Mostly, I work as a change agent. That is, I come into a company and have to improve work practices, introduce new methods and install new systems. This is CHANGE!
Over the years, the best way I have found to go about this, is to have a project mentality. I think of a beginning and an end. I convert all the issues and problems that I am faced with into projects. I do this, before I jump into and take charge of matters. Spending time on the “big picture, and setting up a road map ( or a series of road maps) is key. Once this is done, I start assembling my team – both internal and external – my support staff. Then it is to draw up individual and joint tasks ( responsibilities), timelines of completion, other resources ( space, software, supplies, training etc) needed and all this goes into a road map. I used to do this on an excel workbook; today I am doing it on collaboration tools – Basecamp and Asana – collaboration software. I am looking into Central desktop and Sharepoint. What I want to eliminate, with the use of these tools, is the waste of time in status updates. My team and I are learning these tools and I hope to eliminate e-mails, file sharing , phone messages to a large extent. When we meet, and it is regularly, it will be creative and knowledge sharing, rather than tedious “getting everyone on the same page” work.
I have realized, a lot of my work can be turned into a project orientation that enables me to delegate better, fix responsibilities better, avoid “he said/she said” confusion and see a definite finish line. The new social collaboration tools are great!!