Instead, use the nominal group method.

Each team member writes lots of ideas on paper about the topic (either before the meeting, or at the start). Once everyone is done, the coordinator should list all the ideas on a board so everyone can see them. This means all ideas get shown. Then you can discuss ideas, or vote on the best.

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Possibly run some short workshops on the use of keyboard shortcuts, quicker ways to do things, etc.

Put together a simple list of commonly used tasks that have easy shortcuts or quicker ways to do it. Such as using the windows + E keys to open a file explorer window.

Some people open many copies of folders or programs whereby their task bar is full of small tabs that are too small to show the title. This is useless. They should only open as many as can still be read.

The increased efficiency accross the entire office based side of a project can by substantial. Individual people can increase their efficiency by up to 30% or more.

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If all members of your team use the calendar function properly, they would have all their meetings and busy times entered into their calendar. When you request a meeting of them, you will be able to see available times in a simple bar chart and book accordingly.

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E.g. “A pair of reading glasses have been misplaced. If you have seen these could you please return them to reception.”

This kind of message often gets sent to the whole organisation mail system, which could include thousands of people, when it should be sent just to that local office.

The lost time associated with thousands of people readings a broadly sent email like that and the bandwidth costs could amount to thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.

In the above example, approximately 5000 people received the message. 5000 x 30 seconds is about 42 hours wasted time ($5000+ in billable time). Plus the time wasted in people laughing about it and replying with comments. Plus the storage costs and transmittal costs.

Not only does it make the sender look foolish, it wastes your project time, resources, and if from your project, its reputation.

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• Give them a list of lower priority tasks (such as improving certain systems) that they can do when they have no other tasks (particularly important for office workers).
• Give them a list of recommended training (short online courses) to do in their spare time (e.g. while waiting for results or feedback). Especially for new members who haven’t been given lots of work yet.

Along with giving them work to do, make sure they know how to do it, where to access it, and who specifically to talk with for clarification or further instructions.

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• This is for your benefit as well as for other project managers.
• When starting a project, it is useful to be able to find a similar project your organisation has done and look at its lessons learned.
• It should include both technical and management areas.
• It should be added to your organisations database to be easily searchable by project type, project manager’s name, key functional areas, etc.

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• Books could be borrowed by team members
• Include training books for common project tools
• Industry specific manuals and books
• Industry magazines
• Self improvement books (goal setting, financial planning, brain training etc)
• Audio books of above (for when driving)

If on small projects and based in an office amongst other projects, consider the above but for the whole project office/organisation.

Include books such as:

• Free from Fear
• How to Win Friends and Influence People

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Paying an external expert to do some specific tasks (e.g. calibration of sensors) may be quicker (saving costs and time) than finding an internal commissioning engineer with available time and getting them trained.

Also recognise that such training could benefit the company in the long run if it is a common task. If not, then outsourcing it may be the best way to get it done.

Time can often be the biggest saving to the project by outsourcing some tasks, as long as you manage the risks of doing so properly.

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• Include an outline of the objectives, scope, size, and benefits (to the organisation, community, person)
• Possibly include total budget and budgets for individual areas.
• Status of project (over/under budget, behind/ahead of schedule)
• Significant problems
• List of main tools for that person/role
• Role and responsibility of that person
• Who they report to

Could split all above into two parts. One part for everyone, one part specific to each person.

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• Ideally provide this in writing to the team members so they can easily refer to it.
• Provide clear direction on what activities each person should work on.
• Give clear time objectives (when is this activity due)
• Make sure each member knows what information they are expected to report, and what meetings to attend.

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