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How to Build and Run a Successful Creative Team

How to build a creative team

Building an in-house creative team to manage your communications and campaigns can be transformative. Rather than relying on organic growth, low-skilled workers (e.g CEO doing marketing themselves) or expensive agencies, you can empower your business to grow spectacularly by bringing all the most valuable creative skills under your roof.

However, there are no shortcuts when building an effective creative team. You need to invest time into strategic planning and decision making before recruitment, and in forming the most productive creative environment after the team is assembled.

This article is going to take you through that whole process, from assessing your creative needs to weighing up full-time employees vs contractors and then finally getting the best possible work from your new team.

Define the scope of your team

Define the scope of your team

First thing’s first, before you start building recruitment ads and scouting new talent, you need to consider what you actually need.

There are hundreds of reasons why an organization might build its own creative team. Even the term “creative team” itself is extremely broad and could range from a simple designer-copywriter combo to a full-blown creative department with fixed premises, multiple layers of management and a global brief.

To get the ball rolling in the right direction, start by answering 3 fundamental questions:

  1. What are your goals?
  2. How will a creative team get you there?
  3. Can the business support this team?

What are your goals?

The general purpose of creative teams is to design and execute advertising or marketing campaigns in order to sell the company’s products or services. There is often a requirement for creating or maintaining the company’s brand image and for managing internal company messaging, though not always.

So when considering your team: what are your business goals?

This isn’t about whether you’re a small-medium company dipping its toes into “proper” creative for the first time, or an established giant building a new department to replace your expensive external agency. You need to know what you’re trying to achieve. Some examples:

  • We’re offering marketing-as-a-service to our clients, and need a team to deliver the full-stack service
  • We want to start PPC marketing in order to double our revenue from last year
  • We want to become a leader in online content for our industry
  • We want to bring 1 million qualified visitors to our website this year

How will a creative team get you there?

Creative teams can be transformative for a company’s marketing and advertising success; there’s nothing like that injection of skills, experience and fresh perspectives. However, depending on your goals, you might not actually need a creative team.

For example, say your goal is to increase the average order value (AOV) for your online store by $50. It might be that the best approach is to build a creative team: reform your value proposition, perform UX and messaging analyses, rebuild your webpages for better conversion, and so on.

But maybe all you need is a slightly better offer? For example, offer a straightforward discount for orders over a certain amount. This tiny tweak could achieve the desired result with significantly less expense. Then again, if you’ve already tried standard fixes, maybe an overhaul is the best move.

In another example—say launching PPC marketing to double revenue—a full-suite creative team is essential: without their combination of skills and expertise, you’re more likely to haemorrhage money than produce a positive ROI. So whatever your goals, make sure a creative team is the best solution to get you there.

Can the business support this team?

Every company would benefit from a world-class creative team. That’s a no-brainer. An important question is can your business support a creative team right now? Do you have a sufficient pipeline to warrant expanding into creative? If not, do you have cash reserves to pull you through until new business opportunities arise?

Adding a new team will certainly enlarge overheads, so be certain you can afford the investment in time, resources and cash.

Plan your roles

Plan your roles

This is where you build the foundations for your creative team. Now that you know your goals and broadly what the creative team needs to do, you can start identifying the roles needed to make it happen.

In general, the most prominent roles within creative teams are:

  • Graphic designer — Designers create the visual elements of your projects, everything from web design to packaging or social media snippets. This role can be split—for example, you might hire a web design specialist and a separate designer for branding and logos—or carried by a single expert.
  • Copywriter — The copywriter is responsible for all of your messaging. They use meticulous research to figure out the best way to communicate with prospects, and use this to inform all types of content: ads, website content, emails, in-app or in-platform texts, etc.
  • UX/UI design — User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) designers are responsible for the visual and interactive experience of any customer, visitor or user. The idea is to create experiences which are as intuitive, engaging, and driving as possible. While UX and UI skillsets are sometimes found in a single expert, it’s common to outsource separately to an app design company for these skills.
  • Developer — A strong developer is a crucial part of any creative team, not just for implementing everything digital that your copywriter and designers created, but also for fixing problems and tweaking solutions over the long term.
  • Ads specialist — If you’re planning to run online ads, this is the person who will coordinate and execute everything. They’ll coordinate with design, copy, and development to set everything up, then work with the account manager on budgets and allocation.
  • Content specialist — While this can be managed by a copywriter, it’s not the best use of their skills. Content covers blogs, whitepapers, internal comms, and generally longer-form, education-focused content.

Finally there’s the account manager. Their role is to bring everything else together. They’re the link between the creative team and the rest of the organization (or your clients, if the team is being outsourced) and it’s their responsibility to align timelines, budget, deliverables, goals and make sure the team hits its objectives and justifies its existence.

It’s a massively important role, but one that’s regularly overlooked—invest in a good one!

Putting together a budget

Putting together a budget

It’s all well and good saying you need an all-guns-blazing team of creative superstars, but if you’re got a $1,000 monthly budget, that’s never going to happen. It’s important to work closely with senior management to obtain the necessary budget for all the goals you’ve lined out.

There will always be compromises, but having a semi-fixed budget allows you to navigate the recruitment process with greater clarity and avoid financial trouble down the line.

When allocating a budget, it’s worth considering that you’re unlikely to build a full-scale creative department all at once. More likely you’ll identify the most critical personnel and hire them first, plugging any skill gaps with the best fixes you can find. Once the ball is rolling, you can do a mass-hire or drip feed new creatives into the team—whatever works best in your situation.

Knowing that it’s okay to start with a partial team can take a bit of pressure off, since hiring 5-6 unique roles all at once, with no pre-existing structure, can be very daunting.

Prioritizing skill levels

No two creative teams are created equal. If your business is going for a massive PPC drive, your focus is likely to be on ultra-engaging and conversion-focused copy, with eye-catching visuals and extremely precisely-managed ad allocation and spend.

That means UI and UX are somewhat less important, development will be minimal, and long-form content and specialist account management may not be necessary. In fact, even for a large company, it might be sufficient to hire 3 people: copywriter, designer, and ads specialist. As the team grows, it may be a more prudent investment to bring in new hires within these same 3 roles, rather than expanding the team in an unnecessary direction.

It’s helpful to plan in this way so you know which roles require the most expertise (and therefore the most budget) and which can survive with lower investment.

Create “personas” for the roles

Create “personas” for the roles

While “hire a copywriter and designer” sounds easy enough, we need to remember that great hiring extends far beyond simple skills matching. You need people that can not only deliver the technical skills, but also integrate with each other and fit the culture of the company.

We recommend committing time to outlining the broader responsibilities of each role, to get a better idea of their day-to-day activity. For example, if the copywriter is going to liaise with different departments or customers (an essential part of building a messaging framework, for instance) you’ll need someone that’s a good listener, empathetic, and a great communicator.

Building out these “personas” will make the interview stage much easier. It will help you to see past simple portfolios and skills to the real person and probable team dynamic.

Audit your existing creative talent

Before committing to hiring all of the required roles externally, it’s important to perform a skills gap analysis to see if any existing staff can contribute to the creative team. For example, your company is probably already doing some kind of creative—basic print advertising, painting contact info company vehicles, email newsletters, social media posts, or something to get the word out.

Identify any employees contributing to creative work and look at their skills and current role. They might be willing to pivot their role to become more heavily involved in creative. Now that you’ve established the required roles and fleshed out the personas, it should be easy to cross-examine these employees to see if there are any good fits.

Recruiting creatives from inside the organization can save significant resources—just make sure the other aspects of their role can be covered by other team members.

Plan your team structure

Plan your team structure

You now know exactly the personalities and roles you need to hire. The final step before recruiting is planning a team structure:

  • Have you considered how these roles will all work together?
    • Do you need these skills full-time or ad hoc?
    • Are remote workers a viable option, or do you need in-person contact?
    • Where will each person report? Is there an authority hierarchy?
  • Do you need to procure specialist tools, software, or equipment?
  • Can your business or department actually support a full team right now?
    • Or should you consider hiring contractors for the first project(s)?
  • Have you considered diversity and its importance in a well-balanced team?
    • Do you have specific diversity goals in terms of skills, backgrounds, perspectives, and mentalities?

Before bringing everyone in, you need to be confident that there’s a solid foundation for them to build on. You need to consider how your team will work together in practice, not just bring the relevant skills together and figure it out later.

Pros & cons of employees vs contractors

One of the biggest questions you’ll need to answer when building your creative team is whether to choose employees or contractors, or a mix of both.

In days gone by, this was a no-brainer—you brought in full-time employees. The landscape for contractors was entirely different and finding reliable, skilled contractors was a serious challenge. The main alternative was outsourcing to agencies which would (and still do) commonly overcharge and underdeliver.

This is no longer the case. Finding, vetting, hiring and working with contractors or freelancers has become easy. Not only that, there is an enormous and growing wealth of talent across all creative disciplines. Having worked on your team structure, you should have some idea of the time commitment required for each role.

For example if, for the foreseeable future, you only need copywriting help for a small part of each project, it might be more effective to hire a very good copywriter for a few hours a month (high skill, low monthly cost) than a very average freelancer on a full-time basis.

Contractors
Employees
Pros Cons Pros Cons
Ad-hoc engagements Expensive per-hour cost Always available + contactable Long-term commitment
High skill level May prioritize other clients More control over workload Harder to recruit
Minimal management & oversight required Not “part of the team” Less expensive Must provide full-suite of benefits
Easy contract termination Potentially less reliable Generally more loyal Not always as skilled as contractors

Where to find the best candidates

One definite upside with contractors is that they’re easier to find. Use LinkedIn, ask for recommendations, or browse contractor platforms like Upwork to find reliable talent. Skilled employees are usually in jobs already, so your best bet is to advertise the job widely and make it sound as enticing as possible.

Another huge initial benefit of bringing in contractors is the tiny lead time. You can share your requirements and get an instant response to their availability, approximate rates, and interest. Even if it won’t start for a few months, an engagement can often be agreed in a day or two.

Unfortunately the opposite is true with employees—the recruitment process is very protracted. That said, there are definite ways to speed things up. First and foremost, make your job ads as detailed as possible by answering all the most pressing questions upfront. The best candidates will close the tab at any mention of vague “competitive salaries” or over-the-top “requirements”. They want to know exactly what you’re offering and why they’d give up their current role to join you, so being entirely forthright is imperative.

LinkedIn, popular job sites and recruiters are excellent ways to share the job news around for full-time employees. If your creative team has scope for full-time remote staff, this makes your net significantly wider. Make sure to publicize this very clearly so you don’t miss out on great talent!

Create an environment that stimulates creativity

Create an environment that stimulates creativity

Once you’ve gone through and recruited the best people into your team, you’ve given yourself the perfect foundation to produce brilliant creative work—but building a team doesn’t stop there. It’s crucial that you create an environment and team dynamic that allows creativity to flourish within the team.

Eliminate hours-based thinking

There are some roles (e.g. data entry or taxi driving) where productivity can be measured in the number of hours worked or tasks completed per day. This isn’t true for creative work. As a creative worker, nothing makes nailing the brief harder than arbitrary timelines.

Of course it’s important for a creative worker to know roughly how long a task will take to complete, but many managers prescribe tasks like this:

  • 8am to 10am—Task A
  • 10am to 12pm—Task B
  • 1pm to 2.30pm—Client A
  • 2.30pm to 4.30pm—Task C

Instead, we recommend that you work with each creative to decide the deliverables for the upcoming day or week. List out all the tasks and any dependencies, then charge them with getting everything done as well as possible. This way your team can focus on delivering good work, not working to arbitrary deadlines and delivering sub-par work as a result.

Encourage autonomy

This builds on the previous point, but it’s incredibly important to avoid micromanaging creative work, especially asking to see partially-completed tasks. Agree your deadlines and, as long as they’re being met with consistent quality, who cares how or when the work gets done?

Giving autonomy also grants creatives a sense of freedom which is incredibly conducive to creative work. We would go as far as suggesting that once a team member has completed all the day’s or week’s tasks, you should let them go home if they want to!

Host informal meetings

It’s generally accepted that informal meetings work best. Meetings should still be purposeful (only inviting relevant team members, proper agenda for every meeting) but a relaxed atmosphere should be encouraged. Most creatives have limited tolerance for the stuffy “corporate” vibe of many meetings.

It’s also important to make regular “catch ups” maybe once a week, rather than checking in multiple times per day on progress.

Avoid time tracking tools

Avoid time tracking tools

When working with remote teams it can be tempting to introduce time tracking tools—especially for contractors. What if they say it takes 5 hours, but they only spent 30 minutes on the task?

You need to agree a fixed price with contractors and, whether it’s a contractor or employee, you need to trust them. Sometimes that won’t pay off and you’ll need to part ways, but measures such as desktop tracking apps are universally despised by workers.

For a start, they can’t measure productive time off of the laptop: working on paper or thinking, for example. Second, they show total distrust in the creative worker—who would want to work under those conditions?

Provide tools and equipment

If you’re hiring contractors, it’s likely that they’ll have all of their software subscriptions and tools all worked out. However, you’ll need to invest in these tools for any full-time employees. If some tools are particularly expensive, simply have a conversation and ask the employee to justify the expense; if it’s fundamental to their work or can be directly correlated with project success, allocate some budget and let them crack on!

Conclusion

When most businesses think about building a creative team, they only see the recruitment side—how will we find good copywriters, designers and developers? What we’ve tried to show here is the incredible importance of strategic decision making and planning—you need to understand exactly who you want to hire, based on your specific goals and pipeline, hire appropriately (employees vs contractors) and then create an environment that lets them do their best work.

It’s an involved process, but the payoff is a brilliant creative team that works in harmony to deliver outstanding campaigns (and, fingers crossed, outstanding results) for your business. Over time, this could even lead to expanding the team and building a full creative department or internal agency!

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Maximizing Profits: Why Dynamic Pricing Algorithms Are Here To Stay

Dynamic Pricing Algorithms

Well-implemented dynamic pricing algorithms have the potential to increase your profits by double-figure percentages. The bigger the company and the more products, the bigger the impact.

