A set of tools that help you manage teams better.
Great managers know by instinct what needs to happen to create great team performance. So why don’t we see great team performance everywhere? Because sometimes the simple things are actually hard to do. ManageTeamsBetter helps you do all the simple things really well to help build great team performance. So here’s some of what we help you do.
Setting and tracking goals
Teams that have clear and documented goals perform better than teams who don’t. By writing goals down we force ourselves to think more clearly about what is important, and we better visualise the sorts of activities that will be required to reach these goals. Furthermore, there are goals for individuals and goals for teams. By writing down the goals, it becomes easier to make sure that an individual’s goals are well aligned with the team goals, and that the goals of multiple individuals align well together. Once a team has well-crafted goals for everyone in the team, it then becomes important to track activity and progress towards these goals. By recording progress (or lack thereof) it becomes easier to know when and how to take corrective action.
Acknowledged communications
Business routinely needs to communicate important information to team members. This can be safety related information - e.g. how to use and operate specific equipment safely. It can also be policy related information such as how the business chooses to interact with customers. One of the persistent challenges with workplace communication is knowing if the intended recipient has actually received and understood the material. Acknowledged communications is a way of publishing information in video and SMS format and keeping track of who has received it, and who has acknowledged that they have read it and understand it. Using acknowledged communications, you can be sure that team members are receiving important information they need to perform at their best.
Making sure the team has the right skills
Many businesses require their team members to hold certifications (or licences) to perform certain types of work. For example, a valid driver’s licence, a forklift licence, a welding certificate, CPR & first-aid etc…Failure to ensure that team members have the relevant and valid certifications can be a serious liability for a business. The main motivation for ensuring team members have the right certifications is so that they are safe, and the work gets completed with an acceptable level of quality. However, the fines for non-compliance are significant. Worse, should an accident occur, and it is found that the involved parties are not certified, then the penalties can be even more severe. By managing certifications centrally, you will always know who does and doesn’t have the required certifications, and you will be notified well in advance of when they expire.
Define and share operating procedures
Every business has policies and procedures that describes “how things are done’”. This can be the operation of machinery, open & closing the store, stock taking, ordering new stock, etc… These procedures are something that people need to refer to periodically as parts of the business evolve and do things differently (and better!) over time. They help onboard new team members efficiently and effectively. Once a business reaches a certain size, usually about 10 employees, it becomes difficult to ensure that these policies and procedures are followed simply by “word of mouth”. Instead, there is a need to write them down, and share them. This feature area allows a business to create and maintain documents that capture the important procedures that team members need to know - and then share them with team members.
Action Oriented Reporting
Most business owners and operators have little time to review general reports. Instead, they benefit from having summary information that explicitly spells out what actions need to be taken to address specific issues. We call this action-oriented reporting. If something appears on an action-oriented report, it is something that you likely need to act on. For example, if the forklift certification for the forklift driver in the warehouse is about to expire in 2 weeks, you know that you need to take action immediately to renew that certification. Similarly, if a team member raises an issue that signals safety may be compromised (the presence of a trip hazard for example), then you need to know about this immediately so you can take corrective action.
Put fast feedback loops in place
Business run better when they tap into the collective talents of their entire team. Opportunities for improvement, big and small, should be collected and managed. Opportunities to avoid problems and reduce risks should also be collected and managed. Businesses with feedback loops outperform those that do not. Setting up fast feedback loops to manage issues, suggestions and feedback are an essential ingredient for building a high performance team.
Help team members with self-service
Tools that help you run your business are more effective if all team members can contribute and participate. The ManageTeamsBetter toolset is built with this principle in mind. Every team member in the business will ideally be equipped with these tools, on their phone, so that you can engage your entire workforce in running your business. Of course private data is kept private, and strict permissions are in place that control who can do what in different parts of the toolset, but the underlying principle is to include everyone in a self-service manner.
It’s not rocket science…
Most if not all of these things are practices that great managers and leaders know to do instinctively. However the pace and pressure of modern business often makes doing the simple things hard. ManageTeamsBetter is a low cost simple set of tools that make deploying these great management practices easy.