Work management facilitation project: Meeting templates
Introductory meetings
Business case meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management business case meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We would like to introduce you to our work management business case. This business case includes basic information on what work management is, why it’s useful to improve it, and how we could start doing this.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Overview
- Work management improves the organization’s command, control, coordination, communication, cooperation, and collaboration.
- The work management improvement project sharpens the understanding of “how” we work in our organization.
- The work management improvement project provides an overview of relevant areas of improvement and implements good practices within teams.
Goal
- We learn good practices on how to work more effectively and efficiently.
- We facilitate thinking about how we work and how we manage information in our organization.
- We start the discussion about topics like information sharing as an alternative to “reinventing the wheel.”
Objectives
- Maximize the percentage of employees thinking about how they work, particularly with information assets.
- Minimize the time people spend searching for information.
- Minimize the time people spend in meetings without draft input and/or output documents.
Challenge
- Our organization doesn’t work on its work management process.
- Information is in search, information is recreated, information is lost.
- Existing approaches like process management don’t cover all habits and/or are too slow and complicated.
Possible solutions
- We let it run because we don’t see any short-term necessities.
- We start a half-hearted discussion but don’t implement any improvements.
- We view work management as a horizontal continual improvement topic on our agenda.
Solution recommendation
- We start the discussion around work management with a limited project.
- We identify any low-hanging fruits and quick wins in terms of improvement.
- We set up a plan for how to continually improve our work habits.
Benefits
- Employees become aware that work management can increase their effectiveness and efficiency.
- Employees become more effective and efficient by changing small elements of their work habits.
- Our organization becomes better, faster, and cheaper without large-scale transformation initiatives.
Limitations
- Work management requires some changes, and only a few people like change.
- People must adhere to some basic rules that require them to change their minds to some degree.
- Some organizational, legal, and technical preconditions are necessary for effective work management.
Procurement
- Work management can profit from the right software tools.
- Procuring software tools isn’t part of this project.
- This project builds on already implemented software tools and works on their adoption by individual teams.
Budget
- We recommend a budget of one FTE per 100 employees for process/information/work management.
- We recommend an initial budget of 20k EUR for external consulting services.
- We recommend starting the discussion about our software tool landscape and possible investments for better work management.
Risks
- We don’t see the value in thinking about work management.
- We aren’t ready for significant organizational changes.
- We can’t measure the outcomes of work management to communicate our process and successes.
Risk mitigation
- We focus on bringing awareness about the challenge instead of jumping into problem-solving steps.
- We assess our employees’ willingness for organizational change and focus on the benefits for individuals instead of for the organization.
- We define outcomes to look at and explain measurement via surveys.
Outline plan
- We introduce the topic of work management.
- We explain various elements of work elements, including challenges and solution options.
- We discuss the current software landscape as a necessary element of work management.
- We improve the work habits of individual teams and reference good practice adoptions.
- We share the implemented changes with the broader organization.
- We explain how all other teams can implement better work management, too.
Required resources
- We assign two internal part-time work managers.
- We work with external consultants to execute this project.
- We need some time from many operational people and stakeholders of various teams and functions.
Timescale
- We’ll need approximately three to six months for the initial facilitation project.
- We aim to make progress step by step on a weekly basis.
- We’ll offer individual support to teams based on their demands and schedule.
Project management
- We manage this project, including all the activities necessary to make it a success.
- We continually report to all involved stakeholders about the current status and changes to the plan.
- We develop work management good practices for future use by our organization.
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management business case meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thank you for your time learning about the work management business case. We hope we could give you an impression of why work management is relevant for us. We’ll stay in contact with you and would be happy to answer your questions. We’re open to any feedback that comes to mind. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask us.
Best, Max
Project planning meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management project planning meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management project planning meeting. We’ll discuss the overall project plan and answer your questions. The project plan includes the following parts: Project integration, Project scope, Project schedule, Project costs, Project quality, Project resources, Project communications, Project risks, Project procurement, and Project stakeholders.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Project integration
- We lead and manage this project independently, reducing the friction that could occur working in several project teams and/or sub-projects.
- We coordinate the project via the project team in collaboration with superiors, sponsors, and stakeholders.
- The project team includes the future work managers, reducing friction from project to process.
Project scope
- The project aims to create awareness for work management as a horizontal organizational capability.
- The project includes good practices on how to manage work.
- The project doesn’t include work management improvement for the overall organization, such as aligning stakeholders on new organizational practices.
Project schedule
- We want to execute the project over the next three months.
- The schedule includes all the required steps to explain work management to the organization and improve some teams’ actual work habits.
- The project has external dependencies, especially finding meeting dates and times with employees and teams.
Project costs
- The project has calculatory internal costs.
- Hiring an external consultant costs 20k EUR - 50k EUR.
- The ongoing work management capability would account for between 1 FTE / 100 employees and 3 FTE / 1,000 employees.
Project quality
- The project is mainly a starting point for work management and therefore doesn’t measure too many organizational outcomes.
- The project team will determine and discuss project quality criteria and is open to feedback from employees, superiors, sponsors, and stakeholders.
- The project includes interviews, a survey, and evaluation meetings to analyze its success.
Project resources
- We set up a project team consisting of people who will work on work management in the long term.
- The project team is the single point of contact for all superiors, sponsors, and stakeholders.
- The project needs many employees as more or less passive participants in meetings, interviews, and surveys.
Project communications
- The project team is the single point of contact and the single source of truth for all employees, superiors, sponsors, and stakeholders.
- The project team values high-quality written documentation in addition to verbal explanations in meetings.
- The project team will use mass distribution communication to inform employees about the project, including future processes.
Project risks
- The project consists of risks regarding finding date and time slots for organization-wide information & facilitation meetings.
- The project consists of risks regarding our employees' interests, problems, needs, and wants.
- The project consists of risks regarding the perceived achieved outcomes by executives, stakeholders, and employees.
Project procurement
- The project includes the procurement of consulting services.
- The project doesn’t include the procurement of software tools (e.g., tables, wiki).
- The project doesn’t include the procurement of larger organizational change support services.
Project stakeholders
- Sponsor: The project sponsor has an interest in improving our organization’s work.
- Employees: Our employees have an interest in saving time in their work.
- Team leaders: Our team leaders have an interest in getting more things done.
Follow-up
Subject: Work management project planning meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for participating in our work management project planning meeting. We value your input and will revisit the areas discussed. We continually update our project plan and the corresponding approaches and tasks by following an agile project management approach. Feel free to drop us your questions and feedback at any time. Please also have a look at our wiki page for more detailed information about this project.
Best, Max
Stakeholder alignment meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management stakeholder alignment meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management stakeholder alignment meeting. We’ll provide you with an overview of this project’s goal and why work management is relevant to you. This meeting doesn’t require any preparation from your side. We welcome your questions and feedback.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Work management on a page
- Effectiveness: We increase our effectiveness with organizational learning.
