There are a lot of critical management processes that can be significantly improved by using technology to automate all or parts of the process.  At TASKey and working with our clients, we have found that using software to automate and coordinate many enabling management processes saves time and effort, reduces stress, and achieves goals faster. Management is about helping people to work together to achieve business goals.  The functions of management are: Goal Setting, Planning, Organising, Leading, Monitoring, Communicating and Coordinating.  There are many parts of managemen... [More]

It can be argued that the greatest weakness in workplaces is the inability of relevant people to keep shared tasks and To Do’s synchronised.  This inability wastes a lot of time and effort, causes stress, strains interpersonal relationships, and constrains productivity. To Do’s are the working level actions done to complete a task.  They are generally managed by individuals who personally make lists to keep track of their To Do’s from plans, meetings and other communications.  It doesn’t take long for personal To Do lists (even when maintained) to get ou... [More]

Most people use some form of a To Do list to remember and decide what they need to do next.  The problem with To Do lists is they take a lot of time and effort to create and keep updated. Imagine what it would be like to have software that scans relevant projects and tasks to find your To Do’s and produces an always up-to-date To Do list for you.  All you need to do is tick off To Do’s when they are complete. TASKey’s smart To Do List software automatically: finds projects and tasks that are relevant to you updates task plans, meeting actions, other peoples ... [More]

Achieving accountability is relatively simple for a single task.  However as the number of tasks increases, achieving accountability becomes harder and harder.  Unfortunately in the real world, most people are involved in many tasks, so a simple way to manage personal and organisational accountability is urgently need. The basic building block of accountability is a single task.  With bigger tasks and projects, simply a number of single tasks aligned and implemented together.  Each single task has a context and workflow of To Do’s required to complete the task. &nb... [More]

Cultural change happens one person at a time, so everyone needs to know what is happening and what they need to do.  Positive accountability ensures that each person knows what they need to do to contribute to organisational change and keeps relevant people informed about actual progress. Starting at the top of an organisation and letting change filter down is inefficient and takes too long, because there is no consistent structure for personal accountability.  People are forced to make it up as they go along, so the change quickly looses direction and momentum. In simple terms, a ... [More]

Gantt charts are an easy way to see if progress is on track.  But integrating Gantt charts and keeping them updated and relevant in real-time has been an elusive dream.  The reasons why this has been elusive are: ·         Most solutions produce a separate Gantt chart for each project or strategy.  Consequently to understand the relationships between projects, strategies, and other tasks; you need to compare the information on a number of Gantt charts. ·         Who needs to do what... [More]

How can we improve efficiency in our workplace?  This is a common question being asked by many managers.  Many say that improving efficiency is becoming harder and harder, because most of the easier solutions have been already implemented. Doing more with less has worked for a while, but most workplaces are having difficulty keeping their heads above water.  Many say that the volume of work is increasing, while the number of people available to do the work is staying the same.  There is a limit on how much work each person can do, and in a lot of workplaces this limit has ... [More]

A major deficiency exists in workplace management – poor efficiency at the working level (that is operational, tactical, team and personal time management).  The majority of the work on strategies, projects and larger tasks is done by teams and individuals at the working level.  But until now, there have been no consistent methods and tools that help teams and individuals work together efficiently and keep management informed in real-time. Strategy and Project Management use a framework of tasks and sub-tasks to provide alignment and higher level coordination.   Ta... [More]

Project schedules provide a framework (WBS) of high level tasks.  Progress on these tasks is regularly updated in terms of a percentage complete.  Based on the percentage complete of each task, project managers look for exceptions to the project plan and make appropriate corrections. This is a high risk approach, because the management of each project task is left to a task manager to get the task done and report progress.  There is an air gap between the project schedule and what is actually happening to do each project task. It can be argued that task managers face more comp... [More]

Change Management is becoming a growth industry involving many methods, tools and external consultants.  Most of these try to facilitate communications that should be a natural part of how people collaborate. Unfortunately most of these methods, tools, and external consultants add additional complexity to an already complex situation.  A simple tool is urgently needed that significantly reduces complexity by providing the right information to the right people at the right time, without the need for external assistance. A core requirement of change management is clearly communicati... [More]