Recent technological advances have made dynamic pricing more accessible and, therefore, more widely deployed than ever before. But it’s not without risks. As much as these strategies can boost revenue and profits, dynamic pricing algorithms can also stain your reputation, alienate customers and cut down your market share.

In this article we explore everything about pricing algorithms, from how they work and the rewards of successful implementation, to different pricing strategies and the potential risks. It’s a lucrative and controversial approach—whether or not to take the gamble will be up to you.

History of dynamic pricing algorithms

History of dynamic pricing algorithms

It wasn’t so long ago that universally fixed prices were a novel concept. For most of human history, transactions have been a combination of haggling and inventing prices on the spot—if there was an advantage to be taken, good business people took it!

But gradually the world became a much smaller place. Stable and global currencies emerged, consistent and precise manufacturing grew and most industries introduced prices that were fixed, regardless of circumstances and customers. This remains the dominant pricing strategy for most companies today.

However, despite that, we’re all still familiar with dynamic pricing. Consider air travel and hotel bookings: everyone knows that the price you see right now is always subject to change. That’s why we try to book flights far in advance, before the cheaper seats get booked up. By the same token, some vacationers wait until the last minute, hoping that airlines or hotels will drop cut-throat prices to fill voids—looking to get something rather than nothing.

Variable pricing has been a mainstay in these areas for decades. What’s changed is the technology and the number of players in the game. Amazon is known to adjust product prices (across millions of items) multiple times per hour. More famously, Uber (and other ride-sharing services) use dynamic pricing strategies which can make the price of trips absolutely unpredictable; Uber’s “surge” pricing has been known to fly up 500% or higher during peak demand.

What we’re seeing now is an adoption of algorithmic pricing across the broader retail and services industries. To name a few types of business now employing dynamic pricing:

  • Online retailers
  • Insurers
  • Used car dealers
  • Car rental
  • Utility firms
  • Pay-per-click marketers

While this strategically occasionally comes under fire—for example when Uber’s algorithms skyrocket prices during crisis events—it’s impossible to deny that, implemented carefully, dynamic pricing algorithms work.

Benefits of dynamic pricing over traditional pricing

Benefits of dynamic pricing over traditional pricing

Maximizing profits

The foundational goal of dynamic pricing is to increase a company’s gross profit compared to manual pricing. An extremely basic example might be a retailer that sells IT equipment. It’s currently selling its computer keyboards at $25; the pricing algorithms find that today, the company’s biggest competitor is selling the same keyboard at $35. Your product is automatically repriced at $30, increasing your margin while allowing the customer to save money compared to the competition.

For larger companies, these sorts of micro-adjustments can happen frequently across thousands of products. With advanced algorithms, these changes can be substantial and arise from less-tangible sources. For example, if the new release of Lonely Planet says Iceland is the best vacation country in the world, the algorithms pick up on this buzz and increase the cost of flights to Iceland accordingly.

This ability to consider explicit and implicit dependencies is a key factor behind the power of dynamic pricing. Dynamic pricing allows businesses to simultaneously capture sales they would otherwise miss (for example, by lowering prices during low-demand) and increase margins.

Understanding consumer behaviors

“Price fairness” is at the core of customer loyalty. If a company uses dynamic pricing to create “unfair” prices or is seen to be extorting customers (for example, when retailers blew up the price of soap and hand sanitizer in the middle of 2020) it reflects horrendously on the brand.

By taking an omnichannel approach to pricing with dynamic algorithms, companies can understand what’s driving customers, what their concerns or motivations are, what their perceptions are and much more by assessing various touch points simultaneously. Powerful algorithms can consolidate all of this data along with market data to build optimum pricing—and then push these prices to thousands or millions of SKUs simultaneously and as frequently as needed.

This allows companies to deliver optimum prices for both profit and for managing the customer’s perception of the brand.

Companies delivering top-class omnichannel experiences also align regional online prices with those offered in brick-and-mortar stores, demonstrating a consistent value that many brands struggle to maintain. Leveraging this increase in consumer understanding can improve customer trust and satisfaction while still leveraging the financial benefits of dynamic algorithms.

How does dynamic pricing work

How does dynamic pricing work?

The goal of dynamic pricing is to provide the most profitable price for all your products, based on a wide range of factors, in real-time.

Dynamic pricing algorithms are generally powered by machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies. While these are hugely complex, we can say that these technologies ingest massive amounts of data and use it to calculate the best possible price. This data starts with historical sales & demand data for every SKU, and extends to everything from pricing factors (like procurement costs, competitor prices, marketing spend, and demand cannibalization) to non-pricing factors such as global events or trending opinions.

And these algorithms are working 24 hours a day, sometimes updating prices multiple times per hour across millions of SKUs. Clearly it’s a task that would be impossible (or at least prohibitively expensive and far less effective) with a manual team.

Examples of dynamic pricing strategies

Time-Based

While most of us don’t think about it in these terms, time-based pricing is becoming more and more prevalent in western society. As a rule, this correlates with demand. With ride-sharing for example, the prices are always highest during commuting hours or when bars are closing.

Used cars are famously most expensive at the start of the month, but get progressively cheaper as dealers try to clear stock before the next month. With dynamic pricing, a dealership might actually increase the price of certain vehicles late in the month if they’re seeing a spike in search demand, for example. Many utilities companies have recently introduced time-based dynamic pricing using active learning machine learning algorithms, such as offering cheaper tariffs overnight when grid activity is low.

Segment-Based (or “Price Discrimination”)

This is where businesses sell the same products at different prices, using different channels. We see this all the time with products sold through third parties and it’s increasingly managed by dynamic algorithms which suggest prices based on the wide range of factors mentioned above.

For example, grocery items with the exact same branding and contents will regularly cost more at premium supermarkets than budget ones. The reason is simply that shoppers at the premium supermarket are generally happy to pay the higher price—so why not leverage that?

Market-Based

Market-based pricing is when prices change in accordance with market conditions. For example:

  • When lots of people need taxis, taxi fares increase
  • When there’s fresh and continuous snowfall, ski resorts get more expensive
  • When there’s a product shortage, prices per unit will increase

This is easily the most controversial form of dynamic pricing and it’s something businesses need to be very vigilant about. There has been significant outcry in recent years as customers feel extorted by a brand’s pursuit of profit. However, it is known to be extremely effective at maximizing revenue and is, therefore, extremely profitable.

That said, some industries have adopted market-based pricing with very little objection. For example, we know that as seats book up on flights, the remaining fares get more expensive. Last-minute hotel bookings are usually more expensive than those booked months in advance.

Businesses are still figuring out how to effectively adopt this practice without backlash from customers. Those who figure it out are likely to reap fantastic rewards compared to rival businesses with fixed, static pricing.

Does dynamic pricing improve over time?

In theory your dynamic pricing model should continue to improve (i.e. becoming more effective) over time; such is the nature of machine learning technology. Every calculation, price adjustment and sale can become input data for future price setting.

While this will require some input from a human user (for example, confirming which price adjustments have been successful) the vast majority of learning is built-in to the algorithm. This improvement will be especially pronounced for businesses that don’t start with a large volume of historical data, such as startups or recently digitally-transformed companies.

Winning strategy for dynamic pricing

Build a winning strategy for dynamic pricing

It’s important to remember that even though we talk about “optimal” pricing, this is still a completely subjective idea. All the work these algorithms do is about finding the highest price that customers will accept without negative consequences.

For example, if you were to suddenly hike your prices to capitalize on a catastrophic event, the moral outrage and reputational hit could be titanic. Controlled experimentation is a necessity. By testing prices on small subsections of prices, companies can get invaluable feedback on how much and why customers value their products. By assessing customer responses to price changes, we can learn what works, what doesn’t, and what makes our customers tick.

The findings from these pricing tests can then be collated and formed into company best practices for dynamic pricing. This could include setting price limits or changes to the algorithms themselves, to help find that customer-profit balance.

It is logical, therefore, that companies also monitor their algorithms constantly. We recommend creating a new KPI which monitors the outputs from your algorithms. Part of this is ensuring that your price changes (i.e. increases) never tip the scales of customer loyalty too far—damaged customer loyalty can take a long time to repair, if it’s possible at all.

Over time, your company will learn what kind of price changes are most effective—not just in terms of profit, but customer satisfaction. Companies need to fully understand why customers shop with them, and their perception of the brand, and enable price changes which back up this reputation. This might mean explaining some price rises in your communications, or refraining from increasing prices over certain limits.

Patience is key. As we’re about to discuss, the results of rushing your due diligence, or giving an uncontrolled algorithm immediate control over all your pricing, can be catastrophic. Sloppy automated pricing once saw a biology textbook on Amazon reach a shelf price of $24 million—while this ended up being amusing, such problems can wreak havoc on sales and customer loyalty.

So encourage your organization to stay patient, enjoy any quick wins that crop up, but to keep their eyes on the long-term payoff.

The risks of algorithmic pricing

The risks of algorithmic pricing

We’ve alluded to potential after effects on poorly handled dynamic pricing, but this is so serious that we’re going to explore several likely outcomes in more detail.

Exploitation damages customer loyalty

By far the biggest risk with automated pricing is turning customers against your brand. This happens in two dominant ways:

  1. Reckless “surge” pricing (i.e. market-based pricing)
  2. Frequent and unpredictable price changes

During a mass shooting event in Seattle in 2020, Uber’s algorithm jacked prices up 500% in response to the huge demand as people desperately fled the area. While this could be put down to an unfortunate mishap, Uber and its peers have continuously come under fire for raising fares to 200-300% of the “normal” rate. But we don’t complain when airlines increase their prices due to demand, right?

The primary difference is psychological—when we see Uber increase its prices during high demand, it feels exploitative. Greedy. There is a very good chance that Uber’s biggest problem here isn’t the use of surge pricing itself (which we know works in other industries) but how it is communicated.

Here are 2 things Uber could do differently to bring price changes in-line with its brand principles and keep customers on side:

  1. Give a good reason for increased prices

    —Uber could state on its app that during extremely busy periods (for example during commuter traffic) rides are much slower. Surge pricing is applied in order for drivers to earn a respectable wage despite making fewer journeys per hour.That’s a compelling message. Perhaps Uber could come up with other emotionally-resonant explanations for other circumstances where surges are applied.

    However, what the company currently says is this: “In these cases of very high demand, prices may increase to help ensure that those who need a driver can get one.”

    This message is shocking. They’re saying that because it’s busy, they’re going to charge more money so that there’s always cars available…so the wealthy can always get a ride? For a company that launched itself as an affordable alternative, this stance makes price surges a significant negative, rather than a necessary evil.

  2. Make “normal” prices “low demand rates”

    —Another option is to reposition their market-based price changes. Instead of using terminology like “surge pricing”, they could position their average prices as good deals since there’s low demand. Then when demand peaks, the company applies its “usual” rates.The messaging here would need to be improved, but we’ve seen this simple strategy of repackaging your offers work for other businesses.

Uncontrolled pricing

Uncontrolled pricing

We already discussed that in the early adoption stages, it’s essential to have humans approve pricing suggestions and to work slowly, testing continuously to ensure your pricing doesn’t alienate customers. But once dynamic pricing is in full swing for a large company, there should still be a team dedicated to monitoring and controlling the algorithm.

One of the biggest reasons is that computers can’t (yet) account for the human psychology of pricing. When prices come down purely to the 1s and 0s, the computer will find the “optimal” price…but for whom?

They’ll identify the price that is most fitting based on a huge range of factors, but sometimes a human being is required to say “No, this price won’t work for our customers.” To say that the risk is too high or the price is simply unfair; there is a moral element which must be considered when applying dynamic algorithms.

Conclusion

Dynamic pricing algorithms have the potential to transform the profitability of your company. When managed effectively, you can increase margins and squeeze extra revenue out of every transaction without reducing the overall number of sales. Even better, strategically lowering prices can capture sales which would have otherwise passed by.

However, we now know that this is a double-edged sword. It is much easier to let dynamic pricing algorithms wreak havoc than to control them. That’s why, when implementing any kind of dynamic pricing strategy, you must pay close attention to the psychological human element and make sure the algorithms don’t spiral out of control and produce crazy numbers.

It’s a lot to manage. However, we are living in an era of unprecedented global competition. Businesses need to eek out every single advantage they have, and dynamic pricing might just be the biggest competitive advantage of the last decade.

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Managing Workload on a Team: A Guide to an Effective Team Workload Management

Workload Management
@teamly
For additional information on this topic, feel free to check out this Youtube video from our channel.

Now, onto the main content...

Managing your team’s workload is vital for its success. The more effectively a manager can handle the workload, the better the team’s results. You can think of workload management as being an umbrella for all techniques used to manage the amount of work that is assigned to a team.

In this article, we will discuss the nature of workload management. We will define what it is, why it’s important, what the benefits are, and steps to managing it effectively.

What is Workload Management

What is Workload Management?

Workload management is the process of determining the amount of work that a team should take on, while considering all factors associated with performing this work, including; scope, timelines, available resources, and skills needed.

Workload management considers all of your team’s work and distributes it to the people who are best suited to handle it. As a result, you’ll be able to achieve your goals more quickly and effectively.

The volume of work going through each person’s hands varies. Not only do you want to choose the proper person for each task, but you must also avoid overburdening any one employee.

Also work is not always the same; some jobs are repetitive, while others vary daily. This is why improving your workload management strategy is well worth the effort.

Why is Workload Management Important

Why is Workload Management Important?

The way you distribute tasks can make or break a business. When you distribute tasks effectively, your business will be more productive.

But why is this?

There’s a special connection between job requirements, intellectual challenges, and employee happiness. By making sure that workers are equipped and hyper-focused, you’ll be able to avoid boredom while promoting higher levels of productive engagement.

By having a structured system in place you prevent…

  • Bottles necks with team tasks
  • Missed deadlines
  • Poor quality of service or product
  • Unnecessary stress on employees due to overloading them with assignments
  • Employees from feeling like they are “slacking off” or not carrying their weight.