- Efficiency: We increase our efficiency by creating and discussing everything only once.
- Sustainability: We increase the sustainability of our work by creating good practices instead of “reinventing the wheel.”
Work management facilitation project
- Explanation: We explain what work management is and how it can be adopted on a team level.
- Improvement: We improve the organization by working with selected teams on their work habits.
- Sharing: We share team-level successes with the organization to show the relevance of work management.
Operational work management habits
- Keeping written records: Written outputs and documents are worth the effort in the long term.
- Sharing with a wiki: Sharing as default instead of on request distributes information throughout the organization.
- Managing with tables: Tables are a wonderful work tool that mean you don’t have to decide between a spreadsheet and a database, but can use something in between.
Advantages of work management
- Better: Work management increases the quality of work outputs because people can improve based on previous results instead of “reinventing the wheel.”
- Faster: Work management makes the organization faster with clear work distribution, the use of good practices and templates, and learning instead of forgetting.
- Cheaper: Work management makes the organization cost-efficient, with clear guidelines and templates instead of tiring meetings and wasted effort.
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management stakeholder alignment meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management stakeholder alignment meeting. We value your questions and your feedback. We’ll deepen our collaboration in the coming weeks and months. Feel free to have a look at our wiki page, where we publish the newest information regarding this project and the future process. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Best, Max
Workforce learning meetings
Introductory meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management introductory meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management introductory meeting. We’ll explain the basics of work management and why this topic is relevant for our organization. We welcome your questions and feedback about this topic.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Slide: How does work management integrate with existing functions, roles, and practices?
- Work management is a number of practices that many existing functions, roles, and teams can apply without the need for any approval.
- Work management integrates with many existing methodologies and frameworks and doesn't need another function, team, or role.
- Work management isn't a new management fad with courses, certifications, roles, and other bullshit creating the next management religion.
Slide: What are the typical roles that facilitate work?
- Functional leaders (e.g., IT managers, marketing managers) determine the methodologies, frameworks, and practices of their subordinates.
- Staff functions (e.g., information managers, process managers) already support organizations modularizing, systematizing, standardizing, and automating work.
- Consultants and coaches (e.g., Scrum Master) facilitate organizational improvements as internal or external resources in temporary roles.
Slide: How can existing roles manage work?
- Information managers, innovation managers, knowledge managers, operations managers, process managers, agile coaches, coaches, consultants, and team leaders can apply work management with tables to their work.
- Individuals start using their already implemented software tools.
- Organizations don't need committees to implement work management as an organization-wide habit.
Slide: How does the organization adopt work management habits?
- Organizations adopt work management on the team level without the need for an organizational change campaign.
- Horizontal and staff roles (e.g., information, innovation, L&D, operations, process managers) are suited to propose general approaches to managing work in the organization.
- Every employee can start to manage his/her work; in many cases no approval from their team leaders is necessary.
Slide: How do team members use work management in their daily work?
- Team members start with work management with the already implemented software tools.
- Team members explain what they have set up to their colleagues and implement their feedback.
- Team members discuss wok management practices with their colleagues.
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management introductory meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management introductory meeting. We explained to you the basics of work management and answered your questions about the topic. We thank you for your questions and look forward to improving how we work together over the next few weeks.
Best, Max
Organizational speed meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management organizational speed meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management organizational speed meeting. We’ll explain the important topic of organizational speed and why our organization is affected.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Slide: Problem
Problem: Why do we talk about organizational speed?
- We need too long for improvements and innovations.
- We don't develop and test enough improvements and innovations.
- We discuss things for too long before designing and testing improvements and innovations.
What are our challenges?
Slide: Approach
Approach: How do we adopt organizational speed?
- We share information and knowledge to prevent reinventing the wheel.
- We focus on the most impactful questions instead of the sidelines.
- We define outcomes for our team/process/workflow.
What do we need?
Slide: Outcomes
Outcomes: How does organizational speed make more time?
- We spend less time solving problems.
- We spend less time planning changes.
- We spend less time evaluating (failed) changes.
How do we save time?
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management organizational speed meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management organizational speed meeting. We will explain the need for organizational speed and how our organization is affected. We thank you for your questions and feedback and hope that this will change your view on organizational priorities of the 21st century.
Best, Max
Continual improvement meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management continual improvement meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management continual improvement meeting. We’ll explain and discuss the need for continual improvement. In doing so, we’ll also show you why it’s more efficient than radical innovation, including organizational change initiatives.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Slide: Problem
Problem: Why do we talk about continual improvement?
- We conduct large, complex change initiatives with vague outcomes.
- We don't improve small problems with a modest impact.
- We don't encourage people to suggest improvements.
What are our challenges?
Slide: Approach
Approach: How do we adopt continual improvement?
- We share challenges with colleagues and welcome their feedback.
- We share challenges and possible improvements with an online collaboration software tool (e.g., table) and welcome feedback.
- We design, test, and implement improvements in small increments and measure their success.
What do we need?
Slide: Outcomes
Outcomes: How does continual improvement make more time?
- We spend less time implementing improvements
- We spend less time designing, testing, and implementing/discarding improvements
- We spend less time explaining failed changes
How do we save time?
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management continual improvement meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management continual improvement meeting. We explained to you the idea behind continual improvement and why it’s a smoother alternative to radical innovation and change initiatives. Both are possible and needed, but continual improvement is simpler and easier to execute, implement, and adopt.
Best, Max
Collaborative innovation meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management collaborative innovation meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management collaborative innovation meeting. We’ll explain the idea behind collaborative innovation and how our organization can benefit from this.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Slide: Problem
Problem: Why do we talk about collaborative innovation?
- We don't listen to the innovative ideas of our own people.
- We don't encourage and support our people to develop innovations.
- We don't have a process to let our people collaborate on innovations with each other.
What are our challenges?
Slide: Approach
Approach: How do we adopt collaborative innovation?
- We share innovative ideas (e.g., business model innovations) with an online collaboration software tool (e.g., table) and adapt it based on feedback.
- We ask our superiors to test the innovation.
- We share our innovations with external partners and include their feedback in our thinking.
What do we need?
Slide: Outcomes
Outcomes: How does collaborative innovation make more time?
- We spend less time requesting feedback on possible innovations.
- We spend less time explaining ideas to our direct superiors.
- We spend less time working on avoidable failed innovations.
How do we save time?
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management collaborative innovation meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management collaborative innovation meeting. We explained the concept of collaborative innovation and how our organization can benefit from it. The main difference between sharing potential innovations from the start instead of hiding them is closely connected to the future project topic of “information sharing.”
Best, Max
Asynchronously written communication meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management asynchronously written communication meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management asynchronously written communication meeting. We’ll explain the advantages and challenges of asynchronously written communication compared to synchronous and verbal communication.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Slide: Problem
Problem: Why do we talk about asynchronously written information?
