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
Top Related