4 key benefits of workload management…

There are several reasons why you should take the time to improve your workload management system. Here are just a few reasons why it’s so important.

  1. Workload Management Boosts Productivity
    After you’ve assigned responsibilities, you’ll find people are more productive when they understand what they need to do and why it’s important.
  2. Workload Management Increases Employee Retention
    Your employees feel like they can make progress and improve, while also receiving recognition and praise for their work. It’s important to them that they know why their tasks are necessary, otherwise they may think they aren’t adding value to your company.
  3. Workload Management Improves Employee Morale
    When employees feel like their workload is sustainable, not only will they work harder but also be more satisfied in their position.
  4. Workload Management Builds Trust and Communication
    When employees know why their workload is what it is, and why they’re responsible for certain tasks, they will work harder because of it. With a well-built system, you will see an increase in productivity and efficiency within your team.

Things to Consider Before Creating Management Plan

Before you create your management plan, there are a few things to consider…

Your Customers

You need to focus on your customers. Everything that you do should be geared toward meeting and exceeding their needs and expectations. This means assigning the right workload for each person, developing quality products, and maintaining a responsive customer service operation.

Your Employee’s Needs

Management is about empowering your people to realize their full potential. When it comes to team members, you must start by helping them understand how they work and providing the training they require to do their tasks correctly.

Any reasonable person is going to get frustrated and discouraged if the job he or she is doing isn’t a good match for his or her skills.

Because of this, it is vital to take a good look at the work that your employees are doing. If you notice a worker who is getting overloaded or bored, this may be why.

Your Business’s Needs

You also need to consider the needs of your business as a whole. This means thinking about how much work you can afford to have in progress at any given time.

For example, if you are a small company, it may not be wise to run more than one project at a time. But bigger companies may be able to handle more simultaneous tasks, and therefore can take on bigger workloads. Saying no might be the right answer for your company.

Your Team’s Experience

You need to consider the experience levels of your employees when you assign them tasks. If you give a task to someone new, how much support will that person need? Will you have enough time to train this person if they are slow or making mistakes?

If you are working with an experienced employee, why would you ask him or her to do the same thing that every other employee is doing? Experience workers should be put on tasks that are unfamiliar to everyone else.

Your Productivity

Don’t forget to consider your own productivity. Today’s workplace is very fast-paced and competitive. Every second counts; time is money. So if you fail to keep up, then you’ll lose valuable business. You must find a balance between your workload and the amount of work that gets done in a set amount of time.

Employee Personalized work styles

Each employee has a unique set of abilities and interests. Some people thrive when given tough, technical challenges, while others prefer work that requires simple repetition. As a manager, you must know the difference between these types of work styles if you want your team to work efficiently.

When you distribute tasks effectively, your team members will have the opportunity to grow within their positions. Workers will also enjoy their responsibilities more when they are given work that suits them.

Striking the balance between too little and too much

Not only is it your responsibility as a manager to make sure your people are busy, but you must also make sure “busy” means productive.

As a manager, you must distribute workloads effectively by minimizing stress and maximizing employees’ effectiveness.

If you allow your team members too much or too little work, they can become overwhelmed or bored. However, if you distribute tasks effectively, your team will feel fulfilled and happy about their work.

Ways to maximize time and workload

Managing workload ensures that people are always busy with the most important work. It prioritizes tasks and prevents employees from becoming overloaded or idle. People want to work for organizations that appreciate their efforts and provide them with the right amount of work, at the right time.

Workload also improves work quality by ensuring employees are busy with the most important tasks. Workload management is important because it prevents and solves issues before they happen, and improves the way work is done on your team.

How to Effectively Manage Workload?

Start by determining what specifically needs to be done

Step 1: You should always start by determining what specifically needs to be done.

This can include identifying how much work is required, why it’s needed, why the task falls to your team, and why it’s a priority right now. Essentially, this defines the parameters around your workload.

There are essentially two types of workload.

  1. Primary workload: the most important tasks that your team needs to complete, which contribute to achieving strategic goals. They need to be done first and should take up a large percentage of capacity because they’re time-sensitive and require more attention.
  2. Secondary workload: all other assignments that need to be done, but are not as time-sensitive. They can be prioritized according to the team’s interest and capacity. This needs to be factored in, as employees can quickly become overloaded if their workload is filled with secondary tasks.

Here are some commonly overlooked tasks to consider:

  • Office duties, such as making coffee, receiving the mail, and organizing office supplies.
  • Daily work that is done in a passive manner, such as managing email, returning phone calls, and cleaning up a cluttered desk.
  • Improve processes and procedures – examples: attempt new tools, keep track of procedures and propose improvements to current methods.

Step 2: Examine the workload of each member of your team. An individual workload can be measured by three factors:

  1. Capacity– how much a person can do in a given amount of time.
  2. Performance– the number of hours a worker devotes to his or her work.
  3. Utilization– the percentage of time a worker can spend on a given task, compared to the total available hours.

Remember, the size of your team will define how much work it can handle in a day. If you overload them, they might not be able to get their jobs done. Your workload management plan should outline why your specific team member has a certain capacity.

Take a few minutes to ask each employee how they feel about their current workload. Take note of who is comfortable and who wishes for more or less on their plate. This opens the lines of communication while also providing you with an indication of team member capacity.

Step 3: Map out your workload according to priority, amount of time required, and urgency.

You may have a list of projects that need to be done or emails that need responding to – why not prioritize them? The first step is organizing the projects by order of importance- this will enable you to distribute work accordingly.

The next step is to estimate how much time each project will take. List the tasks from most urgent during work hours to those that can wait until after hours.

Next, put your priorities in order from highest to lowest. You should have a list of projects assigned by priority, not based on who the task directly affects. One individual task can have different levels of urgency, so be aware that this may affect who can handle what.

Step 4: Create lines of communication. Once the workload is mapped out, you need to open the lines of communication to give and receive feedback from your employees.

Success is more likely when teams are unified. If your team members are finding this new management approach overwhelming, you might be able to get them on board by increasing their engagement in the process of assigning tasks.

Delegate tasks to each team member

Step 5: Delegate tasks to each team member in light of their individual workload.

An effective way to get your employees on board with the new management approach is by allowing them to give input into which tasks they can work on, and why. This allows you to avoid assigning too much work while still meeting the goals of your team.

You must also balance the capacity of your team for this step. An overworked team will likely not perform at their best, so it’s imperative to know your employees’ capacity and manage workload accordingly.

Key Takeaways

  • Keep in mind why managing workload is important.
  • The size of your team impacts how much work can be done each day.
  • Prioritize projects from most urgent to least.
  • Open the lines of communication to receive feedback from team members.
  • Delegate tasks based on individual workload.

Conclusion

Enhancing the workload management process encourages team unity and engagement. The key to success is to always communicate so that you can monitor progress. This article has provided a practical framework for managing your and your staff members’ workloads.

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7 Reasons to Outsource Your Information Technology (IT)

Outsource Your IT

Making the decision to outsource your IT department largely depends on a few key factors: the size of your organization, the specializations (if applicable) you’re known for, and unique business needs. While some businesses benefit greatly from having an in-house team, easily accessible for both on-site maintenance and essential remote tasks, there are benefits to outsourcing technical support to a third-party service provider if resources at the company are already limited or stretched too thin.

In order for the organization to focus on its objectives and fully realize the vision for its business, outsourcing certain business operations can help make this happen and alleviate the core team of extra duties outside the scope of their original job functions. In addition, outsourcing other areas of the business can greatly save on the cost of overhead. When examining what areas of your business should be outsourced, it’s important to keep in mind that there are various reasons to consider before moving forward. Let’s discuss why you should outsource your IT department and the associated benefits when you have another reliable layer of support to help you achieve success.

Benefits of Outsourcing IT Support

Benefits of Outsourcing IT Support

The IT department is an essential component of any business. Along with a variety of strong soft skills, IT professionals are often trained in highly specialized areas such as cybersecurity or networking, making them invaluable assets in the workplace. With narrowed and focused specialities, IT professionals can concentrate on the growing trends within their industry and expand their considerable skill sets. Put simply, IT can be the glue that holds the business together and keeps up with the competition.

According to Capital Counselor, by the end of 2021, the overall value of outsourced IT services will surpass $413.72 billion. Middle-sized tech companies were largely responsible for the surge in IT outsourcing growth in 2020. Despite the rippling effects of the pandemic and the lasting impact COVID-19 has had on the workforce, tech businesses have been able to increase their IT budgets and expand their capabilities, becoming one of the largest outsourced services in the market. By 2026, it is anticipated that the global IT market will be worth $425.19 billion. India, the world’s leading country in the IT market, is predicted to reach a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 7.25% by the end of 2025, reaching the equivalent of $121,335.149.20. However, organizations have numerous options when considering outsourcing their IT department globally. Many other eastern European countries, such as Romania, have competitive talent, technology, and resources that compete directly with the tech giant. Businesses can also consider outsourcing to Asian countries, such as the Philippines, for their IT needs. As English is one of the country’s official languages and their familiarity with partnering with the United States, communication and collaboration between the two teams will be a smoother process.

Within the last 3 years, there are a few notable trends taking place within the IT industry:

  • Quality over quantity– In order for a business to achieve its objectives and deliver quality products or services, hiring managers are looking for the right professionals to get the job done efficiently and within their designated budget. To save on time, money, and resources, the focus has shifted to being value-driven, rather than paying just for the hours. The third-party service provider is able to focus on delivering the final product, one in line with the expectations of the business in a consistent manner. This does a couple of essential things for both the third party and the organization:
    • Maintains the health and performance of the organization
    • Drives effective decision-making
    • Stays on top of the latest trends
    • Improves data quality
    • Inspires full engagement from both teams
    • Increases sustainability of the organization
    • Focusing on quality, rather than quantity, helps keep the business innovative and relevant. Focus on security
  • Focus on security – One of the greatest concerns among companies is the security of sensitive and confidential information. While outsourcing has proven to be a cost-effective business decision, it does come with some risk as with all potential partnerships regardless of location. Approximately 70% of companies are not prepared for cyberattacks when they occur, signifying a much broader issue: there may be a shortage of talent and expertise in this particular space (Source: inVerita). As this remains a critical issue, companies are consistently on the hunt for security specialists, who are not only cost-effective but experts in their field for reliable monitoring of assets. Outsourcing this particular service has proved successful for many companies looking to practice more diligence when it comes to internal data.
  • Enhanced collaboration and strategic partnership – When a business first turns to outsourcing as a means of support, it’s usually common for simple projects or smaller tasks to be assigned. This tendency allowed the business to get a sense of how the third party worked and if they could deliver the expected quality as promised. Or, the business decides to outsource to multiple enterprises for different needs. It’s a smart way to begin your outsourcing journey. However, the trend, especially in the field of IT, favors strategic partnership with one provider for a variety of needs and larger projects. Developing this collaboration between teams eliminates the risk of dealing with multiple third parties that could potentially have vastly different ways of working. This also gives the business a chance to act as a true partner, ensuring that the whole team is aligned with the vision.
  • Flexibility– The trend for increased adaptability and flexibility has become a significant factor in the IT industry, especially in the COVID-19 pandemic. The ability to adapt to different technologies and novel innovations, while also shifting and building skill sets to keep up with these new arrivals are paramount skills to ensure success in the workplace. The care in which an outsourced service provider is seamlessly integrated with the core team and the preference for a healthy and positive work environment has also shifted within the IT industry. And lastly, the flexibility the team has to either scale up during the busier peak seasons, or quickly slow down, is another crucial aspect for team structure; this just so happens to be one of the top benefits of outsourcing, allowing the business much-needed flexibility during times of change, uncertainty, or restructure.

Now that you understand the growing impact of IT and the relevant trends within the industry, let’s talk about why you should outsource your IT department.

Why You Should Outsource Your IT Department

Why You Should Outsource Your IT Department

Depending on what your business needs are and the level of skill and expertise needed in order to establish smooth operations and stay ahead of the industry competition, there are a few reasons why you should outsource your IT:

  1. Keeps the core team focused – One of the main reasons why businesses choose to outsource any essential operations is to alleviate the main team and keep them focused on their objectives. Oftentimes, managers observe that the team can get easily pulled into tasks beyond their job functions, which ultimately slows them down, increases the level of stress, and can result in poor outcomes. This can be especially true of employees who have more technical skills than others and are called to assist with IT matters more than their actual assigned duties. Outsourcing your IT department can help avoid this risk and keep your team moving steadily forward, meeting goals and developing professionally.
  2. Increases productivity – When the team has focus and clarity about their path in the business, this keeps them happy and productive, achieving levels of motivation that result in powerful benefits. Not only are they able to concentrate on delivering outstanding work, but they’ll feel valued and supported as another team has been brought on to aid with the process. Outsourcing your IT can help increase the productivity in the business, making sure that everyone has the resources they need to be able to thrive and carry out day-to-day operations without being pulled into different areas of the work. Another true benefit of outsourcing your IT is the access to tools and resources that may not be available to an in-house team. These tools can help employees perform remote work, utilize business VPNs, or streamline data in ways that can greatly increase productivity for everyone involved in the workplace.
  3. Saves and controls IT costs – Outsourcing your IT department means controlling and saving on crucial costs. You won’t need to worry about the cost of training, space, or equipment as the third-party service provider should have what they need to complete their tasks. Additionally, you will be able to pay for work completed and not be locked into a long-term engagement. And lastly, the cost of fringe is greatly reduced as you can bypass the formalities of hiring an employee, which also includes the cost of job board posting and competitive pay packages. By choosing to outsource game development, companies can leverage specialized skills and innovative technologies from around the globe, further enhancing their competitive edge.
  4. Remain proactive versus reactive – In-house IT teams are often more reactive to issues that arise throughout the workweek rather than proactive. While this certainly depends on the nature and size of the business, it makes sense because the IT team is always on-call, ready, and available to help their colleagues troubleshoot an issue over the phone or virtually. If they’re housed on-site, individuals can go to a location to fix the problem and provide consultation. This can take a large portion of the workday, decreasing the chances or dedicating more time to expansive, forward-thinking projects. When you outsource your IT, you have a third-party service provider that can monitor your assets around the clock, identifying issues before they evolve into large complications, and working on new ways of creating processes in tune with your specific needs. This can also prevent downtime, maximize productivity, and decrease the loss of revenue. Expands talent pool with varying levels of expertise
  5. Expands talent pool with varying levels of expertise – Outsourcing your IT can also open the range of talent that can contribute to the growth of your business. You can consider multiple enterprises either domestically or globally within highly specialized fields. Not only is the option more cost-effective, but you’ll have the opportunity to work with experienced professionals that have the potential to bring new, out-of-the-box, and creative ideas to the table. You won’t just be limited to local candidates. This exchange of information between teams often results in innovative solutions that boost the reputation of the business and the third-party service provider.
  6. When IT needs are not regular for a small organization – If your business is small, outsourcing your IT may be one of the best options for you. The nature of IT workflow comes in waves. Some days, the demand for services will drain on time, and others not so much. In essence, it may not make sense to have an in-house team and there may not always be a steady flow of work for the IT team, creating a challenging retention problem. When you outsource your IT, you can develop reliability in an enterprise that can support the business when it needs it.
  7. Stays ahead of the competition – Outsourcing your IT allows the business to stay ahead of its competitors by staying on top of growing trends within the industry and using new ideas to the benefit of the company. As we mentioned, the in-house team may be busy devoting most of their time to issues as they arise. With an outsourced IT team, they have the flexibility to not only complete their projects but stay on top of developments that can affect your business.