- We spend too long discussing the same questions in too many meetings.
- We must update people who haven't participated in meetings.
- We must communicate verbal information to many different stakeholders so that everyone has the same information.
What are our challenges?
Slide: Approach
Approach: How do we adopt asynchronously written information?
- We write down information instead of conducting meetings.
- We use a forum instead of an instant messaging software tool
- We write down the minutes of calls and web conferences and share them with (non) participants.
What do we need?
Slide: Outcomes
Outcomes: How does asynchronously written information make more time?
- We spend less time consuming information.
- We spend less time in conversation, meetings, and workshops.
- We spend less time explaining things more than once.
How do we save time?
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management asynchronously written communication meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management asynchronously written communication meeting. We explained the advantages of asynchronously written communication compared to synchronous and verbal communication. This change can be hard, but would have a tremendous impact on our organizational effectiveness and efficiency.
Best, Max
Written work instructions meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management written work instructions meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management written work instructions meeting invitation. We’ll explain to you why written work instructions are so important for our organization and how we can start writing and using them.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Slide: Problem
Problem: Why do we talk about written work instructions?
- We don't know how to conduct a specific task.
- We need too many verbal explanations of what could be self-taught.
- We lose work knowledge when people leave the organization.
What are our challenges?
Slide: Approach
Approach: How do we adopt written work instructions?
- We create written work instructions in the form of operating procedures, manuals, and good practices.
- We use written work instructions for autodidactic learning (instead of instructor-led learning).
- We welcome feedback and continually improve our written work instructions.
What do we need?
Slide: Outcomes
Outcomes: How do written work instructions make more time?
- We spend less time asking how something works.
- We spend less time correcting errors and mistakes.
- We spend less time receiving and giving verbal instructions.
How do we save time?
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management written work instructions meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management written work instructions meeting invitation. We explained to you why written work instructions are important for our organization and answered your questions about how we can start creating them. Written work instructions are a lot of work to create, but will significantly reduce our daily workload for recurring tasks.
Best, Max
Document templates meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management document templates meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management document templates meeting. We’ll explain and discuss the importance of document templates and how we can start creating more of them.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Slide: Problem
Problem: Why do we talk about document templates?
- We create similar documents too often in different ways.
- We forget necessary information in our documents.
- We align on document structures and contents again and again.
What are our challenges?
Slide: Approach
Approach: How do we adopt document templates?
- We collect requirements for a document template from different stakeholders.
- We share documents to create templates based on previous creations.
- We share document templates with other organizations to receive and share feedback.
What do we need?
Slide: Outcomes
Outcomes: How do document templates make more time?
- We spend less time discussing how to write documents, and what to include.
- We spend less time thinking about and discussing how to create a document.
- We spend less time aligning documents between stakeholders.
How do we save time?
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management document templates meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management document templates meeting. We explained the necessity of creating document templates and how we speed up our organization with them. It takes some discussion to create these templates, but they simplify recurring process steps soon after creation.
Best, Max
Process management meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management process management meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management process management meeting. We’ll give you an overview of process management as a proven management tool and why organizations should consider alternatives, too.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Slide: Problem
Problem: Why do we talk about process management?
- We don't know how work flows through the organization.
- We do things a bit differently every time.
- We don't have a foundation to implement software tools automating work.
What are our challenges?
Slide: Approach
Approach: How do we adopt process management?
- We define the flow of work.
- We dedicate process managers to modeling our work.
- We stick to defined processes or change them.
What do we need?
Slide: Outcomes
Outcomes: How does process management make more time?
- We spend less time discussing how work flows.
- We spend less time correcting errors/mistakes in work outputs.
- We spend less time discussing how to implement processes into software.
How do we save time?
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management process management meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management process management meeting. We explained to you the proven management approach of modeling and describing processes. We showed you examples of why this management practice is effective but only limited in efficiency. In the upcoming meetings on this topic, we’ll introduce you to alternative management tools and practices.
Best, Max
Information management meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Information management meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our information management meeting. We’ll explain to you the necessity of information management and why it’s an overlooked tool that can help organizations to become more effective and efficient.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Slide: Problem
Problem: Why do we talk about information management?
- We don't know what we know.
- We don't know who processes which information, and how they do it.
- We create similar information assets without using previous creations.
What are our challenges?
Slide: Approach
Approach: How do we adopt information management?
- We structure information in a standardized way.
- We define practices, tools, and responsibilities on how to work with information.
- We complement existing horizontal capabilities (e.g., innovation/process/project/work management).
What do we need?
Slide: Outcomes
Outcomes: How does information management make more time?
- We spend less time searching for information.
- We spend less time creating information (through similar information).
- We spend less time sharing information.
How do we save time?
Follow-up email
Subject: Information management meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our information management meeting. We explained the importance of information management for our organization and why it’s an overlooked tool for leverage. Information management isn’t one more back-office function someone can do on the side. For some industries (e.g., professional services), it’s an essential part of the business model.
Best, Max
Work management meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management meeting. This is a central meeting for this project, combining known practices into a simpler way of thinking for organizational management.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Slide: Problem
Problem: Why do we talk about work management?
- We don't know what we do.
- We reinvent how we do our work too often.
- Classic process management is slow and not very efficient.
What are our challenges?
Slide: Approach
Approach: How do we adopt work management?
- We define how we work without the "overhead" of process management.
- We define the structure, good practices, and templates, but without any strict flowcharts.
- We delegate work to lower ranks.
What do we need?
Slide: Outcomes
Outcomes: How does work management make more time?
- We spend less time discussing how to execute a task.
- We spend less time delegating work.
- We spend less time managing work compared to process and/or information management.
How do we save time?
Follow-up email
Subject: Information management meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our information management meeting. We introduced you to a simpler approach to managing an organization and explained how we can combine known practices with a simpler way of thinking. Work management isn’t something new, but we can use the term and the practices we described to change our organization for the better.
Best, Max
“Reinventing the wheel” meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management “reinventing the wheel” meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management “reinventing the wheel” meeting. We’ll explain to you the most expensive malpractice of our times. This meeting is incredibly important for us and the topic should become the starting point of all our future “improvement” activities.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Slide: Problem
Problem: Why do we talk about "reinventing the wheel"?
- We do (e.g., ideate, design, develop, build, think, discuss) things that have been done before.
- We don't collect, share, and reuse our work.
- We don't discuss the challenge of "reinventing the wheel."
What are our challenges?
Slide: Approach
Approach: How do we stop "reinventing the wheel"?
- We start the discussion around "reinventing the wheel," its impacts, and how to stop it.
- We start measuring the impact of "reinventing the wheel."
- We discuss methodological approaches to collecting and sharing information.
What do we need?
Slide: Outcomes
Outcomes: How does not "reinventing the wheel" make more time?
- We spend less time creating work outputs (e.g., documents) which have been created in one or another form before.
