In this article, we will delve into the definition of work management , how it differs from project management, some of the common problems related to work orchestration and how this methodology can solve them, along with some specific cases of companies that have implemented it.
What is work management?
Coordinating work across teams in an organization today is increasingly chaotic, especially when you need to keep up with emails, Whatsapp, or internal chats like Slack. Without a system japan telephone number data for planning, organizing, and executing work, confusion and chaos grow, causing teams to move slowly, miss deadlines, or fail to achieve their most important goals. This is where work management can help.
But what is work management?
When an organization fully embraces work management, it ends up creating an always-updated system of accountability that helps teams plan, organize, and execute all their tasks seamlessly.
Here's how Asana defines it:
" Work management is a systematic approach designed to orchestrate an organization's work flows—whether it's a project involving members of different teams or a routine task—to provide the clarity teams need to achieve their goals faster. It's about coordinating people and working across all levels of an organization to ensure everyone has the information they need to do the work that matters most. "
Work management vs project management: what's the difference?
While people sometimes confuse work management with project management, it is important to emphasize that they are two very different, yet related, methodologies.
Work management is a broad system, which includes projects, planning and processes: this means that project management is only a part of work management. Here is the essential difference:
Projects: A project is any work that a person or team works on with a specific goal and is typically limited in time. Examples of projects include launching a product, opening a new office, or producing an ebook.
Processes: A process is a repeating cycle of actions that have no end date. Examples of processes include content release calendars, weekly code reviews, or creative or production processes.
As its name suggests, project management deals almost exclusively with projects, albeit of varying sizes. Project management systems have been around for decades, creating standardized practices that anyone can use. Two common, proven project management methodologies are Waterfall and Agile . Waterfall methodologies require project phases to be completed in a linear sequence, while Agile methodologies break projects into smaller chunks that the team works on in iterative cycles.
From the outside, it’s easy to think that most companies are easily managed, but without an insider’s perspective, we only see the end results and not the journey that was taken to get there. The reality is that all teams face challenges, especially when it comes to managing and coordinating their work, which then has a big impact on the organization’s productivity.
In this section, we will discuss some common problems that teams face when managing work and see how work management can help solve these difficulties, enabling people and teams to become more productive and increase their contribution to the organization, both qualitatively and quantitatively.
Too much "work on work"
Think about your day and how you typically work. What tasks and activities fill your time the most? According to Asana's Anatomy of Work Index , which surveyed more than 10,000 knowledge workers around the world, it's likely that the majority of your time—60 percent of your day—is spent "working about work."
What is work-at-work? It’s all those activities that take away time from more meaningful, skilled work an employee was hired to do. This includes work-related communication, searching for information, switching between apps, managing priorities, and keeping track of project status. Work-at-work is so ingrained in any office culture that we don’t even realize that these tasks are wasting our time; we just think of it as part of the job.
In reality, all of these ancillary activities add up, resulting in most employees spending only 27% of their time on skilled work—in other words, the work they were hired to do in the first place and are paid to do. Too much work-about-work often leads to overwork and sucks up the time and energy that should be devoted to specialized tasks that only they can do.
Additionally, 35% of knowledge workers globally take only one or no breaks during the workday, while 30% of them globally regularly work late from the office or home (in Japan, the percentage exceeds 80%). This issue is linked to a high index: 82% of respondents feel close to having burn out. The challenge is not only for the employees who are experiencing this mental condition, but also for managers and leaders who must keep their teams in the most productive state to achieve the best results.
