A couple of Saturdays ago, Stewart Young joined us at Changemaker Institute to discuss important project management skills and useful tools. Stewart specializes in program development and implementation and serves as the program director at Cafe Reconcile, a non-profit restaurant that teaches life skills and job training to young people from severely at-risk communities who desire to make a positive change in their lives. The workshop emphasized the importance of effective project management strategies, and two Changemaker Institute fellows shared some of the project management tools used at Taylor and within Changemaker Institute. That presentation is summarized below, to be used as a resource for project management tools and useful tips.

1. When working within a team, organizing tasks and responsibilities can easily turn into an ocean of emails, and messages can often get lost in the fray. Asana and Basecamp are two platforms upon which teams can manage projects and tasks together without the email flow. Asana is our platform of choice here at Taylor; it allows you to assign repeating tasks, mark due dates, comment on tasks to mark progress, follow who is working on each item, and add subtasks within a task. There is even a setting that shoots a unicorn across the screen upon the completion of certain items. What more could you want?
2. Organizing information is just as important as organizing tasks, especially when working with many documents and data. Google Drive and Box serve as excellent communal platforms for teams, and Evernote is often preferred for individual use. Within Changemaker Institute we use Google Drive to store our working documents and spreadsheets and Box to store pdfs, long term schedules, and photos. We also suggest having a personal method of information storage for when you have that bright idea in the middle of a lecture or as you’re dozing off to sleep. Our staff’s methods vary from emailing themselves, to writing it down in a notebook, to creating a voice memo. Just be sure to have a system in place to later file that information where it belongs.
3. Having good tools for project management is key, but what works best differs between every project and each team’s needs. One of the most difficult aspects of project management can be addressing current and potential strategies when project management isn’t working. Whether this means calling a team meeting, separating work and personal accounts, or trying something new, don’t hesitate to fail fast and switch it up. The right project management strategy is the one that works best for you.
4. Communication is the final key to successful project management. This is true for communication within your team and externally. Coordinating email signatures, fonts, tone, and your mission statement is an easy way to add notable levels of professionalism and cohesion to your work. Frequent check-ins help everyone stay on track and create space for team members to voice any concerns. Lastly, checking in with yourself to think about what is and isn’t working in your project management strategy is the best way to make changes and improve methods on a personal level. You are most aware of what your needs are; don’t be afraid to tailor the way you work to fit them!

By: Lillian Bacon, Changemaker Institute Fellow