- We spend less time discussing topics which have been discussed before.
- We spend less time on operations (compared to improvements).
How do we save time?
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management “reinventing the wheel” meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management “reinventing the wheel” meeting. We explained to you a central challenge of the 21st century and why our organization is affected. “Reinventing the wheel” is not negativism, or another bullshit bingo term. It’s a challenge in a time it could already be overcome. We should make this topic a starting point for our future organizational improvements.
Best, Max
Information sharing meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management information sharing meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management information sharing meeting. We’ll explain to you the cultural foundation of insufficient information sharing and why withholding information is one foundational reason for the “reinventing the wheel” challenge.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Slide: Problem
Problem: Why do we talk about information sharing?
- We don't know what other people in our organization know.
- We ideate documents that have been created in our organization in a similar form before.
- We hire external consultants for things which could be done by internal people.
What are our challenges?
Slide: Approach
Approach: How do we adopt information sharing?
- We share information proactively instead of on request.
- We store information in a way that others can find it.
- We reuse information instead of "reinventing the wheel."
What do we need?
Slide: Outcomes
Outcomes: How does information sharing make more time?
- We spend less time creating work outputs that others have created before in a similar format.
- We spend less time requesting information from other people in the organization.
- We spend less time searching for the right person for a topic.
How do we save time?
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management information sharing meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management information sharing meeting. We explained to you the cultural background of withholding information and why we must tackle this behavior with more proactive information sharing. Information sharing is a key behavior to stop “reinventing the wheel.”
Best, Max
Work management with tables meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management with tables meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management with tables meeting. We’ll explain a simple approach to managing work and making our organization more transparent. This meeting is the first in a series showing you a possible solution to the challenges introduced in past meetings.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Slide: Problem
Problem: Why do we talk about work management with tables?
- We store our information in too many files and applications.
- We store our information in too many different structures, in too many different ways.
- We cannot find the right information when we're searching for it.
What are our challenges?
Slide: Approach
Approach: How do we adopt work management with tables?
- We structure work-related information in tables.
- We use a table software tool (e.g., Airtable, Microsoft Lists, Microsoft SharePoint Lists) instead of creating spreadsheets.
- We include fields (e.g., number, text, dropdown selection), references (rollups), and file attachments.
What do we need?
Slide: Outcomes
Outcomes: How does work management with tables free up more time?
- We spend less time searching for the right information.
- We spend less time aligning on how to store information.
- We spend less time using complex and complicated software tools.
How do we save time?
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management with tables meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management with tables meeting. We showed you how tables can make information transparent and simplify the work in our organization. This meeting is the first in a series to explain how simple tables can structure information and help to manage work in an easy way.
Best, Max
Table software tools meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management table software meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management table software meeting. We’ll introduce you to the table software category. This software category is the modern spreadsheet and database software categories merger.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Slide: Problem
Problem: Why do we talk about table software tools?
- We fight with the feature overload of spreadsheets.
- We cannot connect different spreadsheets through rollups with each other.
- We discuss which (new) software to use for each new use case and/or information asset.
What are our challenges?
Slide: Approach
Approach: How do we adopt a table software tool?
- We check which table software tools we already license.
- We conduct a procurement project, like with any other software tool.
- We implement and adopt the table software tool with a structured initiative, including organizational change activities.
What do we need?
Slide: Outcomes
Outcomes: How does a table software tool free up more time?
- We spend less time using several software tools with similar functionalities.
- We spend less time tackling a spreadsheet software tool.
- We spend less time learning how to use software to manage a new information asset.
How do we save time?
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management table software meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management table software meeting. We introduced you to the table software category, merging spreadsheet and database software to create the perfect software tool for work management. We made it clear that this software category is becoming more and more popular among organizations, and that our organization should start working on a buying, implementation, and/or adoption plan.
Best, Max
Managed metadata meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Managed metadata meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our managed metadata meeting. We’ll explain to you how managed metadata is the foundation of future information management, and how it makes flexible flat information hierarchies possible.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Slide: Problem
Problem: Why do we talk about managed metadata?
- We don't have a common structure to manage our files and folders.
- We don't know which files exist for each topic area.
- We cannot find the files we need to find.
What are our challenges?
Slide: Approach
Approach: How do we adopt managed metadata?
- We define tag categories and tags within them.
- We migrate information in steps so that we recognize missing metadata early.
- We dedicate an information manager to managing the metadata.
What do we need?
Slide: Outcomes
Outcomes: How does managed metadata free up more time?
- We spend less time searching for information.
- We spend less time defining and aligning metadata.
- We spend less time preparing information for long-term archiving.
How do we save time?
Follow-up email
Subject: Managed metadata meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our managed metadata meeting. We explain to you the need for managed metadata. With managed metadata, organizations can flatten their information structure by retaining an overview. It needs some preparation and the work manager’s support, but it is worth the effort in the end. Managed metadata can only work as part of a work management strategy that outlines how the organization wants to work in the future.
Best, Max
Document library meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management document library meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management document library meeting. We’ll discuss the concept of a generic document library for the organization, based on the principles discussed in the previous meetings.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Slide: Problem
Problem: Why do we talk about document libraries?
- We cannot find the files we need on our file storage.
- We cannot attach metadata to files and folders on our file storage.
- We don't differentiate between current and archived files and folders in our file storage.
What are our challenges?
Slide: Approach
Approach: How do we adopt document libraries?
- We evaluate our table software tool's necessary/included features for use as a document library.
- We set up a metadata management capability.
- We migrate files incrementally, while checking we can find the information in need.
What do we need?
Slide: Outcomes
Outcomes: How does a document library free up more time?
- We spend less time searching for files.
- We spend less time understanding someone else's folder structure.
- We spend less time searching for files that haven't been in use for a long time.
How do we save time?
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management document library meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management document library meeting. We explained the concept of a single generic document library, and its requirements so that everyone can find what he/she is searching for. A single document library is a challenging task, but it is worth the effort to achieve a knowledge-driven organization.
Best, Max
Information model meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management information model meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management information model meeting. We’ll discuss the need for an information model as part of a work/information management initiative.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Slide: Problem
Problem: Why do we talk about an information model?
- We don't want to create a high number of interrelated work management tables without the necessary managerial transparency.
- We want to discuss work management table changes effectively and efficiently.
- We want to avoid information redundancies because people don't know about other people’s work management tables.
What are our challenges?
Slide: Approach
Approach: How do we adopt an information model?
- We determine the tables to be implemented and their columns.
- We determine the column values (e.g., for status, type) and rollups (connections to columns of other tables).
- We determine the owners of each table and how to write down standard operating procedures for each table.
What do we need?
Slide: Outcomes
Outcomes: How does an information model free up more time?
- We spend less time understanding our table structure.
- We spend less time discussing proposed changes to our table structure.
- We spend less time checking which information is already captured before proposing a new table.
How do we save time?
