July 2000 Newsletter ; ManagePro Management and Team Effectiveness Software Tool

ManagePro Newsletter July 2000

Welcome. Hope your 4th was relaxing and recharging. This month we are going to focus upon tips for getting better utilization across your work group.

Here's our topic headings:

Best Practices Audit
Recognizing and Resolving Obstacles
Build a quick report to view an individual's latest progress notes.
What's new this month at Performance Solutions Technology.

1. BEST PRACTICES AUDIT

A common first step to any type of improvement is to establish a baseline or starting point. Based on our research over the past two years, the following practices are typical of organizations that are achieving high levels of productivity using ManagePro. Evaluate where you stand in comparison. Better yet, have your whole group fill it out to get a work group perspective.

Best Practices Assessment

In terms of daily use, they keep it active and running all day long to process all general business information. (Yes/No)
Goals and key projects are linked to strategic plan and laid out in goal planner with visibility for the entire team.
Each goal has a series of sub-goals reflecting a clear plan and checklist for reaching that objective.
Team members are using regular progress note entries on active goals to document their work.
Action Items and follow-ups are tracked as to-dos.
Meetings are facilitated and structured using ManagePro and a projector.

2. RECOGNIZING AND RESOLVING OBSTACLES

Rolling out a tool such as ManagePro for the purpose of increasing productivity means CHANGE. In addition, when you rollout ManagePro across a work group you will surface existing collaboration and coordination problems… count on it. The tools, habit and discipline involved in increasing productivity represents a change that some people will resist passively, some actively, and some to the point of a confrontation. To avoid these types of obstacles, in hopes they will go away, is wishful thinking. Your best approach is to quickly recognize and put in place a plan to resolve obstacles when they emerge and keep your work group moving forward.

Here's a list on the following page of common obstacles as they are voiced by users and some suggested responses:

Surface & Resolve Resistance

Negatives & Responses

1.It's too difficult to use (Don't know how to use it.)
1R. Let's structure some training time for you this week. When do you have an available hour?

2. I have my own personal system (comfort with existing, discomfort with change).
2R. You can use it if willing to do double entry
- However, private systems are non-collaborative.
- I would like you to use the new system for 90 days and then let's discuss its merit.

3. I'm already too busy to learn something else.
3R. Every information management system takes time,
- You will find this actually requires less time than paper systems, and cuts down on time spent responding to respond to requests from others,
- I would like you to commit to spending a minimum of a half-hour each day keeping it updated and to immediately ask for help if you need more training.

4. I don't need this.
4R. I understand that's your perspective, but actually we need it. We need to coordinate our efforts better; we need to avoid the mistakes that cost us dollars and time. In addition I bet there are some areas you would like to see this system address for you.
- Would you like to spend less time in meetings,
- Would you like to have an easy system to ensure follow-through on your requests of others?

5. This is just another reporting system for administration's benefit.
5R. Actually no one gets enough credit or recognition, we want to use this system to document your successes and follow through.

3. BUILD A QUICK REPORT TO VIEW AN INDIVIDUAL'S LATEST PROGRESS NOTES.

Here's a quick tip for building a screen report that let's you see a list of all the goals of an individual, and when their last update or progress note was on each goal.

First go to their individual goal planner.
Use the wrench and add a View, entitling it Last Update.
Add at least three fields to the view, Title, Last Update and Status, and then save the view.
Sort that view based upon the field Last Update.
You will see a listing of all the individual's goals, and the date of their last update to that goal. To see details on the last update, just click the progress note button.
This is a great place to send a to-do/email to your direct report and say, "You need to update your progress notes on all your goals that are over a month late in updates. Let me know when you have finished."

4. WHAT'S NEW THIS MONTH AT PERFORMANCE SOLUTIONS TECHNOLOGY.

This month we are launching a new effort to help users effectively get their teams and work groups up and running on ManagePro. We are calling it our 30 & 90 day Implementation Programs. As a special this month, we are dropping the price of Teamware to the Solo version price if people buy this program. You can find out more about this option at the ManagePro page on our website (performancesolutionstech.com/managepro.htm).

We are also evaluating user interest in having a chat room on our website to assist users in collaborating with each other. Please send us an email if this is of interest to you.

Have a great month.

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