In Conclusion

Outsourcing your IT department can help you achieve success in the workplace. Whether you’re a small business or a large entity, having specialized expertise that can not only support your daily operations but improve processes for more relevant efficiencies, can deliver results that get you one step closer to your vision for the business.

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Have Fun! Here’s How to Celebrate with Remote Teams

Virtual Team Celebration Ideas

A global pandemic pushed companies to embrace at least part-time remote work options. At this time, about 18% of people in the world work fully remotely so if you found your way to this blog post, you are likely on or dealing with a remote team.

Instances of informal watercooler gatherings, casual Fridays, and office birthday/retirement parties have been drastically reduced… at least for the foreseeable future. While this may be our current reality, there is no excuse not to have some fun and celebrate with your team!

Why Celebrate

Why Celebrate?

Building trust in remote teams has proven to be more challenging than in person. While it may not be feasible to fly the whole team to one central location to celebrate every single birthday, there is no denying the benefits of getting the group together for a little fun. Here are some of the most obvious reasons that you need to celebrate with your team:

Fight the Loneliness Pandemic

We have no idea what is happening on the other side of the screen, many people are struggling in ways that we can’t even imagine. Before we could read the signs and offer to take someone out to lunch or meet up after work but that is much harder to do in the virtual space and still have the same connection.

If in-person isn’t possible (whether pandemic or distance) gathering digitally is the next best thing and may reach people who would otherwise decline a physical invitation. The introverted members of your team may find comfort in the ability to participate and connect from a more familiar and comfortable environment – their own home.

Either way, we are human and we all need some form of connection. Digital celebrations and gatherings are a great way to fight the loneliness pandemic.

Opportunity for Team Bonding

A team that celebrates together, stays together! As cheesy as it may sound, every team gathering is an opportunity to bond at some level. Offering a variety of gatherings and celebrations opens the doors to strengthen existing connections as well as create new ones.

Team activities also help to build rapport among members who may have never met in person. Creating opportunities for authentic interaction will give people an opportunity to show themselves but also see others in an environment outside of strictly professional activities.

You can learn a lot about a person through digital interactions and that helps to encourage a team cohesiveness that is impossible to encourage through email or other text communications. Seeing a person, even if it’s on a screen, helps to build connections that will feed future work by putting a face to an email and it’s much easier to connect with someone you have seen and spoken words with.

Improves Mood and Morale

Who doesn’t love a good party? We all need a bit more fun and celebration in our lives, especially with all the additional pressures and stress a global pandemic has put on us. We know inherently that connecting with people does wonders for our moods and morale, but that can sometimes be difficult when you have so much work to do. By planning celebrations during work time (or as part of paid time) you are given permission to celebrate guilt-free.

18 Ways to Celebrate and Have Fun with Remote Teams

There are plenty of ways to show your team a good time that doesn’t involve physically getting together. By now, many of us have ample experience to not only host but be able to participate in virtual events and celebrations. Here are 18 ways to celebrate and have fun with remote teams.

Happy Hour

1. Happy Hour

Dress up, put your favourite beverage in a fancy glass and cheers! A happy hour is versatile, you can pair it with just about any other activity on this list and create an instant celebration.

To organize a successful happy hour, it is helpful to have a dress code. This could be as simple as dressing up or dressing down in your comfiest jammies. You could set a theme in terms of decades or even be inspired by your favourite movie. The sky is the limit.

Keep the conversation light and avoid overscheduling the activity, observe where it goes and see what people are naturally interested in. So grab your favourite cocktail/mocktail or drink of choice and cheers to… whatever you are celebrating.

2. Powerpoint Party

Bear with me, this is much more fun than it sounds. The idea is that a team member can give a short digital presentation on any topic that they like. It could be something they are really passionate about or could be completely silly.

  • Recast your teammates as a celebrity that reminds you of them
  • How you would survive a zombie apocalypse
  • How to bathe a cat
  • Top 10 best movies of all times
  • Why Parks and Rec is the best show of all time (no question)
  • How to make the best paper airplane
  • 5 books that you need to read

You get the idea, the possibilities are endless and have a ton of potential to not just be funny but also tell you more about the presenter and their sense of humour and interests.

3. Would You Rather…

Chances are that you have played this fun party game before. The idea is that you give someone two choices and they have to pick the one that is most (or least) appealing and explain themselves. Would you rather…

  • Team up with Iron Man or Captain America?
  • Be overdressed or undersdressed?
  • Wake up at 5:00 am every morning or stay up until midnight each night?
  • Talk like Yoda or breathe like Darth Vader for the rest of your life?
  • Have 100 duck-sized elephants or 1 elephant-sized duck?

There are so many opportunities for fun when it comes to “would you rather” type questions. Some of the answers may surprise you and some of the most fun comes from the justifications for a specific choice. Here is a great list of 100 Best “Would You Rather” Questions to get you started.

Virtual Birthday Parties

4. Virtual Birthday Parties

Remembering someone’s birthday can really mean a lot to them. Arranging a virtual birthday is easy and, in most places, you can even order and have a cake delivered right to their door.

When planning a birthday party, you can combine any of the items on this list based on the preference of the birthday person but here are some additional and birthday specific ideas:

  • Have everyone dress in the style of the year the birthday person was born
  • Enjoy their favourite meal together
  • Watch their favourite movie

Keep in mind that not everyone loves their birthday or birthday parties in general so be sure to ask them in advance.

5. Celebrate Odd or Significant Holidays

Of all the fun ways to celebrate, this one has the most potential for some good fun. There are so many odd holidays out there that you build an event around, take these ones for example:

  • January: January 4th is National Trivia Day and a great opportunity to have a trivia night with the team.
  • February: Random Act of Kindness Day is celebrated on February 1 and there are a million possible ways to participate. Encourage your team to share their random act of kindness that day and celebrate with them.
  • March: Employee Appreciation day falls on the first Friday of March so that opportunity to celebrate is obvious and there are a number of great gift boxes that you can have mailed to the team. International Women’s Day is on March 8th and is an opportunity to recognize the advances that have been made in history and those still to be made.
  • April: April Fools! Celebrate the first day of the month with a fun prank, just know that you may also end up on the receiving end of one. While most people are staying home, Walk to Work Day on April 2nd is another day that can be used for a fun activity like a step challenge. Make sure there is a prize!
  • May: The month of May represents Mental Health Awareness month. This would be a great time to offer virtual sessions on taking care of your mental health. It is also a great opportunity to have people share what they have been doing for their mental health so that they may inspire others to do the same and normalize the conversation around taking the time for self-care.
  • June: June is Pride month! Show your allyship with fun and colourful activities. This is also a great time to shine the spotlight on some amazing LGBTQ+ artists, many of whom would be more than happy to offer a virtual event for your team. Another fun holiday in June is on the 21st – Take Your Dog to Work Day. Okay, chances are that this is every day but let’s see those pups!
  • July: The third Sunday of July is National Ice Cream day… need I say more? Encourage your team to bring their favourite ice cream and log on so that you may all enjoy it together. You can also note the most popular flavours with a poll.
  • August: Knock knock… Who’s there? August 6th is National Tell a Joke day. Encourage everyone to bring their favourite joke to kick off the meeting and be prepared to laugh. After everyone is laughed out, you can celebrate National Relaxation Day on August 15th. Ask everyone how they like to relax, whether that is reading or a mud mask and tub soak, encourage them to participate in that activity.
  • September: Obviously Labour Day is September 3rd but did you know that September 16th marks Working Parents Day? Take some time to celebrate the extra effort and stress it takes to be a working parent. If they are comfortable, you could encourage them to bring their kids to a virtual gathering to meet the team.
  • October: The world runs on coffee so October 1st is a significant day, National Coffee Day. Send your team a gift card to a local coffee place or surprise them with a package of some goodies and a team mug. A month that starts with coffee and ends with candy is the best kind of month. The opportunities are endless for Halloween celebrations!
  • November: Stress is high across the board so be sure to take the first Wednesday of November and recognize National Stress Awareness Day. Webinars and resources are helpful but pair those with the opportunity to take time off if needed.
  • December: Other than the usual holidays, December 5th marks International Volunteer Day. Encourage your team to dedicate at least 1 hour to volunteer for a cause or initiative that they support. Many companies have a bank of volunteer hours where a team member can be paid for volunteering their time for a charity or non-profit. You can also see what other holidays are celebrated in the winter months outside of Christmas. Hopefully, your team is diverse enough that someone is celebrating something different and you can all celebrate and learn together.

Awards Ceremony

6. Awards Ceremony

This is exactly what it sounds like, have fun with it! Think of silly trophies or prizes that can be awarded to your team and have them delivered only to be opened at a live virtual event. Here are a couple of ideas to get you started:

  • Early Bird Award – who is always the first to sign in or show up to meetings?
  • Five More Minutes Award – opposite the early bird, think of who is hilariously tardy.
  • Foodie Award – who always has great recipes to share or who is good for a restaurant recommendation.
  • Best Background Award – whether they have an ever-changing virtual background, a child that likes to video bomb, or a cat that always seems to be cleaning itself, the best background award is certainly one we can all appreciate.
  • Office Clown Award – think of the person you can always count on for a good laugh, whether it is with quick wit or a timely GIF, this person can change the mood of the (virtual) room.
  • Emoji Royalty Award – this is awarded to the person who would rather send messages in emoji form rather than text… and you actually understand them!
  • Office Parent – like a real-life parents, they seem to be prepared for everything. From pep talks to scoldings, these are the people that every office needs.
  • Most Likely To… – you can use your high school yearbook for inspiration on this one.

7. Highlight Reels

Are any of your team meetings recorded? Whether you create a video or have a series of pictures and screenshots, a highlight reel is an opportunity to be either heartfelt or hilarious. A lot has happened in the last couple of years so it is nice to look back and see what was accomplished recognize how far we have come.

While it is great to recognize the highlights of the organization, be sure to pay special attention to the accomplishments of individual team members and the contributions they made over the past year.

Highlight reels are a great addition to a number of activities on this list and it is helpful to keep a folder of video clips and notes to make assembling this project easy (and make sure you don’t forget anything).

Digital Cooking Class

8. Digital Cooking Class

This is a fun one and a new favourite for many remote teams. You can either provide gift cards to your team or arrange for a local food delivery service to deliver the box of raw ingredients.

Now it is time to get cooking! You can look at companies like The Chef Upstairs or The Chef & the Dish for a one-stop-shop but you don’t need to be a chef to host a virtual cooking class. A good idea is to invite team members to share some of their tried and true recipes so that the whole team can enjoy someone’s favourite meal together.

9. Movie Night

Much like a cooking class, you can easily have a package of theatre-style snacks delivered to your team to enjoy from the comfort of their own home while everyone enjoys a great movie. A quick search of “movie night baskets” on Pinterest is all that you need to be inspired! Of course, if budget allows, pre-made baskets are also an option.

This type of event is simple to organize and can be personalized by having a team member pick their favourite movie for everyone to watch. Popular platforms like Netflix allow watch parties to make it even easier to get together and even silently chat in the chatbox, check out the Netflix Party Plus extension to get started but there are lots of options for watch parties.

Pet Party

10. Pet Party

Remember back in the day when you could visit the puppy room and be pleasantly mauled by hordes of fuffy pups for the sake of de-stressing? Maybe your workplace didn’t have monthly puppy rooms but the science is sound, animals help reduce stress and bring us so much joy. From puppy rooms to therapy tiny horses, many workplaces would arrange to have animals come into the office on a semi-regular basis.

The next best thing? A virtual pet party! Chances are that people on your team have a pet, you may have even met them informally by video bomb or witnessed them awkwardly cleaning themselves in the background (best background award…). Host a video chat where team members join with their furry (or feathery, or scaly) friend. Have fun with it and pretend that it is the animals themselves meeting and let their personality shine!

11. Game Night

Pull up a chair, grab a snack, and pour your favourite beverage… things are about to get real!

Thankfully, online game programs like JackBox exist to easily allow teams to sign on and have some fun. Some companies even provide a host and keep the games a secret until everyone is signed on like Game Night Out or Feet First Entertainment: Virtual Game Nights.