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management information model meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management information model meeting. We explained the need for an information model as part of a work/information management initiative. Although the topic is a little boring, it is necessary to have an overview of how we work with information.
Best, Max
Work management tables meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management tables meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management tables meeting. We’ll explain how to set up team-related work management tables. This meeting is a preparatory meeting for team-based table setup meetings.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Slide: Problem
Problem: Why do we talk about work management tables?
- We store work-related information scattered across various applications, spreadsheets, and documents.
- We don't know who records what information where.
- We execute work in different ways every time a task occurs.
What are our challenges?
Slide: Approach
Approach: How do we adopt work management tables?
- We brainstorm tables, columns, and column values with the teams owning the tables.
- We set up a small number (1-3) tables per team and record the feedback.
- We migrate recent work information to the corresponding new tables to test their structure.
What do we need?
Slide: Outcomes
Outcomes: How do work management tables free up more time?
- We spend less time discussing how to record work-related information.
- We spend less time recording, searching, and maintaining work-related information.
- We spend less time understanding functional and industry-vertical software tools.
How do we save time?
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management tables meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management tables meeting. We generally explained how to set up team-related work management tables. As part of this project, we’ll set up work management tables with individual teams in the next few weeks.
Best, Max
Wiki table meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management wiki table meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management wiki table meeting. We’ll explain the use and structure of a wiki table in addition to a wiki software tool.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Slide: Problem
Problem: Why do we talk about a wiki table?
- We don't know which pieces of information we've recorded somewhere.
- It’s challenging to find the information in need.
- We use word processing software too often for documents that we don't aim to print.
What are our challenges?
Slide: Approach
Approach: How do we adopt a wiki table?
- We decide on the wiki table approach based on the implemented table software tool and wiki software tool.
- We either store the wiki pages directly in the table or maintain a list of all wiki pages in the table with links to the wiki software tool.
- We tag all wiki pages with the managed metadata model to maintain an overview of what we've created.
What do we need?
Slide: Outcomes
Outcomes: How does a wiki table free up more time?
- We spend less time searching for information.
- We spend less time formatting documents.
- We spend less time "reinventing the wheel" with the right wiki documentation to hand.
How do we save time?
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management wiki table meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management wiki table meeting. We explained and discussed the use of a wiki table in addition to an implemented wiki software tool. The wiki table enables organizations to share a high number of wiki pages in the organization and have an overview of what information is available.
Best, Max
File archive table meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management file archive table meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management file archive table meeting. We’ll explain the advantages of a common file archive table in comparison to common legacy practices.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Slide: Problem
Problem: Why do we talk about a file archive table?
- We're challenged to find current information in our cluttered file storage / document library.
- We must maintain outdated metadata tags in our document library.
- We create more chaos with every file not deleted after use.
What are our challenges?
Slide: Approach
Approach: How do we adopt a file archive table?
- We sort through team-related documents to find documents to be archived.
- We migrate not-to-be-changed files to the file archive table.
- We create new documents of archived files instead of changing the archived version.
What do we need?
Slide: Outcomes
Outcomes: How does a file archive table free up more time?
- We spend less time finding information in our more concise document library.
- We spend less time restructuring our file document library.
- We spend less time retrieving archived information.
How do we save time?
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management file archive table meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management file archive table meeting. We explained and discussed the advantages of a file archive table and how we could implement one.
Best, Max
Internal messages table meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management internal messages table meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management internal messages table meeting. We’ll explain and discuss the messages table as an alternative to internal emails.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Slide: Problem
Problem: Why do we talk about an internal messages table?
- We cannot find old emails and instant messages to prevent "reinventing the wheel."
- We don't share information sent as emails and instant messages.
- We don't structure our internal emails in a way that enables others to use this information.
What are our challenges?
Slide: Approach
Approach: How do we adopt an internal messages table?
- We set up an internal messages table in our table software tool or implement a dedicated internal messages software tool (e.g., "Twist").
- We decide to send answers as part of the original (table software tool) internal messages table record or as separate records.
- We adapt our internal message habits based on the implemented and adopted software tool for internal messages.
What do we need?
Slide: Outcomes
Outcomes: How does an internal messages table free up more time?
- We spend less time recreating information we haven't participated.
- We spend less time asking others for information siloed in inboxes.
- We spend less time sorting through various email threads which cannot be merged or otherwise managed.
How do we save time?
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management internal messages table meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management internal messages table meeting. We discussed the concept of a messages table as an alternative to internal emails. The concept is new and therefore needs some time to mature. We’ll develop this topic in the future, even if it isn’t our priority at the moment.
Best, Max
Work management software meetings
Software tool categories meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management software tool categories meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management software tool categories meeting. We’ll provide an overview of available software categories for work management.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Wiki software
- What: Wiki software tools make text-focused documents available, in a way that is similar to public wiki projects (e.g., Wikipedia).
- Outcome: Minimize the time searching for structured articles, SOPs, and all kinds of text-focused documents.
- Examples: Archbee, AppFlowy (OSS), Atlassian Confluence, Coda, Document360, GitBook, Microsoft Loop, Microsoft SharePoint pages, Notion.
Table software
- What: Table software tools sit between spreadsheet software and database software, making it easier to create simple tables for daily use.
- Outcome: Minimize the time spent configuring the spreadsheet software, including connecting it to other systems (e.g., file share).
- Examples: Airtable, Baserow (OSS), Coda, Microsoft Lists, Microsoft SharePoint Lists (outdated), Notion.
Messaging board software
- What: Messaging board software tools structure asynchronous online discussions, similar to old-school online forums.
- Outcome: Minimize the time searching for asynchronous communication.
- Examples: Discourse for Teams, Stack Overflow for Teams, Threads, Tipi, Twist
Workflow software
- What: Workflow software tools model and automate business processes, combining modeling and execution environments into one solution.
- Outcome: Minimize the time spent designing and developing business process environments and automation.
- Examples: Kissflow, Microsoft Power Automate, Pipefy, Process Street, ProcessMaker
No-code software
- What: No-code software enables employees to create business apps without writing code.
- Outcome: Minimize the time it takes to create simple business process apps.
- Examples: Appy Pie, Bryter, Google AppSheet, Microsoft Power Automate, Retool.
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management software tool categories meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management software tool categories meeting. We provided you with an overview of software tool categories for managing work. Software categories often overlap, so this gives you a rough idea of how the market is structured.
Best, Max
Software tools evaluation meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management software tools evaluation meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management software tools evaluation meeting. We’ll explain and discuss how we evaluate software tools and why this is relevant, even if we don’t want to buy them yet.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why
Why do we want to evaluate software tools for work management?
- Software tools are an integral part of work management.
- We don’t have to buy additional software tools before starting with work management.
- We need a market overview to drive our organization’s internal discussion in this field.
How
How do we evaluate software tools for work management?
- We understand the software tool categories and their differences.
