How to Manage Projects Effectively - Artsolute Media Group

Select Players Carefully

At the very beginning of the planning process, it is imperative that you think critically about who’s involved; especially if they have a stake in any decisions made. For instance, if you are planning your exhibiting calendar, you might need specific employees from various product-management departments, your upper-level management, the sales team, the creative department, the marketing team and so forth. So firstly, figure out which players should have a place on the field. The fewer, the better. Your team will work best if you limit the number of people necessary for decision making. However, each player should have the power to make decisions for the group they represent and the proper authority and leadership to execute those decisions with the assurance that the others will abide by them. It wouldn’t hurt you to select people who are detailed oriented, hard-working, and readily available with their time and talent.

Meet Regularly and Keep it Short and Straight to the Point

Consistency is definitely key when it comes to project-management. Team members need to understand their responsibilities and what’s required of them. For ease-of-mind, set up a regular meeting at the same time every week (or every other week) and at the same location. This allows team members to plan their attendance in advance so they can arrive ready to contribute. If your selected members are not located in the same building, setting up consistent remote call-ins, live video feeds, or skype meetings are always great at keeping everyone communicably on the same page. Keep these regular meetings short. It’s better to meet more frequently for shorter periods of time rather than trying to crunch in a lengthy meeting. The longer the meeting is, the more likely the members of your team will become distracted, tune out, check emails, step out to make phone calls, etc. Case and point: Get in and get out. Try to refrain from spontaneous meetings whenever possible. Participants are most likely going to be under-prepared and hastily decisive.

Develop and stick to an Agenda

In order for your meeting to be effective, your members need to arrive fully prepared. The meeting must progress in an organized manner within the time frame allowed. To expedite these requirements, you need a concrete plan. So establish an agenda, no more than one page long, and adhere to it throughout the duration of the meeting. To keep you on track, consider assigning each topic a time frame if needed. Send the agenda to your team members a day or more prior to the meeting.This will ensure that they have time to fully prepare for any contributions they will be expected to make, fortify themselves with additional information, or even extract opinions from other members of their department to help with the decision-making process.

Prepare Yourself with Online Tools

Technology may not be a solution to every problem, but a few considerable online tools can keep your team on the same page between meetings. Accessible anywhere there’s a Wi-Fi connection, some tools allow you to constantly share information online, as opposed to resorting to sending documents back and forth via email. You can even set the program so that others are permitted to only view the documents or provide permission to certain individuals to access, edit and add files at any time. Google Docs and IOS is a good program that we use here at Artsolute Media Group, because the spreadsheet-like software can help our team track and manage multiple projects, sales pipelines, customer information, event schedules, task list, and more. Your company can purchase a software program that works best for it, or use Google Docs, which is free. To help stay in contact with your team, all you really need is a good app like Line or WhatsApp, which is free and relatively simple. These apps allow team members to send the entire group text or voice messages, photos, and videos. Clearly, project management is rarely easy, and given the varied and sometimes challenging personalities and communication styles of each team member, it can be downright difficult. But with the aforementioned strategies and online tools, the process can be far more organized, effective, and enjoyable.

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