If trivia is more your jam, you can look into Live Virtual Trivia or TriviaMaker for a complete package or you can draft your own trivia questions and make them more personal to your team. If you want more engagement, you can play Scavenger Hunt. To share the clues, you can use QR Codes generated using Uniqode’s QR Code generator. Other great games that can be done virtually include:

  • Jeopardy
  • Whose Line is it Anyway?
  • Family Feud
  • The Price is Right
  • Wheel of Fortune

Check-in with the team in advance to find out what type of games they would be interested in to ensure a high level of participation – the more, the merrier!

12. Paint or Craft Night

Yes, you can even do a paint night virtually! Companies like Yaymaker and Canvas & Cup offer creative experiences where you are shipped everything you need and you end up with an awesome painting or craft to show for your efforts.

While some may be hesitant to host this kind of event because of the creativity factor, they are specifically designed to walk you through step by step so no prior experience is necessary. It can help to look at testimonials and see the work that people with no experience have managed to create.

Art has been proven to have therapeutic benefits and improve emotional health. It is also a great activity for those on your team who may be a bit more introverted, allowing them to focus on something in the company of others with less pressure to engage should they wish to focus on the art.

Karaoke

13. Karaoke

Who doesn’t love karaoke? Okay, maybe you won’t be the first one to pick up the mic but you can still sit back and enjoy the show! Companies like Karafun and Lucky Voice make it easy to get together belt out some tunes.

Make it extra fun by donning costumes complete with hair and makeup to mimic whichever celebrity you plan on impersonating. Bring in a couple of props, decorate your real background or upload a visual. Create a music video!

If actual singing isn’t your thing, you can always lip sync and pair it with a performance that your team will never forget.

Bonus? Unlike in real life, you can take advantage of the ability to control the volume for particularly… energetic performances.

14. Virtual Escape Rooms

If you haven’t jumped on the virtual escape room bandwagon then you are missing out. Don’t worry, chances are that a virtual escape room will be part of a team celebration at some point as these have become one of the most popular virtual celebration options around.

Traditionally, an escape room would involve your team being physically locked in a room and having to solve a series of puzzles to escape. Like most things, the virtual option is surprisingly comparable and an even better option for remote teams. They often have fun themes that range from escaping a haunted mansion, solving a mystery, or investigating a crime.

Check out Escaping or Wildly Different for some great escape room options.

15. Mini Campfires

Okay, how cute is this though? Whether you go through a company like Tiny Campfire or create your own campfire in a box to send out to your team, you can enjoy some s’mores and partake in traditional campfire activities like songs and ghost stories. All you need is:

  • A candle (tea lights work)
  • Skewers
  • Marshmallows
  • Chocolate
  • Graham crackers

All of these items are easy enough to ship. Bonus if someone can find some tiny hot dogs.

Talent Show

16. Talent Show

You may be surprised to see what talents your team possesses so offer a virtual platform for them to strut their stuff and share their talent. If you look at the usual contenders for talent shows, you can see how they may be translated virtually:

  • Singing
  • Playing an instrument
  • Stand up comedy
  • Dancing
  • Slam poetry
  • Impersonations
  • Magic

Another option is to assign people a silly talent and enjoy watching people try something new, who knows, they may actually be a natural. Make sure to record some clips to add to the organizations’ highlight (or blooper) reel.

17. Gift/Book Swap

Kind of like a secret Santa gift swap but for any time of the year! Draw or assign names and provide your team with gift cards to purchase a thoughtful (or silly) gift for a colleague. Be sure to give clear instructions not to open the gift until everyone has received theirs and plan for a live gift opening event.

If your team happens to be avid readers, books make a great gift and most people keep a public wishlist on Amazon or on apps like Goodreads of books that they want to read. Spin-off book clubs are highly encouraged.

18. Live Entertainment

Artists and entertainers alike have been struggling to secure bookings with ever-changing restrictions. Help an artist out and get them all to yourself with a private show! Focus on local talent such as musicians and comedians who now have ample experience offering their sets virtually.

Take the opportunity to ask the team if there are any local entertainers that they are just dying to see and that will take the guesswork out of finding one that you think they may enjoy.

Live entertainment can also be paired with a number of items on this list like the mini campfire, happy hour, or virtual birthday party.

Conclusion

Whether you have a hybrid team that is temporarily or permanently remote, it is so important to have opportunities to celebrate and have fun. Not every celebration has to be work-related but getting to know your team better will inevitably result in building a more happy and effective group. Be sure to consider the variety in your own team and host events that reach the most people but also bring out the best in your team.

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Everything You Need to Know About Leading Remote and Virtual Teams

Leading Virtual Team

A sharp increase in remote working means managers will need to transition into new ways of running things. Your responsibilities will largely stay the same but how you go about your duties differs when your employees aren’t in the same office.

Although you can’t pop your head out of your office door to touch base, instant messaging, video conferencing, and email have made it easy to stay in contact with staff.

Working from home has seen an increase due to changing trends, a worldwide pandemic, and flexibility requests from employees. Some offices may be considering remote working as a long-term solution. It saves on office overheads and can attract top-tier talent to your open positions.

Managers who are leading virtual teams need to develop a strategy based on the same fundamentals you’d expect in the office. Communication is key to making this work. Let go of the reins a little and trust your employees to maintain best practices even when you’re not physically together.

Swap the three-piece suit for your comfies, shuffle out of bed, get a piping hot cup of joe, do a big stretch, and get ready to be the superstar manager of a fully remote team. This is all you need to know about leading remote and virtual teams.

The Benefits of Leading a Team Remotely

The Benefits of Leading a Team Remotely

If you’re on the fence about whether you should transition your team to remote working, let’s take a look at some of the benefits. Not only can the business see a boost to productivity, but remote staff enjoy better work/life balance and more money.

Keep all of these benefits in mind while deciding if remote working is the right choice for your business. As well as advantages, certain unique challenges arise with virtual teams which we’ll get into later. Weigh up the pros and cons to make an informed decision, you need to balance what’s right for the business and what’s right for your people.

Remote working is here to stay and being agile enough to allow it in your company is great for futureproofing. If your industry is trending towards remote opportunities, you need to stay ahead of the curve to beat out your competition. The transition can be phased so it’s not disrupting your current processes.

Here are just some of the benefits of leading a team remotely:

  • Increased employee retention. Remote working is one of the most sought-after benefits in the modern workplace. People value their time and if they can shave off their commute to work, it can be a very attractive perk. Employees are more likely to stay with you for longer if you can offer them flexibility.
  • Save on overheads. You’ll need to decide whether keeping an office is necessary or if you can downsize. There are savings to be made on overheads on everything from office space to energy bills.
  • Wider talent pool. Office-based jobs are restricted to those within a commutable distance and select people willing to relocate. Virtual teams can be recruited from anywhere in the world, including areas with a low cost of living. You’ll have access to a much wider talent pool with many qualified candidates.
  • Wellness and work/life balance. Striking a good work/life balance is crucial for many of today’s working population. Remote working helps people to create a life that suits them as it removes things like their commute and time away from loved ones (including pets!)
  • More productivity. Some employees thrive on remote working, they don’t take the opportunity for granted. Productivity among staff is increased as people become more autonomous in their work.
  • Employees retain more of their money. Remote working shouldn’t be an excuse not to give your employees a pay rise, but it’s worth understanding this benefit for your staff. People save money on their commute, lunch, and other office shenanigans. The savings made can free up a lot more of your staff’s cash which will make them happy.
  • Better for the environment. You, your business, and the staff aren’t the only ones who will benefit. Remote working is better for the environment. People’s carbon footprints are reduced as there are fewer Co2 emissions. Do your part for mother earthnand go virtual!

Build A World-Class Remote Environment

Build A World-Class Remote Environment

Deciding to go virtual is one thing, actually building your new processes is an entirely different beast and one you must slay. Getting set up remotely, the right way, is going to make the biggest difference in the team’s success. The idea of virtual teams might sound appealing to most of your staff, but everyone needs to be committed to making it work.

Business owners who don’t see good results won’t hesitate to reverse the decision and ask everyone to come back to the office. Not good for people who have already put a down payment on a property in a cheaper state. When it comes to leading virtual teams, how you build your environment is key and this is exactly how you do that:

Make it Personal

Personal communication is harder to nurture online, particularly if you have a team of people you have never met. Encouraging your team to get to know each other improves productivity and understanding. It makes for a nicer work atmosphere, even if people are technically on their own.

In the office, there are plenty of opportunities to have a side conversation and get to know your teammates. At the water fountain, in the break room, or sharing videos of their cats at their desks. These important bonding activities can’t exist virtually so as a manager you should try and factor in some social space.

Host a quiz and assign teams to work together. Implement co-working video calls and ask staff to sit on a video together while they work. This gives them the chance to chit chat but also decreases distraction. Factor in coffee breaks that people can take together, 15 minutes where people can unwind from work.

Pick the Right Tech Stack

Pick the Right Tech Stack

Technology is going to be at the heart of your virtual team. Picking the right software can make all the difference. Tech helps with recruitment, training, onboarding, work assignments, communication, and monitoring your team. Whatever you need, there’s something available to make your life easier.

Teamly is the project management tool you need to make managing your team simple and house everything in one easy-to-access place. Take the pain out of remote teams by using Teamly as your management partner and lead your team to success.

When picking your tech stack here are the things you should include:

  • Management tools
  • Communication tools
  • Cloud hosting
  • Video conferencing
  • Digital workspace
  • Password manager
  • Collaboration tools

As well as software, you should consider the hardware needs of your staff. Since your employees are no longer in a centralized space they may need your assistance to access high-quality equipment. Allow employees to make reasonable hardware requests for things like additional monitors, replacement keyboards, new computers, printers, scanners, and other miscellaneous hardware.

Share Trust and Dependency

Share Trust and Dependency

You can’t lead a successful virtual team if you don’t trust your people. It will be hard for you to manage a team that you think is going to drink alcohol on shift, ignore their duties, and take advantage of the situation. If that sounds like your staff, why are they still working for you? It’s much more likely you have competent people on your team who will not let you down.

There may be a few bad players out there who will take advantage but they are the exception and not the rule. Your staff will appreciate the opportunity and demonstrate this by working harder with increased productivity levels. Micro-management isn’t going to work because you aren’t there to monitor things 24/7.

Let your team decide the best way to work and focus on the results instead of how they got there. If the end product meets your expectations then it’s a job well done. Remote working thrives on a culture of trust and dependency and that starts with the manager.

Trial Everything

Before committing to remote working, do a trial with one department or a small portion of the team. Look out for any inefficiencies in communication and monitor productivity levels. There may be some disruption as people adjust but overall you should see improvements to things like employee morale, productivity, and communication.

All being well and the reports look positive you can invite more of your staff to start working remotely. A phased transition helps to ease your business into the virtual workspace. Put together some questionnaires and ask your people how they feel before, during, and after the trial phase. Ask questions on their mood, how they feel about work, what they enjoy about working remotely, and what they dislike.

This information can help you decide if any changes are needed to your strategy or if a company-wide rollout is ready. Make sure that your staff understands the trial is just that, a trial to see if this is feasible in the future. Don’t give any guarantees that remote working will soon be a reality.

How to Successfully Lead a Virtual Team

How to Successfully Lead a Virtual Team

You have your tech stack ready and your team prepared for a brand new way of working. Now you just need to make it a success so your business can reap the benefits that come with leading a team remotely. Virtual teams have a level of freedom that office-based teams are often missing.

Without the watchful eye of their superiors, employees might be able to treat themselves to an extra cup of tea or eat their lunch at their desks. These freedoms rarely negatively impact productivity, in fact, working from home or remotely is believed to boost productivity and decrease the chance of burnout.

Lead your team with trust and take them to continued success. Here are the key ingredients to running a successful remote team.

1. Communication

Communication needs to be a big focus when you’re working remotely because many interactions lose subtle signs. Written words can be easily misinterpreted and can cause issues within your team. Non-verbal communication like eye contact and body language are lost.

In order to make up for this, you and your team need to learn to over-communicate, be as clear as possible, and abide by the best practices – which we’ll discuss in point 4. As a manager, when you’re trying to discuss roles and responsibilities, assign work, or talk about goals, you should stress the most important points and check for people’s understanding.

Use video conferencing software to see your employees face to face and discuss the fine points of any assignments. Follow up with details in an email and check with them over instant messenger that everything is understood. It sounds like overkill but if things are left open to interpretation, you may not get the results you want.

Keep people in the loop with any decisions by making good use of emails and instant messaging. Tag people liberally when something involves them and don’t be afraid to send an email marked as important.

2. Training

A lot of the software you will use remotely will be the same as when the team was based in the office. However, chances are you’ve needed to include new products in your tech stack to take full advantage of leading virtual teams. Training your people on these new pieces of kit will take some time and should be handled before the full transition where possible.

There may also be new processes that need to be taught to your people. You should create comprehensive training material including a knowledge base that shows a step-by-step of each common repeatable process. Not only is this great as a refresher for your staff, but it’s invaluable for new employees who need extra guidance when learning the ropes.

Videos are your best friend, record your screen and a voiceover explaining how the software should be used. The more resources you can provide the better prepared your people will be, particularly when they won’t be able to simply stick their head in your door and ask you a question.

Meetings

3. Meetings

Meetings will play a key role in virtual teams as they’re a great way to touch base with everyone. You likely had plenty of meetings at the office anyway, but remote teams can benefit from having more regularly scheduled. Use your best judgment as to what’s best for your people, but listed below are some types of meetings that are great for remote workers.

  • Daily standup. This short meeting typically occurs at the start of the day and involves the entire team. Standups are named that way because they are usually conducted standing up to give a sense of urgency. These meetings should last no more than 15 minutes and be used simply to check in with your people and discuss the day’s agenda.
  • Kickoff meetings. Kickoffs should happen when your team is undertaking a new project. They’re used to align your people with the stakeholders, anticipate roadblocks, and define the deliverables. Your staff will have the chance to put forward questions and iron out any misunderstandings. It’s unrealistic to try and navigate this through team chat channels and direct messaging.
  • One-on-one meetings. These serve several purposes, firstly one-on-one meetings can be used for performance reviews, individual training, and feedback sessions. As well, one-to-one meetings should be used to check in with your people personally. Ask them how they are coping with remote working and if they are experiencing any issues.
  • Impromptu meetings. Sometimes it’s just easier to hop on a video and hash things out. In the office, too many meetings can be stressful and build a culture of micromanagement. However, without a physical presence hosting impromptu meetings to discuss things is the quickest and easiest way to reach a resolution.