- We evaluate software tools by creating free accounts and/or making calls with their salespeople.
- We make notes about how we could combine different tools together.
What
Which software tools for work management do we want to evaluate?
- Wiki software
- Table software
- Messaging board software
- Workflow software
- No-code software
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management software tools evaluation meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management software tools evaluation meeting. We discussed and aligned how we want to test software tools as part of our work management activities. The evaluation process won’t start immediately, but will begin in the not-too-distant future.
Best, Max
Software tools architecture meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management software tools architecture meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our software tool architecture meeting. We’ll discuss how we can create a work management software tool architecture. This software tool architecture is a precondition for future software procurement activities.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why
Why do we create a work management software tool architecture?
- Various software tools should work in a useful way together.
- Every task should have one software tool to use.
- The organization should only have one software tool for each task.
How
How do we create a work management software tool architecture?
- We determine the software categories we would like to use.
- We analyze overlapping features between various software tools and categories.
- We analyze which software tool categories we have in use and how we want to develop our current architecture.
What
What are the possible work management software tool architectures?
- Wiki and table software tools as the necessary foundation.
- Messaging board and shared email software tools as an optional addition.
- Workflow and no-code software tools as a sufficient work management software architecture.
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management software tools architecture meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management software tools architecture meeting. We discussed how we determine our current and future work management software tool landscape. This architecture process is a necessary activity before we think about procuring more software tools for work management.
Best, Max
Software tool implementation meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management software tool implementation meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management software tool implementation meeting. We’ll briefly explain the structure of a software tool implementation project. This gives us an overview of how intense a work management software tool implementation project would be.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Selection & Procurement
- We determine our work management software tool landscape.
- We elicit financial and legal restrictions (e.g., data privacy).
- We align our stakeholders on our drafted software tool landscape.
- We conduct a procurement project to buy the selected software tool (category).
Training
- We focus on cultural and organizational change instead of “software training.”
- We educate our employees on the new software tool early in the process.
- We set up a software introduction project incl. the necessary organizational change activities.
Rollout
- We roll out the software tool gradually.
- We support teams using the new software tool.
- We set up various meeting formats, offering employees different communication and exchange options.
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management software tool implementation meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management software tool implementation meeting. We briefly discussed the necessary steps to implementing and adopting a work management software tool. This gave us a good overview, but such a project would require much more preparation than one meeting.
Best, Max
Software tool adoption meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management software tool adoption meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management software tool adoption meeting. We’ll briefly explain and discuss the necessary activities to for individual teams adopting a work management software tool.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why
Why do we need work management software tool adoption activities?
- Work management software tools are only useful if individuals and teams use them.
- Most work management tools are licensed by the number of users (instead of by usage), which could be expensive if people don’t use the software.
- People don’t like change and the easiest approach to new software is to not use it.
How
How do we support the adoption of a work management software tool by the organization?
- Organizations learn about the new work management software in webinars.
- Teams develop their individual work habits in workshops.
- Individuals get their questions answered in Q&A/support calls.
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management software tool adoption meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management software tool adoption meeting. We briefly discussed approaches to support the organization by adopting a new work management software tool. This gave you an overview, but the actual workload would be more significant.
Best, Max
Team-focused improvement meetings
Employee interviews preparation meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management employee interviews preparation meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management employee interviews preparation meeting. We’ll explain the planned employee interviews as part of our work management facilitation project.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why do we conduct employee interviews?
Organizational challenges elicitation
- We elicit our organization’s challenges regarding work management.
- We prepare our team-focused work management facilitation.
- We receive helpful feedback before we get into the details with the individual teams.
How will we conduct employee interviews?
Invitation
- Invitation via email.
- Broad selection of appointment dates and times.
- Flexible date and time change possible.
Appointment
- One-hour web meeting.
- No preparation needed.
- Time for Q&A and individual feedback.
Execution
- Semi-structured interview.
- Ten questions in one hour.
- Feedback at the end and updates after the interview.
What questions will we ask?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding how we work in our organization?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding the communication & coordination of work between teams and individuals in our organization?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding the cooperation & collaboration between teams and individuals in our organization?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding the horizontal software tools we use to manage our work?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding reducing “reinventing the wheel” in our organization?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding information management/sharing in our organization?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding standard operating procedures and document templates in our organization?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding making meetings more effective, efficient, and sustainable?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding modularizing, systematizing, and standardizing work?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding automating work?
- Do you have any other challenges/requirements/preferences?
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management employee interviews preparation meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management employee interviews preparation meeting. We explained our planned employee meetings and incorporated your feedback. We’re looking forward to starting these interviews soon.
Best, Max
Employee interview meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management employee interview meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to a personal 1:1 employee interview as part of our work management facilitation project. We would like to discuss approximately ten questions with you. The questions will ask about your views (challenges, requirements, and preferences) regarding work management. I selected a free meeting spot in your calendar. Please send me a calendar change request if you would like to change the meeting date and/or time. If you have any questions in the meantime, feel free to contact me.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Question 1
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding how we work in our organization?
Question 2
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding the communication & coordination of work between teams and individuals in our organization?
Question 3
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding the cooperation & collaboration between teams and individuals in our organization?
Question 4
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding the horizontal software tools we use to manage our work?
Question 5
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding reducing “reinventing the wheel” in our organization?
Question 6
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding information management/sharing in our organization?
Question 7
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding standard operating procedures and document templates in our organization?
Question 8
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding making meetings more effective, efficient, and sustainable?
Question 9
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding modularizing, systematizing, and standardizing work?
Question 10
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding automating work?
Question 11
- Do you have any other other challenges/requirements/preferences?
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management employee interview meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thank you for your time in our interview. We value your feedback and will incorporate it into our work management facilitation process. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us. Feel free to have a look at our wiki page from time to time. We’ll also send you updates via email in the next few weeks.
Best, Max
Employee survey meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management employee survey meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to prepare the employee survey as part of our work management facilitation project. With the employee survey, we want to learn what our employees think about working in our organization.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why
Why will we conduct an employee survey?
- Awareness: We create awareness for the need for work management as an organizational capability.
- Feedback: We collect feedback about the current situation and possible future changes.
- Participation: We practice participatory decision-making with this survey.
How
How will we conduct an employee survey?
Invitation
- We’ll define the to-be-invited group instead of creating a list of names.
- We’ll invite participants via email and will remind them with additional emails.
- We’ll give invitees at least two weeks to participate in the survey.
Software tool
- We’ll use an already implemented software tool, if available.
- Alternatively, we’ll use an external cloud software tool and provide clear data protection information for the invitees.
- We’re open to survey software tool ideas.
Evaluation
- We aim to formalize the survey to make it somewhat statistically useful.
- We aim to evaluate the closed survey in the following two weeks.
- We’ll share the survey results first with the stakeholders, then with all employees.
What
What questions will be asked in the employee survey?
