When Asana Isn’t Working
Most of us are thankful we don’t have to figure out how all the gears work in our vehicle each day. We just hop in, turn the key, put it in drive and we’re off. Simple. Efficient. Perfect outcome. This is how we want our business to operate. Systems are in place. They do what they are supposed to, they don’t require a lot of complex interaction from people, they get us to our destination. This is every organizational leader, department head and project manager’s dream.
THIS IS ALSO HOW ASANA SHOULD BE WORKING.
It should be a well oiled machine that facilitates action. Unfortunately, I often find myself working with teams that are stuck and overwhelmed with complex systems that require a lot of work to maintain. There are many reasons why an organization’s workspace may be cluttered and complicated. However, in my experience the most common one is due to a misunderstanding of how the Asana “engine” works.
Asana consists of two very important systems that MUST come together properly. Back to our vehicle illustration, there are two complex sets of gears that must engage properly whenever our car (Asana) is put in drive. In other words one group of gears connects to another group of gears and, voila, the car is on it’s way.
System #1: Project Management (Teams)
The first set of gears is the most obvious to us. After all, the main reason we signed up for Asana was to build and maintain projects, systems, pipelines and workflows for our teams. On Asana’s product page, they proclaim to be, “The #1 software in product and project management.” Clearly, Asana is all about project management!
This is where so many organizations get stuck. They assume that project management is the primary set of ‘gears’ in the Asana vehicle and invest vast amounts of resources in developing those systems. Two years later, team leads are scratching their heads, wondering why things aren’t getting done, why adoption is low and why people are confused, overwhelmed or demotivated. What they failed to fully realize is that the ‘engine’ couldn’t engage properly until it connected to the other set of gears.
System #2: Personal Productivity (Individuals)
Simply put, a team is a group of individuals who are working on and towards the same goals. For the team to meet their objectives, each unique person inside that team needs to get things done efficiently on their own. Asana has built a set of ‘gears’ (tools) in its vehicle to allow individuals to process, prioritize and organize their unique set of tasks. When everyone regularly utilizes these tools AND when the organization sets standards, provides training and engages in simple best practices to support them, this part of the Asana engine is ready to engage with the project management side.
Each person on your team is one cog in the gear for your project. Take one cog out of the gear and it’s going to slip on occasion. Take three away and it’s going to slip a lot. Take five or more and, well, the gear spins (people are working) but it rarely engages properly with the project.
In my next set of posts, I will be sharing some Asana Best Practices to help organizations ensure this second set of gears is optimized to run as efficiently as possible. I firmly believe that these tips can potentially double or even triple organization’s efficiency. If I’m right, then the math says tens, hundreds or even millions of dollars may be at stake!
One final note: don’t let the simplicity of any Asana Best Practice trick you into thinking it’s not important! Sometimes, it’s the little things that add up to the greatest impact!