4. Best Practices

It’s a good idea to create best practices for how you want people to conduct themselves while working remotely. If everyone is on the same page about communication and team processes, there will be little room for misunderstandings. Here are some best practices your virtual team should follow.

  • Requests/complaints. Set up a process for people who need to come to you with requests or complaints. This can be managed through your emails or other software, but shouldn’t come through informal direct messaging.
  • Team channel behavior. The channel your team uses for communication should be conducted in a professional manner relative to your team. It doesn’t need to be devoid of personality but should be considerate of every team member. Using gifs and emojis might be second nature to some staff but could be alienating for others.
  • Language. People need to be careful of the language they use in the team channel and private messages. A lot of nuances are lost with written communication and messages can be easily misinterpreted. Create a list of suggestions about communicating online.
  • Email automation. Automation is your best friend and can make even the busiest of email accounts seem like a breeze. Set up rules so that incoming emails are categorized for easy access and prioritization.
  • Knowledge base. The first port of call for answers should be the knowledge base, make sure your staff knows how to use it. This helps people self-serve instead of relying on you for answers. It’s not always possible to get an immediate answer from someone else when working remotely which can derail the day’s progress.
  • Co-working calls. It’s a good idea to set your employees up on co-working calls. This helps them to stay in touch with each other and helps people with their focus and productivity.

The Challenges of Leading a Remote Team

The Challenges of Leading a Remote Team

The lack of physical presence in the office means you can’t easily observe your staff at work. You can’t identify when someone is struggling and may need additional support. If your staff don’t come forward with their difficulties the problem could become chronic and start to affect productivity.

Meeting with your staff regularly with one-to-ones is the best way to give people a safe space to talk. Ask your employees if there is anything they need help with or any issues they are facing with their role. As long as people feel like they can speak freely, you can usually get to the root of the problem quickly.

Communication will be a focal point for all remote teams, particularly during the early stages of working from home. The office dynamic is gone, small hallway conversations that lead to big decisions can’t happen anymore. Your team can’t bond over the weekend’s football as easily.

Explain to your team how communication changes when they work remotely and ask for everyone’s assistance to keep things clear, concise, and adhere to the common language. Your people will adjust to this new way of communication but some people might find it harder than others.

Managing the team’s workload becomes less transparent since you can’t cast a watchful eye over performance in the same way. Remote working can be advantageous for slackers who will use the opportunity to avoid working. There can be negative effects for workaholics who are taking on too much work and are risking significant burnout.

In order to properly manage workloads, you should make use of Teamly which is a project management tool. It has everything you need to assign work to your staff, monitor the progress, and make suggestions when necessary. Using a tool like this makes things more transparent and if anyone is underperforming it will become clear.

Some people do not like working from home and they find the idea of doing it repulsive. While many people will be happy with the arrangement, some might not like the idea of working in isolation and infiltrating their home with work. If you can offer people the opportunity to stay in the office, that can easily resolve the problem.

However, if you are going fully virtual and shutting the office doors permanently, you’ll need to take extra care to transition these staff members. Help them to make working from home more social by inviting them to do coworking calls and video chats. Ultimately, the decision may mean you lose some staff if they can’t adjust and your offices are gone.

Conclusion

No matter the reasoning behind going virtual, it’s a brand new challenge for teams that haven’t had this privilege before. The idea is likely to be exciting for most of the staff, although there is every chance some people may not want to. It’s for your business executives to decide whether they want to go fully remote or maintain an office presence.

Regardless, without a central physical location for your team, things are going to be run a little differently. You’ll need to reassess your current tech stack and decide if you should bring in any new software. There are many tools out there designed specifically for virtual teams and they’ve been fine-tuned to help you succeed.

As long as you lead your team with communication at the core you should have no trouble leading a team remotely. Make sure that the knowledge base and training resources are up to date.

Remote teams need your trust and a level of autonomy to do their work productively. Provide them with everything they need to self-serve answers and remember to check in with them to keep that personal touch.

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Self-Management 101: How To Plan, Prioritize & Achieve Goals

Elements of Self Management

There are endless blogs, articles, books, even studies on how to effectively lead a team.

But who is leading the leader?

Self-management is exactly what it sounds like – it’s your ability to manage your own behaviour, thoughts, and emotions. Somehow, managing a team of 100 people seems less daunting than managing a team of one… you.

Why is Self-Management Important

Why is Self-Management Important?

It may seem selfish and counterintuitive to focus on yourself when there is a team that needs you, either as a leader or as a teammate.

There is a reason that, when a plane is going down, you are instructed to put on your oxygen mask before you assist others. If you run out of air, you aren’t much used to anyone else. This same idea of helping yourself first is relevant to your work as a leader or teammate.

Company cultures can often push the narrative that the needs of the organization are the top priority and we now understand that this sentiment is a one-way ticket to a burnt-out and uninspired workforce. People are happier and produce better quality work when their needs are met and they feel valued for what they bring to the table.

As a leader, formal or informal, self-management is an important tool in your toolbox to ensure that you are bringing your best self forward.

Benefits of Self-Management

The Benefits of Self-Management

While an organization will greatly benefit from someone with the ability to self-manage, there are obvious benefits to the individual.

Increased Efficiency

Self-managed people are effective people. Period.

Effectiveness looks different for each person and profession but the ability to do what you need to do and when you need to do it is valuable both in personal and professional life. A self-managed person will have taken the time and energy to invest in systems that keep them on track and focused on the right things, considerate of their own time and the time of others.

Flexibility and Effective Time Management

There is a standard template that workers tend to follow when they are traditionally employed which involves showing up to work, sitting at a desk for 8 hours, and leaving work at the end of their shift. Though the time block maybe 8 hours, studies are clear that an 8-hour workday does not even close to equal 8-hours of productive and quality work.

Self-managed people are proving to the world that the 8-hour workday and 40-hour workweek are arbitrary and that people can work in a number of ways that better respect their time and produce the desired outcome for the organization. This group of go-getters are leading the way for more flexible workplaces because they are living proof that people can work effectively outside traditional systems when they are allowed to discover their own way forward.

Better Relationships

People notice when you are able to self-manage. They recognize that you are bringing your best self to the table and that makes everyone else’s load more manageable. Not only will this help to build trust in your team but it will build relationships both professional and personal.

Increased Wellness

Instead of always running around and dealing with the loudest alarm bell in their head, those that practice self-management can enjoy a little peace and quiet so that they can actually think about the important things. This ability can be credited to overall better health outcomes because stress and anxiety will be greatly reduced.

Let’s not forget that self-management means that you can (and will) prioritize time for physical activity to offset any time that you may have to spend at a desk. Without those alarm bells, a good night’s sleep is also possible.

How to Practice Self-Management

How to Practice Self-Management

The keyword is practice, self-management does not come easy especially in a society that seems to value selflessness over self. There’s hope though, and here are some ways that you can get started and build up your self-management skills.

Be Clear on Your Goals

What is your “why”?
Where do you want to be?
What is important to you?

When you can clearly answer those questions, you can better manage your life with intention and are well on your way to better self-management. Your practice starts with knowing where you’re going and why you want to go there. Only when this becomes clear can you formulate a plan that will actually move the needle.

Find an Organizational System That Works for You

So you can clearly see your goals, now how do you get there? The path isn’t always clear but there are a couple of systems that you can experiment with to find the best fit for you.

Getting Things Done (GTD)

If you happen to be into productivity, you know David Allen. He’s known for his Getting Things Done (GTD) framework and has decades of experience in the art of productivity. This framework is based on five clear and simple steps:

  1. Capture: don’t let ideas and tasks float around in your head, reach up and capture them on paper.
  2. Clarify: look at a task and ask if there’s a specific action tied to it or if it’s simply for reference or for later.
  3. Organize: put it where it belongs right away – a calendar, to-do list, notebook, file… etc.
  4. Reflect: aks yourself, is this system working? If it is, great! If not, take the time to modify it to be more effective.
  5. Engage: all systems a-go? Engage! Take action and get it done.

This system is tried and true and a great place to start when you’re just starting out on your self-management journey.

Time Blocking

Time blocking is a very effective way to organize yourself and manage your time. Essentially, you organize your available hours by categories and dedicate these categories to specific time blocks in your schedule, focusing on one task at a time. Just like any organizational system, it will take a little trial and error to figure out how to block your time in a way that works for you.

For more details on the time blocking organization and time management system, check out this blog on Time Blocking – A Time Management Trick to Get in the Zone.

Pomodoro Technique

This simple, yet effective technique is a great place to start for someone looking for an organizational system that is easy to follow. This technique involves a simple timer for short bursts of uninterrupted work followed by rest periods. For more details on this technique, check out A Simple Technique That Yields Big Results – How To Use Pomodoro To Maximize Productivity.

Eisenhower Matrix

When everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. This system helps you learn how to prioritize your tasks by fitting them in one of four categories:

  • Important/Urgent
  • Important/Not Urgent
  • Not Important/Urgent
  • Not important/Not-Urgent.

By implementing the Eisenhower Matrix, you can practice self-management by understanding what is truly a priority and what can wait.

This blog, How Can Mindfulness Improve Your Time Management, goes into more detail on how to integrate this technique into your system.

Create Routines

Create Routines

In expanding on the idea of organizational systems, creating routines in your personal and professional life is a great way to practise self-management as you learn more about how you work best.

Your brain likes routine because it takes the pressure off of it to think about what to do next. Do you have an existing routine that you don’t even think about? Chances are that you get out of bed, brush your teeth, let the dog out, and turn on the kettle for your coffee without so much as blinking an eye. It is that effortless motion of routine that gives your brain a break to focus on items that need attention.

Work with your natural routines, not against them.

Learn How to Say No

You are better at saying “no” than you think.

Every time you say “yes” to something outside of your scope or priorities, you are saying “no” to something that you have deemed important. Switching your perspective to understand this concept is a helpful way to be able to say no upfront.

Saying “no” is arguably the most challenging area of self-management for people to practice because we are fed with the idea that we must embrace every professional opportunity in order to get ahead, get the promotion, and score that corner office (if you even work in an office). While this idea is slowly dying as organizations recognize the benefits of employing people with strong self-management skills, this need to say “yes” all the time lives deep in our collective bones and will take time to disconnect from.

Practice saying “yes” to the items on your priority list, the results will speak for themselves.

Increase Energy Inputs

One of the biggest drains on our energy is stress. Stress has a way of physically manifesting in our daily lives and drains us of the will and energy to do good work. There will always be stressors in your life but they should be manageable and be counteracted by rest and leisure.

Think of your body like a gas-powered vehicle, running it at or very near empty will not get you very far and can wreak havoc on other systems. When you get a good night’s sleep, feed your body good food, and exercise, you’re adding fuel to your vehicle and keeping it in tip-top shape.

Unfortunately, too many professionals dig into their rest time for the sake of “productivity”, not realizing that it’s having the opposite effect. Taking charge of your energy inputs is an important aspect of self-management, the results of which spill over into other aspects of your work and personal life.

Be Proactive and Responsible

Be Proactive and Responsible

Of course, being proactive is easier said than done. Stephen Covey, author of one of the most profound self-development books The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, said it best:

“Look at the word responsibility—“response-ability”—the ability to choose your response. Highly proactive people recognize that responsibility. They do not blame circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behaviour. Their behaviour is a product of their own conscious choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feeling.”

(Note that this quote does not consider systemic oppression and the weight that it carries for some people disproportionate to others so there are limitations to its reach but the concept does hold true for many people.)

In order to be proactive, you need to be clear about your goals so this is a secondary self-management skill for when you have become comfortable with setting future goals or objectives.

Make Decisions

Sometimes, decisions are as simple as “yes” or “no”. Other times, we are tempted to let these questions and ideas float around in our heads, with nowhere to park them. These incomplete items build up and result in stress. As we learned above, stress is detrimental to self-management so we must make decisions to keep the ball rolling.

Prioritize Personal Development

Don’t confuse personal with professional development – not everything is about work you know. That said, when you invest in yourself, you inadvertently create better habits and mindsets that carry over into your professional life. Personal development looks different for each person, here are some common examples:

  • Reading – for fun or to learn something new.
  • Exercise – move your body in ways that you find enjoyable, the gym isn’t for everyone but you may find enjoyment in a physical hobby or activity.
  • Learning – learn literally anything from macrame to acapella, developing a skill unrelated to work will build your confidence
  • Volunteer – not only do you get the chance to meet new people, but you are also contributing to something greater than yourself.
  • Mindwork – meditate, daydream, and spend some time in silence, when was the last time you were alone with your thoughts?

Create and Enforce Boundaries

We have got the idea of boundaries all wrong. Boundaries do not barricade us inside a safe fortress but help redirect people to the appropriate channels. As you become better at self-managing, you will by default set up reasonable boundaries to protect your practice. These boundaries could look like:

  • Designated times to check emails
  • Office hours
  • Protected personal and rest time

Just to name a few. Give it a try and you may be surprised.

Understand Your Strengths and Weaknesses

No one is good at everything so be honest with yourself. Focus on the things you are good at and develop those skills, bringing them to the table in a way that no one else can. When you agree to a project or task that you know is not your strong suit, you’re not only setting yourself up for stress and failure, but you risk letting down your team. Self-managing yourself in a way that reserves your skills for high-value tasks, you may even be opening the door for someone else who already possesses the needed skills.

Conclusion

Practice makes perfect. This isn’t a quick process and it will take time to get to a place where you are confident in your self-management abilities. Start small, look at the list and pick out an item that looks the most manageable to you. Once you’re comfortable in that process, use the momentum to take on the next one.