Work management is the practice of improving our practices to command, control, communicate, coordinate, cooperate, and collaborate. The aim is to make our daily work more effective, efficient, and sustainable. Good practices include proactively writing things down, information sharing, and re-using information instead of “reinventing the wheel.” Another goal is the modularization, systematization, and standardization of work.
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding how we work in our organization?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding the communication & coordination of work between teams and individuals in our organization?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding the cooperation & collaboration between teams and individuals in our organization?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding the horizontal software tools we use to manage our work?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding reducing “reinventing the wheel” in our organization?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding information sharing in our organization?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding standard operating procedures and document templates in our organization?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding making meetings more effective, efficient, and sustainable?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding modularizing, systematizing, and standardizing work?
- What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding automating work?
- Do you have any other challenges/requirements/preferences?
Survey invitation text
Subject: Work management survey
Dear colleagues,
The practice of work management improves how people in organizations work together. With our work management facilitation project, we aim to support teams and organizations to improve how they work through good practices and coaching. To understand our people’s work management habits and needs, we kindly invite you to participate in this survey. The survey takes approximately 30 minutes.
Please follow the link to participate in the survey: <<LINK>>
Best, Max
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management employee survey meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thank you for participating in the meeting about preparing our work management employee survey. In this meeting, we collected your feedback about the upcoming survey.
Best, Max
Employee interviews and survey meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management employee interviews and survey meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management employee interviews and survey results meeting. We’ll present our work management interviews and survey results to you in this meeting.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Interview results
- Work management is an important topic for our organization.
- Work management is an under-represented and underestimated topic for our organization.
- We should improve our work management capabilities.
- It’s worth it to at least investigate deeper.
Survey data
- 123 survey participants
- 100 completed surveys
- 7 questions answered on average
- 10,000 words written
- 12 additional feedback emails received
What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding how we work in our organization?
- The right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing.
- Information isn’t properly written down, and therefore lost and written-down information is hard to find.
- We reinvent the wheel because we don’t have the right information at hand.
What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding the communication & coordination of work between teams and individuals in our organization?
- Lots of coordination is necessary.
- Coordination isn’t well structured.
- Communication feels chaotic.
What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding the cooperation & collaboration between teams and individuals in our organization?
- We must involve many teams for even the small topics.
- Lots of alignment between teams is necessary.
- Decisions aren’t written down, and are made again and again.
What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding the horizontal software tools we use to manage our work?
- We don’t utilize already-implemented software tools.
- We don’t discuss additional software tools.
- We aren’t willing to invest in additional software tools.
- The need/usefulness of additional tools is questionable.
What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding reducing “reinventing the wheel” in our organization?
- More high-quality writing is required.
- Better search and finding functions are required.
- Information management is an organizational capability that needs a cultural change.
What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding information sharing in our organization?
- More open sharing by default.
- Fewer politics about “this is my information peace.”
- Cultural and process change is necessary.
What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding standard operating procedures and document templates in our organization?
- Standard operating procedures are tiring to write.
- Research for lean approaches to SOP writing would be useful.
- Someone needs to create and maintain document templates.
What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding making meetings more effective, efficient, and sustainable?
- We prepare our meetings poorly.
- We don’t create an input and output per meeting.
- We talk too much, instead of creating things.
What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding modularizing, systematizing, and standardizing work?
- We must invest in optimizing our work to stay competitive and make room for true innovation development.
- We must create a way of working that systematizes and standardizes without the overhead of traditional process management.
- We must get these things under control soon.
What are your challenges/requirements/preferences regarding automating work?
- Many things are hard to automate.
- We don’t know how we can automate procedures.
- Automation software tools can be quite expensive.
What are your other challenges/requirements/preferences?
- It’s good to start a discussion about these topics.
- Real change is necessary, and not just in discussions.
- Other organizations (inducing our competitors) have similar challenges, therefore no rush is required.
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management employee interviews and survey meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thank you for joining our work management interviews and survey results meeting. We hope we could give you a good impression of our employees’ thoughts about work management in our organization.
Best, Max
Team leadership meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management team leadership meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management team leadership meeting. We’ll discuss how we can improve our work management leadership and mentoring capabilities in our team.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Work management governance
- What are our goals, resources, and commitments for work management?
- How do we make time for work management?
- How do we align with other teams on work management?
Work management leadership
- How does our team leader support us in improving work management?
- How does our team leader lead us in improving work management?
- How does our team leader motivate us to improve work management?
Work management learning/teaching
- How do we learn about work management?
- Who teaches us work management?
- How do implement/use our learnings?
Work management mentoring/coaching
- How do we guide each other on work management?
- How do we support each other on work management?
- How do we share our work management practices with other teams?
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management team leadership meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management team leadership meeting. We discussed and decided how we can improve our work management leadership and mentoring capabilities in our team.
Best, Max
Team communication and coordination meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management team communication and coordination meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management team communication and coordination meeting. We’ll discuss approaches to improve communication and coordination in our team.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Communication via emails
- How do we reduce the number of emails?
- How do we write emails instead of (physical and virtual) meetings?
- How do we make our emails more concise?
- How do we include only the necessary people in emails?
- How do we include all the necessary people in emails?
- What are the alternatives to email?
Communication via meetings
- How do we reduce the number of physical (instead of virtual) meetings?
- How do we ensure we have very important meetings in person?
- How do we reduce the number of (physical and virtual) meetings?
- How do we make meetings more effective?
- How do we make meetings more efficient?
- How do we make meetings more sustainable?
- How do we prepare meetings?
- How do we follow up after meetings?
- How do we summarize meetings?
- How do we shift from verbal to written communication?
Communication via chat
- What do we want to communicate via chat?
- How do we avoid chat message fatigue?
- How do we shift from synchronous to asynchronous written communication?
Coordination of responsibilities
- How do we determine responsibilities?
- How do we ensure responsibilities are executed?
- How do we ensure responsibilities are executed in high quality?
- How do we avoid transgressing responsibilities?
Coordination of work
- How do we report about our current work?
- How do we report about our future work?
- How do we align on work demarcation lines?
- How do we show our work?
- How do we communicate our work to other teams?
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management team communication and coordination meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management team communication and coordination meeting. We discussed and decided how we want to communicate and coordinate in our team in the future.
Best, Max
Team work management with tables meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Team work management with tables meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our team work management with tables meeting. We’ll discuss the advantages of creating tables for our team, and how we can start to do this.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why create tables
- Why could more tables structure our work?
- Why could more tables structure our work better than other tools?
- Why should we invest in thinking about tables instead of continuing without them?
How to create tables
- How do we ideate tables?
- How do we design tables?
- How do we test tables?
- How do we implement tables?
- How do we adopt tables?
- How do we continually improve tables?
What tables to create
- What tables do we need to create?
- What are the most important tables to create?
