Managing groups

an introduction via Asana, a task management software

What is this about

A closer look at what running groups on campus involves, things to keep in mind, and an introduction to a possible tool to add to your arsenal

why Asana?

Asana is there to help keep an overview of what your goals are in the long run/big picture, allowing you to break down larger projects into smaller chunks, and managing those chunks so that as a group you are accountable to each other; asana also makes it easy for you guys to step in to help each other out when timelines go crazy.  

At its most basic, it ties together multiple platforms (email, dropbox, google docs, calendar), which helps prevent doubling up or information getting lost.

At its most successful, task management includes physical elements as well.

management phases:

What that includes:

project creation project planning project execution

member coordinationproject definition

member recruitment

task delegation

task management

bug listing

what management does:

(incl. members) task compilation

management steps:

fulfill tasksattend meetings show up

lead vision manage the logistics overview action points

what management does:

what members do:

overview action pointsmanage logisticslead vision

management steps: what goes wrong

management:

you decide on a list of projects to tackle this year -- or don’t

you set an initial meeting - by email, various websites, write

agenda in doc

you distribute tasks -- or don’t, and do it all yourself

you handle issues/communications -- or don’t, and find out day of

continue having meetings -- or don’t, and do it all yourself

disappointed in result

project creation project planning project execution

fulfill tasksattend meetings show upmembers:

management steps: what goes wrong

fulfill tasksattend mtgs show up

overcommitted

miss meetings and feel lost not sure how to do

not actually what was interested in/have capacity for

too busy to

disappointed in result

project creation project planning project execution

lead vision manage the logistics overview action points

members:

management:

members:

overview action pointsmanage logisticslead vision

management steps: what goes wrong

you decide on a list of projects to tackle this year -- or don’t

you set an initial meeting - by email, various websites, write

agenda in doc

you distribute tasks -- or don’t, and do it all yourself

fulfill tasksattend mtgs show up

you handle issues/communications -- or don’t, and find out day of

continue having meetings -- or don’t, and do it all yourself

overcommitted

miss meetings and feel lost not sure how to do

not actually what was interested in/have capacity for

too busy to

disappointed in result

disappointed in result

project creation project planning project execution

management:

members:

management: mapped to Asana

fulfill tasksattend mtgs show up

lead vision manage logistics overview action points

inbox/agenda task panel

project template agenda inbox

people panel tags

project creation project planning project execution

management:

project templateagenda

members’ paneldocument integration

inboxtags

inbox/agenda task panel mail/calendar integration

overview: asanait’s best to go to asana.com to see the intro yourself. but in broad strokes:

projects

tasks to be sorted

followers are people that see updates in their inbox

comments can be emailed in, and will all appear here, and will be sent to all followers if they have it set to do so

ideally headers are all preset and give structure to the tasks in projects in general

task notes: specifics, links to documents, etc

1

1

2

2

34

3

4 projects associated with a particular task

5

5

6

7

6

7

Let’s look at this again: how Asana helps

lead vision

you decide on a list of projects to tackle this year -- or don’t

you set an initial meeting - by email, various websites, write

agenda in doc

project templatecreates a transparent look at what is ahead and the panel allows for changes as you see people more/less involved in any one project

project creation

management:

Let’s look at this again: how Asana helps

lead vision

you decide on a list of projects to tackle this year -- or don’t

you set an initial meeting - by email, various websites, write

agenda in doc

project creation

management:

project templatecreates a transparent look at what is ahead and the panel allows for changes as you see people more/less involved in any one project

Let’s look at this again: how Asana helps

manage logistics

you distribute tasks -- or don’t, and do it all yourself

you handle issues/communications -- or don’t, and find out day of

agendaallows for you to be identifying topics of discussion as they show up, and makes meetings something everyone is invested in; links to action points of specific projects you can assign

project planning

management:

add tasks to agenda that ought to be covered in the next mtg

add the meeting time and place as a task and add everyone as followers

Let’s look at this again: how Asana helps

manage logistics

you distribute tasks -- or don’t, and do it all yourself

you handle issues/communications -- or don’t, and find out day of

task delegationproject planning includes the entire team, and tasks are best discussed as a group as the project takes shape. But it helps to have someone to make sure each task is associated with someone specific.

project planning

management:

people, and expected task duration, help create dependencies minus gargantuan gantt charts.

Let’s look at this again: how Asana helps

manage logistics

you distribute tasks -- or don’t, and do it all yourself

you handle issues/communications -- or don’t, and find out day of

members’ panelis your way to keep a finger on the pulse on your group -- what tasks are people sitting on? Gives you the opportunity to hone in on your members’ capacities and real interests within your group

project planning

management:

Let’s look at this again: how Asana helps

manage logistics

you distribute tasks -- or don’t, and do it all yourself

you handle issues/communications -- or don’t, and find out day of

doc. integrationattach files straight from dropbox, or link to google docs, to preserve changes across different members and after updates

project planning

management:

Let’s look at this again: how Asana helps

overview action points

continue having meetings -- or don’t, and do it all yourself

disappointed in result

inboxis your way to see what others are accomplishing, what they are stuck on, and let’s you communicate with the urgent tasks more directly, rather than sifting through each project

project execution

management:

Let’s look at this again: how Asana helps

overview action points

continue having meetings -- or don’t, and do it all yourself

disappointed in result

tagsthere are things that fall through the cracks because they don’t seem to be associated with anyone in particular -- tags allows you to collect those across projects to address at mtgs

project execution

management:

Let’s look at this again: how Asana helps

attend mtgs

overcommitted

miss meetings and feel lost

inbox/agendayou see when and where your next meeting is, and can communicate directly to contribute; should you miss meetings you can see what tasks were assigned to you

project creation

members:

Let’s look at this again: how Asana helps

attend mtgs

overcommitted

miss meetings and feel lost

inbox/agendayou see when and where your next meeting is, and can communicate directly to contribute; should you miss meetings you can see what tasks were assigned to you

project creation

members:

having a central place to catch projects that are lagging (tasks aren’t being created/checked off) is a good way to catch things before it gets too late. And it helps to act as a reminder to celebrate projects that are moving along.

Let’s look at this again: how Asana helps

task panelyou have an overview of all the documents associated with a project, or at least a starting point to find them, a direct link to ask questions and receive answers and can re-assign as needed

project planning

members: fulfill tasks

not sure how to do

not actually what was interested in/have capacity for

Let’s look at this again: how Asana helps

task panelyou have an overview of all the documents associated with a project, or at least a starting point to find them, a direct link to ask questions and receive answers and can re-assign as needed

project planning

members: fulfill tasks

not sure how to do

not actually what was interested in/have capacity for

tasks can be cross-referenced, creating task-dependencies (eg: task lives both in agenda & in a specific project

Let’s look at this again: how Asana helps

email/calendarintegration

alongside the PR efforts your group makes, there is a central platform that allows for different users to use what they are already most comfortable with

project execution

show up

too busy to

disappointed in result

members:

So, what now? How do you integrate Asana?

take a moment at the beginning of the year in a meeting to have everyone sign up and access the agenda project, for instance. have someplace central where students can easily stumble upon links to the projects

• paste discussions from emails into comments of specific tasks

• use asana as a template

• USE in meetings to assign tasks◦ if someone is absent, send them a screenshot of their tasks, and link it to that project (when

that person goes to the link, they’ll be prompted to sign in and voila, be right there)•

show the Action Steps document at meetings routinely and ask “any Qs?”

• share the belief that this is in fact better than email chains & documents