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8 Best Practices for Incident Management

Incident Management Best Practices

System outages and downtime are inevitable. They can cost you money, regulatory fines, customer loyalty and eventually undermine the reputation of the company. Major disruptions can even make it onto front-page news.

Take this example.

It was back in 2020. Over a 12-hour massive outage resulted in more than 23,000 failed 911 calls… There was a failure in part of T-Mobile’s network, which was made worse by routing and software errors. Even the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) got involved. Its report showed that T-Mobile USA “did not follow established network reliability best practices” that could have potentially prevented or mitigated the disruption. This failure cost the company $19.5 million!

Hopefully, the last incident you encountered didn’t cost you a fortune and was fixed without any significant impact on your business. But here is the thing: to thrive in an increasingly challenging world, businesses need to acknowledge that incident management is one of the most critical processes in an organization.

Regardless of size, shape, location, or industry, each company needs to have a consistent approach to incident management. To guide your organization towards healthier practices means detecting, tracking, analyzing, and reporting incidents in a timely and proactive manner.

Customers are more demanding and more vocal than ever. They expect services and applications to be available 24/7. To make matters worse, customers’ patience has become too limited (they want you to find a solution now!). In the midst of chaos, agility and speed become paramount to gaining a strategic advantage in the marketplace.

No matter the complexity level of your internal systems, you can improve the quality of the service you offer and reduce the harmful downtime if you invest time and effort in cultivating incident management best practices at your organization.

Let’s start with defining the terms.

What is an incident

What is an incident?

An incident is an unplanned event that threatens to interrupt or causes an interruption in a service by inhibiting the functionality of the service or reducing its quality. A few examples can be: a website going down, degrading network quality, running out of disk space, a feature in the application not working, and more.

Outages are likely to happen because of software and hardware failures or human errors; that’s why incidents can come from anywhere: an employee, a customer, the operations system…

If an incident is a major one, it requires an emergency response and usually becomes a core component of larger IT frameworks.

What is incident management?

Incident management is the process of detecting, examining, resolving, and analyzing service interruptions and outages. It aims to ensure service restoration – as quickly and efficiently as possible with minimal impact on the business. It’s the primary responsibility of DevOps, IT operations, and desk service teams to oversee the process of incident management. Depending on a company’s internal policies and procedures, incident management can also be viewed as a component of IT service management (ITSM).

Incident vs. problem

An incident is an unplanned disruption to a service or reduction in its quality, whereas a problem is the root cause of the incident. In other words, we talk about an incident when we want to explain what happened to a service. The moment we explore why an incident occured, we refer to the problem.

Incident management vs. incident response

Incident management is the broader concept or process of incident communication and resolution, while incident response deals with handling a single incident. This means that incident response is only one aspect of incident management.

Steps of the incident management process

5 steps of the incident management process

To understand what incident management best practices entail, it’s essential to have a clear roadmap of the steps involved in this process. Before we dive in, consider this: there is no one size fits all solution when choosing the incident management process for your company. This is one of the primary reasons you’ll see various approaches across different companies.

It’s high time to walk you through the stages of the incident management lifecycle:

Step 1: Detect

When an incident strikes, it should be detected and classified as quickly as possible. At this stage, you identify who should be involved in the resolution of the incident, which incidents require special handling, and which ones should be taken over by the regular staff. If you do a great job at detecting an incident, the following steps are easier to go through. Remember, the teams that start strong are more likely to finish strong.

Step 2: Record

After being detected, the incidents are logged and recorded. Who reports the incident, when it’s reported, what exactly isn’t working – these are, as a rule, mandatory fields to be filled in. All details are documented, despite the severity level of the incident. Afterward, you assign an ID number to the incident for tracking, processing, and reporting purposes.

A pro tip before we move on: keep all of the information in one place. This enables to speed up communication, prevent the opening of duplicate tickets, and steer clear of overloading the system.

Respond

Step 3: Respond

When the incident is detected, logged in, and classified, it’s time to respond to it.

If nothing major occurs, the incident is routinely handled by the technical support and DevOps teams. If not, you need to have straightforward internal communication for effective incident management.

You communicate with all impacted stakeholders and make sure they’re informed about the incident. If you aren’t quick enough on this, your customers will surely go a step ahead and flood the social media or the call center with their anger, resentment, and disappointment. “Arghh! It’s not working!”, “Damn, I can’t get my work done!” you’ll hear them saying.

During the responding stage, miscommunication can lead to bias and nervousness. Meetings to keep everything on track, timely notifications, announcements, and updates (usually handled by the communications team) are crucial.

Escalation is another essential phase in incident management. This is when a team member can’t resolve an incident and asks for more specialized help. Needless to say, the roles and responsibilities should be clearly identified; when an incident occurs, everyone should know who the go-to person is to ensure the right level of organization in your response.

Step 4: Resolve and close

With the previous steps performed and a satisfactory resolution found, it’s time to pass the incident back to the service desk. Only the service desk is entitled to close incidents. There is a simple reason for this: your team should check with the reporter and get confirmation that the resolution is satisfactory and can now be closed.

Step 5: Collect and analyze reports

Service improvement! That’s the buzzword we hear everywhere and every time.

So how do you improve your services? Right! You collect data on the reported incidents and do a thorough analysis to make sure the incident management process is complete.

Post-incident reports allow for a valuable retrospective review. But remember that these reports should be detailed, insightful, and pursue a major end goal: help the team prevent future incidents.

Incident Management Best Practices

Incident management best practices or what makes an incident well-managed?

Although copying and pasting a templated approach from another business will hardly lead to stellar results, it’s always a smart idea to look into the best practices. Learning, refining, and adjusting – that’s how you take the incidence management process to the next level. Let’s see how companies respond when the message hits: “We have an incident!”

1. Detect before it occurs

You can, of course, go ahead and get yourself busy with putting out fires day after day, week after week…

But there is a better solution – to have a truly effective system in place for incident management. Through regular software updates, event monitoring, and incident response plans, you understand where the incident appeared, why it occurred, and how. Identifying and fixing root causes is your shortcut to preventing them from happening again.

2. Prioritize correctly

How many customers are affected? Is this a security issue? Do we have any data loss? To prioritize means to identify the various implications of an incident on various aspects of your business: finances, customer service, operations, security, etc.

Urgency, impact, and severity are the top criteria according to which you should prioritize the incidents. Doing this right is important to save precious time, resources and nerves. To streamline the process, you can set up a priority matrix and make sure all team members know how to use it.

Neat and logical categories should be outlined to ease the classification and prioritization of every incident. It’s recommended to use the option “Other” as little as possible. By the way, this step will also be helpful when it’s time for analyzing data and revealing patterns.

3. Distribute tasks smartly

The best incident response teams, especially in times of major incidents, act quickly, make decisions under pressure, and all of this – without risking the overall incident management process. One of the secrets of such success is that the skills of the team members are mapped and clearly defined to help assign roles correctly. Best practices hint that every team member has their own set of responsibilities, and the separation of tasks is well-informed. Load is distributed evenly and smartly.

If needed, have an in-house staff to handle incidents on a regular basis, and independent contractors who can step in to help you with expert advice. Make sure that all team members follow the same troubleshooting procedures to avoid miscommunication.

Incident management best practices also help to prevent employee burnout by advocating for a clear and specific handoff between teams. When internal communication is effective, teams can quickly replace each other if the incident requires a longer time to be resolved. This means the business doesn’t waste time coordinating and communicating with all parties involved.

The incident manager, service desk folks, ops team, system and network admins, communications team – everyone should be trained and prepared to respond to incidents promptly and with high efficiency.

Automate when possible

4. Automate when possible

Repetitive tasks should be spotted and automated. Rely on automation to minimize human error and to take care of your team. Waking up people in the middle of the night or forcing them into working long, long hours can lead to… The consequences are well-known: burnout, decreased productivity, loss of motivation. Therefore, employee-centered businesses reduce the toll on people by integrating automation tools into the incident management process.

You should also consider having templated first communications ready when it comes to communications. Your first response to the detected incident should be quick and efficient so that you can focus on resolving the issue straight ahead.

By the way, after you’ve automated one aspect in your incident management process, ask yourself: “What else can be automated?” And automate the next bit of incident management.

5. Look beyond one-time incidents

An incident, especially a major one, can give a useful hint at what should be updated or refined on an organizational level. So, incidents are a great opportunity to channel some of the resentment towards preventative actions. It is, therefore, recommended to link incidents to ITIL and ITSM processes.

6. Report blamelessly

Efficiency is about teamwork and trust. In a workplace culture, where blaming one another is a norm, there’s little chance to handle incident management successfully.

High-performing teams focus on the process of incident management rather than the people involved. Report in a way that’s blameless. A culture of camaraderie and integrity should be a top priority. Help your team understand that you all walk towards the same destination and aim for a win-win approach.

Yes, incidents can be utterly frustrating, but the best teams take them as opportunities to build rapport within the team as well as with their customers.

7. Provide top-notch training

Today, there is one thing the IT and management fields have no shortage of – certification programs. Use them! Don’t wait till an employee reports about a skill gap. Identify those blind spots proactively and offer the best possible training in the field. The certification courses will help the team to deliver high-quality services, see the bigger picture, and align their day-to-day work to the organizational strategy.

Explore if you can refocus somebody’s expertise to benefit your business. Keep an eye on the latest tools and see if more sophisticated CI/CD tools (continuous integration and continuous delivery/deployment tools) can be used in the incident management process and guide your employees towards relevant training programs.

Having the right personnel on board is a blessing. But to ensure your team members stay competent, you need to invest in them.

8. Look ahead

The IT industry will not stop evolving. Businesses are under pressure to make frequent and significant changes in their processes and procedures. Customers are not going to be any less demanding. A core piece of many businesses, incident management is going to be a continuous focus.

It’s important to constantly review what’s new in your field of operation and what the future holds for incident management. One thing is for certain – the smarter, safer, more secure and more reliable companies are going to win the competition. That’s why part of the incident management best practices is embracing new tech and leaning towards a more proactive and preventative approach to incident management.

Conclusion

Let’s face it. Incidents are going to happen. Systems are going to fail. It’s all about how we handle the situation next time an outage strikes. And we’re going to witness a huge difference between organizations that manage incidents effectively and those that don’t.

Hope for the best but prepare for the worst. Keeping control over the incident management process is fundamental to avoid friction and make sure your projects go off without a hitch.

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From the Gig Economy to the Hybrid Model: Shifting Priorities in the Workplace

Shifting priorities in the workplace

For many of us, the commute to work used to take at least an hour, and we’d either be navigating traffic or train schedules to and fro. Nowadays, for many, the morning commute takes less than ten seconds, as it means walking from the bedroom into the home office.

And back in the day, people clung to their jobs like their life depended on it. More recently, however, employees resign and move onto greener pastures with alarming ease.

Data Tracking for Employees

Data Tracking for Employees

Many of us, it’s true, still face a commute every morning on the way to work. But the trend of working remotely is increasing, no doubt about it. Over four million people work from home at least half the time, a 140% increase from 2005.

According to a 2021 study, more than half of employers will continue to offer a hybrid work model, allowing employees to work from home some of the time.

For a boss, this means it’s no longer an option to step up to an employee’s desk during the day to see how things are going. This naturally creates unease, and employers are resorting to alternate methods for monitoring staff.

More and more, with remote teams, managers and bosses are looking at tracking data in order to know how employees spend their time. Things like web cams, hourly tracking, and keyboard tracking tools all serve to assure employers that time is well spent.

Additionally, by looking at stats and data from interoffice communications, it’s possible for project managers to evaluate team dynamics, and monitor how remote teams engage and get along.

Administrative Jobs Decline

Administrative Jobs Decline

The shift to a remote work environment marks an even greater dependence on technology. More and more, we’re working in a paperless environment.

These changes eliminate a need for many low-skill office jobs. According to a study by McKinsey, office support jobs will have gone away almost entirely by 2030.

It’s not exactly a scenario of “the robots taking over,” but without any telephones to answer, break room coffee to make, or papers to file, certain office roles just aren’t needed anymore.

Recruitment Pool Increases

Now that most companies have remote work systems in place, the size of their recruitment pool has increased tremendously. Whereas formerly, companies were limited to only hiring someone local or willing to relocate, now they can potentially hire anyone with access to the internet.

In theory, this poses a real benefit to companies. It’s much easier to match skill sets to positions. Formerly, a company might have to forego its first choice if the recruit was unwilling to relocate. Not anymore.

It also saves the employer quite a bit of money on things like rental space and office equipment. It’s estimated that a company saves up to $11K a year for an employee who works remote only part of the time.

Employees Have the Upper Hand

Employees have gotten quite used to flexible working conditions, and they don’t want to let them go away. Apparently, making the work commute two times a day, five days a week isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Plus, it’s a lot cheaper. Remote workers say they save up to $5,000 a year.

In a recent study, 40% of workers went so far as to say they’d even quit working for their current employer if he or she didn’t offer flexible working options.

This shift in priority particularly stems from younger Millennial and Generation Z employees, so it’s likely only to increase.

A Shift in Recruitment and Retention Strategies

A Shift in Recruitment and Retention Strategies

Employees spoke pretty loudly in 2021. In August alone, 4.3 million quit their jobs. This comprises 3% of the total workforce.

A trend this dramatic leaves employers scrambling to find replacements. In an effort to both recruit and retain employees, they’ve had to offer better benefits, more flexibility, and better working conditions.

And off boarding, too, receives much more TLC than it has in the past. To the employee, it no longer means sailing off into the sunset, never to interact with the company again. Many companies have put policies in place that maintain a bond with former employees. The NFL offers them access to healthcare, as well as the use of its training facilities. Linkedin’s former employees receive premium membership for life.

By approaching a resignation with the intent to maintain a bond, the company only stands to gain. Some resignees turn into boomerang employees. And others are more likely to recommend the company to someone else.

Gig Economy Expands

According to Ida Liu, the Global Head of Private Banking at Citi Global Wealth, the number of people using gig work for their primary or secondary income has more than doubled in the past five years, comprising over a third of the total workforce.