- What tables can we combine?
- What tables must we separate?
Follow-up email
Subject: Team work management with tables meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our team work management with tables meeting. We discussed and decided how we can use tables to structure our work and the advantages we expect for our team.
Best, Max
Team writing and sharing meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management team writing and sharing meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management team writing and sharing meeting. We’ll discuss and decide how we can write more information down, and how we can share more information inside our team and with other teams.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why write more information down
- Why could writing down topics help us?
- Why could writing down more be more beneficial than meetings?
- Why could writing down help us to stop reinventing the wheel?
How to write more information down
- How do we ideate document topics?
- How do we design documents?
- How do we test documents?
- How do we use the documents created?
- How do we use these documents continually?
- How do we continually improve the documents?
What to write down
- What documents do we need to create?
- What are the most important documents to create?
- What documents can we combine?
- What documents must we separate?
Why share more
- Why could more information sharing help us?
- Why could information sharing be more beneficial than meetings?
- Why could more information sharing help us to stop reinventing the wheel?
How to share more
- How do we simplify our sharing procedure?
- How do we share by default?
- How do we find topics to share?
- How do we exclude topics from sharing?
- How do we ensure others know about our shared information?
What to share
- What existing documents do we want to share?
- What existing documents do we want to share first?
- What documents do we want to exclude from sharing?
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management team writing and sharing meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management team writing and sharing meeting. We discussed and decided why, how, and what information we can write down, share with our team, and share with other teams.
Best, Max
Meeting title
Invitation email
Subject: Work management weekly team-level meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management weekly team-level meeting. We’ll discuss how we can improve how we work in our team.
Best, Max
Meeting information
How can we improve our communication?
- How can we communicate better?
- How can we communicate more efficiently?
How can we improve our coordination?
- How can we coordinate better?
- How can we coordinate more efficiently?
How can we improve our tables?
- How can we use our tables better?
- How can we use our tables more efficiently?
How can we improve our writing?
- How can we write better?
- How can we write more efficiently?
How can we improve our sharing?
- How can we share more?
- How can we communicate our sharing better?
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management weekly team-level meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management weekly team-level meeting. We discussed how we can improve working together and decided on some concrete steps for improvement.
Best, Max
Success story meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management success story meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management success story meeting. We’ll show you how our team improved how it works together, and with other teams.
Best, Max
Meeting information
How we improved our communication
- How did we make our communication more effective?
- How did we make our communication more efficient?
How we improved our coordination
- How did we make our coordination more effective?
- How did we make our coordination more efficient?
How we improved working with tables
- How did we make our tables more effective?
- How did we make our tables more efficient?
How we improved our writing
- How did we make our writing more effective?
- How did we make our writing more efficient?
How we improved sharing information
- How did we increase our information sharing?
- How did we improve the communication about our information sharing?
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management success story meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management success story meeting. We showed you how our team improved working together and with other teams. We hope you can profit from our expertise and experience in work management.
Best, Max
Organizational agreement meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management organizational agreement meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management organizational agreement meeting. We’ll discuss and decide on the rules of work management in our organization.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Communication rules
What are our communication rules?
- We communicate with written text instead of verbally.
- We communicate asynchronously instead of synchronously.
- We communicate proactively instead of reactively.
Coordination rules
What are our coordination rules?
- We structure our coordination by functions, teams, processes, products, projects, etc.
- We write our work coordination down.
- We coordinate from general to specific (topic → job → task).
Table rules
What are our table rules?
- We create tables wherever possible.
- We share our tables openly.
- We standardize our tables with templates and software tool features.
Writing rules
What are our writing rules?
- We write down as much as possible.
- We reuse sent emails as wiki articles.
- We simplify our writing through modularization, systematization, and standardization.
Sharing rules
What are our sharing rules?
- We share by default, with the exception of some specific topic areas.
- We share early drafts and don’t criticize them too harshly.
- We point others to our shared documents.
How do we enforce our rules?
- We regularly reflect on our own behavior and provide feedback on others’ behavior.
- We regularly discuss our work management practices.
- We regularly improve these rules for work management.
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management organizational agreement meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management organizational agreement meeting. We discussed and decided on the rules of work management in our organization and how to enforce them.
Best, Max
Project closure meetings
Continual improvement meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management continual improvement meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management continual improvement meeting. This meeting includes areas and approaches for improvement and implementing the findings.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Areas of improvement
- People: How do we get people to improve their work habits?
- Process: How do we structure our work?
- Technology: How do we develop/implement/adopt new software tools for work management?
- Effectiveness: How do we adopt more work management good practices?
- Efficiency: How do we transfer good practices with less effort?
- Sustainability: How do we maintain good practices within the organization?
- Improvement & Innovation: How do we adopt improvements and innovations from other organizations?
- Information & Knowledge: How do we collect, use, and share good practices inside our organization?
Approach to improvement
- Individual feedback
- Interviews
- Surveys
- Team leader feedback
- Sourcing team’s feedback
- Technology innovation team’s feedback
Improvement implementation
- People: Helping people to change habits.
- Process: Adopting processes.
- Technology: Further developing and/or changing our technology landscape.
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management continual improvement meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management continual improvement meeting. We welcome your feedback and ideas on how to improve our work habits.
Best, Max
Organizational outlook meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management organizational outlook meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management organizational outlook meeting. We’ll discuss the need for change and the potential consequences if we don’t change.
Best, Max
Meeting information
Why change
- Why must we change?
- Why is change hard?
- How can we change?
Why now
- Why must we change soon?
- What can happen if we don’t change now?
- How can we change sooner/faster?
Consequences of no change
- What are the potential consequences if we don’t change?
- What are the potential losses if we don’t change?
- What was the impact for other organizations that didn’t change fast enough?
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management organizational outlook meeting follow-up
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management organizational outlook meeting. We discussed the need for change and created awareness for faster change in our organization.
Best, Max
Evaluation meeting
Invitation email
Subject: Work management evaluation meeting invitation
Dear colleagues,
We kindly invite you to our work management evaluation meeting. We want to recap our work management efforts so far, identify general project management improvements and discuss our work management’s continual improvement efforts.
Best, Max
Meeting information
What have we achieved so far?
- We facilitated change in how we work together in our organization.
- The first steps towards better work management have been implemented.
- We created a common understanding of why work management is relevant, and why we should start working on it now.
- The work manager answers questions on how to work together in our organization and proposes change to executives and team leaders.
What can we generally do better?
How can we improve working together?
- Fewer meetings.
- Fewer meetings without input and/or output.
- Fewer documents without a template.
- More systems thinking.
- More standard operating procedures.
- More written information.
- More shared information.
How do we systematically evaluate our work practices?
- Feedback
- Interviews
- Surveys
Follow-up email
Subject: Work management evaluation meeting
Dear colleagues,
Thanks for joining our work management evaluation meeting. We value your feedback and questions.
Best, Max