What comes to mind when you hear the term “project management tool”? You probably think of tasks, productivity, dashboards, due dates…
Have you fallen asleep yet? We just drooled on ourselves a little bit, too. There’s seriously nothing on earth more boring than project management tools.
That’s because your working life is far more dynamic and complex than a static list of to-dos and subtasks. What you really need is a place to centralize all communication and keep everyone engaged and focused on what matters the most.
And most importantly, you need something that your team will actually enjoy using—a tool as addictive and social as Facebook, but one that actually helps you get your work done rather than hinders it.
Here are the three reasons you don’t need a project management tool:
- You need to focus on the big picture
It’s good management when everyone knows what they need to do. It’s great management when everyone knows what the whole company needs to do.
Most project management tools don’t bridge the gap between low-level—the tasks you need to accomplish on a daily basis—with the high level—how your efforts are contributing to the company’s success.
When you’re confined to a list of tasks, you feel like Sisyphus endlessly pushing a boulder up a mountain just to watch it roll back down again. But when you see the bigger picture, you’re emotionally invested in the company goals and find motivation in working towards something bigger than yourself.
- You need a tool that’s easy and fun to use
After speaking to hundreds of managers, we identified one fundamental truth—people feel they are working for the tools they use, and not the other way around. While the tool may provide some value, it takes a lot of time, energy, and effort to access meaningful information, and it’s only a small fraction of the information you really need.
The solution to this is three-fold: you need a tool that’s intuitive, non-imposing, and fast. You should be able to start working on it without any training, and the product should never-ever-ever ask you to add data to manage its internal operations. If you find you’re a slave to managing the dependencies, times, and resources of a certain chart, you’re working too hard for your PM tool.
- You need to enjoy a positive working environment
Avishay Abrahami, the CEO of Wix, once said something brilliant:
“When you hide information from your team, you limit their intelligence to that of your own, crippling the smart people you hired.”
When companies hide information from their employees (intentionally or not), they create silos of people who are “in the know” and others who are “in the dark.” That becomes a hotbed for organizational politics to thrive, and it prevents your organization from moving forward.
Most project management tools and traditional ways of communicating—email, meetings, and one-on-one conversations—are inherently opaque. You need a system that allows everyone to see what everyone else is working on. This allows individuals to see how their tasks fit into the bigger picture, and makes them feel that their work matters and is making a difference.
Origo Solutions as a partner can help you to implement any kind solution in Monday.com with ease without any major hassle. Also, we provide support in English and Spanish for business in all the United States.
Original post in Monday.com