Assuming this increase is driven by the workers themselves, then this is yet another signal that the labor force wants more flexibility. And it has huge implications for the onboarding processes in human resources departments and team building techniques for project managers.

Integrating temporary workers into the company culture, and fostering strong team dynamics is a totally different game when people have commitments to other companies at the same time.

Conclusion

Change is always constant, but in the current labor market, we’re seeing even more of it than usual. Major shifts have dramatically impacted the priorities of both employees and employers.

These changes are largely caused by an increase in remote work and the gig economy. Plus, people no longer stay with the same employer as they traditionally used to, but change jobs with ease. Due to an increasing dependence on technology, some jobs are going away altogether. And hybrid work arrangements are the model of the future.

But the AI future that people like Andrew Yang have forecasted doesn’t seem to be coming to pass, where robots take over every job, and people need a UBI just to get by. Rather, the landscape is looking more nuanced. Employers in fact are eager to recruit and retain employees.

Whether you’re an employee looking for work, or a recruiter in human resources, you’re feeling the effects of these changes. It’s probably exciting but also a little unnerving to navigate them, and all their ripple effects. It requires patience and an ability to remain calm in the midst of uncertainty.

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How Workplaces Scale and Adapt Using Strategic Agility

Strategic agility in the workplace

In the bestselling book The Goal, author Eliyahu M. Goldratt works as a manager for a chaotic production plant that’s drowning in work-in-process inventory and chronically misses shipping deadlines. He seeks the advice of an old friend, Jonah, who counsels using the Socratic method, focusing on the simple question: “What is the goal of your manufacturing organization?”

Eli swings and misses with his first attempts to answer the question, surmising that the goal is either to improve efficiency, or to increase power or market share. Then he recognizes the obvious answer staring him in the face: the goal of his plant is to make money.

“And, by the way, there is only one goal, no matter what the company,” says Jonah, while going on to advise Eli on how to organize his production processes around this goal, with a method now known as the theory of constraints.

Even in our rapidly changing market, where both products and the needs of customers seem to change overnight, Jonah’s claim still rings true. The goal of any company is to turn a profit, while remaining true to its core values.

Achieving this goal, however, requires adaptability and continually innovating processes and products to solve customer problems and needs.

Strategic agility is the science behind this constant demand for change. It entails forward thinking and requires organizations to adapt its vision to suit the evolving market.

Are you struggling to be adaptable and agile in your organization? If so, you’re not alone. Oftentimes, companies incorporate expensive technologies that don’t really improve the bottom line. Or they’re too fixated on current processes and systems to make any changes at all.

From identifying what fosters innovative thinking, to looking at what gets in the way, to identifying where to start with a transformation, let’s take a look at the ins and outs of strategic agility in the workplace.

Components of Strategic Agility

Three Components of Strategic Agility (With Examples)

For many businesses, simply keeping up on orders and getting the product out the door on time is enough to keep every person on staff working until late into the night. The organization may have an excellent product or service, but adding adaptive frameworks really squeezes existing resources.

Amanda Steili, author of the book Agility Advantage, says that organizations must set aside resources exclusively dedicated to innovative and forward thinking.

She has outlined the three key aspects of strategic agility: market agility, decision agility, and execution agility. Let’s look at all three.

Market Agility

This entails closely looking at what is going on in the market right now, and from there, anticipating what’s going to happen next. Market agility means looking two to five years ahead, and forecasting what’s up around the bend.

Decision Agility

Once an organization develops an understanding of the market and its direction, the next step is applying this knowledge. What opportunities do market changes offer to the company’s existing products and services?

Execution Agility

And finally, execution refers to an organization’s ability to make changes to products and services, and to remain open to more changes further down the pike. Soliciting feedback from employees is helpful at this stage, as they offer hands-on insight into what works with the current processes and what doesn’t.

Strategic agility entails not simply forecasting and looking ahead, but also an ability to really make changes. A truly agile company incorporates all three components.

Examples of Strategic Agility

Examples of Strategic Agility

When an organization doesn’t see telltale signs or read the writing on the wall, it ends up missing shifting trends in the market. At other times, companies listen closely to customers and acclimate quite well.

Take the company Netflix, for example. It started out as a little tadpole back in the 90s, when Reed Hastings got frustrated with the existing system: he didn’t like paying late fees to rent movies! And, as the story goes anyway, the idea for a mail-in movie service was born. As the demands of the market changed, Netflix shifted its products from DVDs to streaming. And as it became more international, it began investing in locally-produced programs and series, in order to suit the needs of its new customers.

On the other hand, Coke has come out with some real doozies. When it released Dasani water bottles in London in 2008, it didn’t take long for the market to realize they were being sold tap water at an astronomical price. Or in the 80s, when it released a sweetened “New Coke” to match its rival, Pepsi, it failed to read the market and understand that its core customers were loyal to the same old Coca Cola taste.

Just recently, Coke has released hard seltzers and caffeinated beverages into the market, presumably to reach millennial customers, who’re less keen on beer than their predecessors. How will these products fare? We have yet to know.

And so as you can see, when a company is being strategic and agile, it’s not only reading the market, but executing on a product that meets the customer’s needs.

Customer and the Bottom Line

The Focus: the Customer and the Bottom Line

Strategic agility is like being a chameleon. It means adapting your product or services, depending on the environment you find yourself in. In order to do this, it’s critical to have the right orientation. Going back to The Goal, the chief reason Eli struggled at his plant is that he wasn’t clear about the organization’s ultimate goal: to make money.

A happy customer is at the crux of financial success, and so in order to effectively apply strategic agility, the organization must be customer-oriented.

This requires, first and foremost, understanding who the customers are. What are they like, and what problems do they have? It’s helpful to brainstorm several types of customers, giving them details such as an age, gender, likes, dislikes and a background. All these details help identify their problems and needs. The creation of these personas doesn’t come from the imagination, but rather from extensive research of the market and talking to existing customers.

With specific ideas about the customer, it’s possible to brainstorm around creating a product or service that solves their needs in the moment.

A next step is brainstorming where the customer will be two or three years from now. How will they be solving these same problems? What sorts of competition comes into the mix?

Using this knowledge, it’s then possible to work on the operations of the company, closely looking at the crossover between user experience and the cost and process for creating the product.

When strategic agility isn’t hyper-focused on the customer, then solutions are created that don’t serve the company’s ultimate goal. Maybe you do have the latest and greatest technology, but even with all that expense, the bottom line isn’t affected.

It’s a bit like a chameleon changing his colors at the wrong times: sure it may look pretty, but as far as survival goes, the effort is completely useless.

Strategic Agility Implemented

Strategic Agility Implemented

In addition to brainstorming and ideation, strategic agility entails continual upheaval in an organization’s processes and systems.

Careful research is critical before making big changes, in order to determine that the changes really solve problems. This includes talking to the people who do the work, and listening to their insight.

Lisa Levy is an organizational change management specialist and the founder of Lcubed Consulting. Through her experience creating adaptive frameworks for organizations, she has identified the key stages organizations go through as they grow and scale.

1. Hire More People

In order to scale and grow, the first step is adding additional labor.

Let’s say a grocery store is remodeling and doubling in size in order to serve an expanding population. Initially, it must hire as much as twice the labor, in order to manage the new checkstands and keep the shelves stocked.

This step is very expensive, so the organization must budget and plan for it.

2. Refine Processes

When the scaling is achieved and the new labor is working away, it’s time to refine the processes.

Efficiency experts look at systems to understand how much labor is really needed in various areas, and at what times. With this information, it’s possible to strategically allocate labor only when it’s utilized

In a grocery store, for example, maybe the coffee bar only needs one barista for the afternoon shift, rather than two.

3. Automate With Technology

A final step is automation. As stated earlier, technology doesn’t automatically equal good. It’s necessary to look at the problem technology solves in order to determine if it improves the customer’s experience.

Consider automated check stands in a grocery store. Before installing this sort of expensive, sophisticated equipment, leadership considers if there’s a customer demand for it, and if so, how many should be installed.

In order to scale successfully, organizations go through these same steps over and over again. When setting out to make changes, it’s good to leverage the resources already on hand, and then add and expand from there.

Reasons Why Processes Fail

Four Reasons Why Processes Fail

Have you ever heard that anecdote about the woman who always cut off the ends of her roasts before she cooked them? When asked why, she said “Oh, this is the way my mother did it.”

When her mother was asked why she did it, she said, “Oh, that was the way my mother did it, so I guess you’re just supposed to.”

Finally, the grandma is asked why she cut off the ends of her roasts, and she says: “Oh, I cut them off because the pan I use is too small to fit the entire roast.”

Just like everyday people, organizations oftentimes get caught up in systems and work processes without giving them much reflection or examination. The organization gets in the way of its ability to make progress.

If you’re looking to scale or adapt your organization, here are four things to look out for.

1. Institutional Inertia

Just like the woman cooking the roast, oftentimes organizations go about doing things simply out of habit or tradition. There are deep grooves and patterns around processes and ways of thinking, and no one questions why things happen at all. It’s kind of a “well this is how we always did it, so it must be right,” mindset.

Maybe the accounting department spends hours at the end of the month creating report after report that simply gets sent to another department and filed away, without any examination or strategizing around them. Or maybe the team meets weekly, but doesn’t have an agenda or desired outcome for the meeting.

When organizations haven’t identified how certain actions serve the bottom line, it may well be wasting time and resources. Doing things simply out of habit often means money is left on the table.

Examining your own processes and systems for inefficiencies entails looking at them from two points of view. First, ask a lot of “why” questions. Why do we have this weekly meeting? Why do we create these reports each month? Secondly, look at the overall goal of increasing the bottom line, and ask what action steps must be taken in order to achieve it.

2. Rapid Processes

“Let me tell you, to stay competitive these days, we’ve got to do everything we can to be more efficient and reduce costs,” Eli tells Jonah in The Goal. Fast and cheap, Eli goes on to learn, however, doesn’t always mean better.

Sure, maybe a garment factory can figure out how to make a t-shirt in half the time and with a cheaper fabric, but what does that spell out in terms of quality, and ultimately in sales?

The project management “good cheap fast” triangle is helpful for guidance when considering the tradeoffs between time, cost and quality.

Rapid Processes

The principle of the triangle is that you must pick between something being high quality, inexpensive, or quickly made. And you can only have two of these choices.

For example, if you choose “fast” and speed up the production time, then either the quality suffers, or the price increases.

Although an organization may superficially think speeding up its processes is the solution, it may well make a different evaluation when it considers the tradeoffs. Can it stand to cut down on quality or increase prices?

3. Undocumented Processes

Have you ever worked at an organization where one person lived in a world of his or her own, completing all sorts of essential work independently from anyone else? When a foundational person like this departs, then it’s like a house of cards falling down. No one can pick up the ball, because all the work was unknown.

For an organization to have a strong foundation and scale with success, all processes must be documented and repeatable. This makes it possible to train more people in the same task, and for someone to assume responsibility for a position in the incident of a sudden departure.

One way to tell if your organization has effectively documented and cross-trained is to ask: What would happen if certain people were suddenly not to show up one day? Would anyone be able to pick up the slack?

4. Short-term Focus

Sometimes an organization has no mental space for looking ahead. Maybe they’re 100% focused on quarterly earnings, or completely spent just performing the day-to-day operations. Or else an organization is so cemented into its current way of being, that it can’t imagine a different version of itself.

Strategic agility entails looking into the crystal ball, and having the ability to morph a product or company identity in order to meet a changing market. If an organization is into print media, then maybe it needs to transition to digital. Or a brick and mortar store might set up an online store as well.

In sum, it’s easy for organizations to set themselves up against strategic thinking. Doing things out of habit or thinking short-term precludes any ability to adapt and change. Agility is about making space for innovation.

Strategies for Being Adaptive

Strategies for Being Adaptive

Strategic agility is like being an athlete; it entails being limber and having the ability to flex backwards from time to time. Just like an athlete, this doesn’t come without training.

Here are three methods for organizations to adapt strategically and with ease.

1. Make Room for Agility

Strategic agility requires an entirely different mindset from focusing on the here and now. It’s about giving up control, acknowledging flaws in the current ways of doing things, and having an openness to change.

The research and development behind making strategic changes also requires a lot of resources, and so it behooves an organization to have a position or even a department dedicated to scaling and adaptability.

It also entails empowering employees to provide suggestions and listening to them for feedback, and setting up a system for hiring forward-thinking employees in the first place.

2. Set Learning Goals

Setting income and production goals are no-brainers for most companies.

However, scaling with strategic agility requires education about the market, new technology, and competitors. And so an adaptable organization also sets learning goals.

With the rate at which things change, without a continual dedication to education, the entire organization would be living under a rock in just a short time.

3. Brainstorm and Test Ideas

Creating innovative products is a process. After doing a lot of market research, a dedicated team brainstorms around an idea or new product. And then it tests prototypes with selected customers in order to receive feedback.

When something looks like it has potential, the next step is bringing the product to the market to see how it fares.

Implementing strategic agility entails being forward looking. It uses a completely different set of skills than maximizing the bottom line in the present moment.

The More Things Change

The More Things Change

Whether you’re a tiny start-up of three employees, or a Fortune 500 company, every organization encounters the demand for constant innovation.

Unexpected change is always up around the corner, and strategic agility is part and parcel to keeping up to speed and staying relevant.

However, even amidst the constant change, the core goals for a business remain constant: it’s always dedicated to earning a profit by meeting customer’s needs. When focused on this goal, the organization is able to scale in such a way that it continues to flourish.

Strategic agility, then, is a delicate balance of staying true to core values, while also being limber enough to change. This agility demands an openness to learning and assuming risk.

When an organization becomes set in its ways, it’s unable to make significant changes. Overcoming this entails thinking long term, scrutinizing procedures, and documenting processes. An adaptive transformation may require receiving advice from an expert.

When an organization leads with agility, it stages the framework for growth from one cycle to the next.