.
why the no web-based solutions? unfortunately a lot of really great software is web-based only these days.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 12:12 PM on July 20, 2018
why the no web-based solutions? unfortunately a lot of really great software is web-based only these days.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 12:12 PM on July 20, 2018
Some 'web based' (browser-accessed) software can easily be hosted in house, and not on the internet. If there's an IT dept or person maybe reach out for ideas?
One Note is good for sharing info but bad for tracking emails. Does your team have a group mailbox? A distribution list? Funnel all communication through that for a while?
Good team comms has to be made into a habit and it can be rocky to start with, so relentless reminding until it's an in joke might be one path. I have a similar issue with a colleague - we've worked together more than 10 years and he STILL forgets to cc me on mail chains half the time. And then says "Oh you know about XYZ....." (sees my face) "Oh dear....." and the entire team choruses at him - SHARE YOUR INFO!! (He's awesome, but I think he thinks I just know everything he does. Like I said - it's been a while.)
10-min daily catchup/status with your team every day.
Nuclear option - If you can!! - refuse to touch anything that you do not know about and cannot find out about. "I'm sorry, Jim's handling that, he should be back from his vacation next week." You don't have to wash these socks in public but your manager should be very clear that Jim's lack of communication/info sharing is *impacting the flow of work*, causing delays, confusing your clients (internal or external), causing inefficiency.
Sharepoint? Shared spreadsheet on a LAN drive? Whiteboard in your area? Kanban style board with post its?
Good luck!
posted by Ilira at 1:05 PM on July 20, 2018
One Note is good for sharing info but bad for tracking emails. Does your team have a group mailbox? A distribution list? Funnel all communication through that for a while?
Good team comms has to be made into a habit and it can be rocky to start with, so relentless reminding until it's an in joke might be one path. I have a similar issue with a colleague - we've worked together more than 10 years and he STILL forgets to cc me on mail chains half the time. And then says "Oh you know about XYZ....." (sees my face) "Oh dear....." and the entire team choruses at him - SHARE YOUR INFO!! (He's awesome, but I think he thinks I just know everything he does. Like I said - it's been a while.)
10-min daily catchup/status with your team every day.
Nuclear option - If you can!! - refuse to touch anything that you do not know about and cannot find out about. "I'm sorry, Jim's handling that, he should be back from his vacation next week." You don't have to wash these socks in public but your manager should be very clear that Jim's lack of communication/info sharing is *impacting the flow of work*, causing delays, confusing your clients (internal or external), causing inefficiency.
Sharepoint? Shared spreadsheet on a LAN drive? Whiteboard in your area? Kanban style board with post its?
Good luck!
posted by Ilira at 1:05 PM on July 20, 2018
Our boss is kind of a high-level thinker and has said he wants all of us to work on everything so that we all know everything there is to know (this as opposed to giving each of us specific tasks or jobs that we should each focus on).
Your boss sucks and/because he's abdicating his responsibilities, and the selfishness of "I'm just a high-level thinker" is trickling down to your team. I think you have two options, ones that aren't going to be sabotaged just when they show promise: find a new job with a better boss, or start managing your team to push your boss out. I'll say it again: your boss is bad for laying all of this crap that isn't your freaking job on you.
posted by rhizome at 2:37 PM on July 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
Your boss sucks and/because he's abdicating his responsibilities, and the selfishness of "I'm just a high-level thinker" is trickling down to your team. I think you have two options, ones that aren't going to be sabotaged just when they show promise: find a new job with a better boss, or start managing your team to push your boss out. I'll say it again: your boss is bad for laying all of this crap that isn't your freaking job on you.
posted by rhizome at 2:37 PM on July 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
Your manager needs to manage the team roles and give people clear responsibilities.
I think pushing back on your manager asking for priorities is important. Also can you all use slack? Or Microsoft teams?
I would suggest that if you’re doing most of your comms via email to move off email ASAP.
This is all tactical stuff to help facilitate the longer term communication strategies your team is going to have figure out in the absence of your manager doing their job.
The good news is that if y’all can figure out how to work together and deliver well you can lead yourselves and slowly over time lessen your dependence on your manager. That’s kind of a cool position to be in IF your organization empowers individual contributors with decision making and trust.
posted by nikaspark at 3:52 PM on July 20, 2018
I think pushing back on your manager asking for priorities is important. Also can you all use slack? Or Microsoft teams?
I would suggest that if you’re doing most of your comms via email to move off email ASAP.
This is all tactical stuff to help facilitate the longer term communication strategies your team is going to have figure out in the absence of your manager doing their job.
The good news is that if y’all can figure out how to work together and deliver well you can lead yourselves and slowly over time lessen your dependence on your manager. That’s kind of a cool position to be in IF your organization empowers individual contributors with decision making and trust.
posted by nikaspark at 3:52 PM on July 20, 2018
We have a similar deal at my job -- folks on my team do have broad areas of responsibility but any of us can and do pitch in for each other representing the team to other departments. We use SharePoint 2010, which is not great for this, but YOU could use Hipchat Data Center. Not web-based!
posted by pH Indicating Socks at 7:49 PM on July 20, 2018
posted by pH Indicating Socks at 7:49 PM on July 20, 2018
You don’t need Trello to create a visible workflow. Do you have a wall near to where you all work? If so set out your high level tasks on post-its on one side of the board and then move them through columns created with Washi tape or some other low tack adhesive, headed with whatever your stages are (scope approved, resources agreed, creatives pitched, widgets assembled, etc).
Create a final column for ‘Documentation’. Stick the names of pertinent files/ folders on it.
Organise a regular stand up session say 9:30 on Mon, Weds and Fri mornings. Put this into everyone’s diary as a mandatory recurring meeting.
At this time, for 15 mins your team stands in front of the task list and quickly updates on the bits that have progressed since the last meet. Shift the post-its accordingly. Anything that that is unclear or needs follow-up should be covered off AFTER the stand-up by those involved, not during. Return to desks. Done.
posted by freya_lamb at 10:20 AM on July 21, 2018
Create a final column for ‘Documentation’. Stick the names of pertinent files/ folders on it.
Organise a regular stand up session say 9:30 on Mon, Weds and Fri mornings. Put this into everyone’s diary as a mandatory recurring meeting.
At this time, for 15 mins your team stands in front of the task list and quickly updates on the bits that have progressed since the last meet. Shift the post-its accordingly. Anything that that is unclear or needs follow-up should be covered off AFTER the stand-up by those involved, not during. Return to desks. Done.
posted by freya_lamb at 10:20 AM on July 21, 2018
If you need inspiration google ‘post-it Kanban’. Don’t get bogged down in making it perfect, build it together as a team and go from there. You can always refine it later.
And involve your manager!
posted by freya_lamb at 10:29 AM on July 21, 2018
And involve your manager!
posted by freya_lamb at 10:29 AM on July 21, 2018
Not to back-and-forth in AskMe, but it doesn't sound like the manager wants to be involved.
posted by rhizome at 11:29 AM on July 21, 2018
posted by rhizome at 11:29 AM on July 21, 2018
I document all of my stuff in OneNote, so when other people on my team need to back me up they can refer to my OneNote documents. I have a personal Notebook and a shared Team Notebook. I copy things back and forth as I need them. The Team Notebook lives on one of our shared drives and other team members put other documentation (Word, text, etc.) in the same folder. This requires each person to update their own projects, obviously, but it works well if that is done. We have another Excel file with high level projects listed that includes current status for the whole team, our manager and his manager to see at a glance.
posted by soelo at 6:08 PM on July 21, 2018
posted by soelo at 6:08 PM on July 21, 2018
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posted by Xurando at 11:57 AM on July 20, 2018 [2 favorites]