Capital Pacific Homes Turning Dreams Into Reality

1
Capital Pacific HomesTurning Dreams Into
Reality
THE PRESIDENTIAL SEMINAR, Hanley Wood March 30th
April 3rd, 2008 Aspen, Colorado
Effective Task Management Communication
2
Presentation Goal Benefit
Goal To convey a task management process that
can be used to Communicate, Monitor and Manage
the Performance of Individuals Departments and
Divisions from one data source
Benefit No need to purchase any new software, or
a web based collaboration system. Just
procedural training and implementation. Project
Status and Updates can be documented and conveyed
to an entire organization, department or
individual.
3
Why Is This a Benefit?

• Our managers and employees
• are managing more departments
• have more responsibilities for each person
• more projects to track
• work to pick up that someone else has left behind
• and less resources
• Any combination of the above can create a
  management by Fire Drill approach instead of by
  priorities.

4
Why We Put This Together

• Use of emails to communicate ongoing tasks to
  multiple people was inefficient.
• No work path or progress report.
• Inconsistent tracking due to individual lists.
• Multiple people on emails lead to questions about
  assignment of tasks.
• Inefficient use of employee time.
• Need for a single source reference point for
  everyone to access.

5
One Source - One Location

• Now from one location, everyone in our company
  can view and update the progress of a task from a
  central source.
• We can monitor the progress of an item without
  interrupting others.
• Provide a detailed history of events
• i.e. if an employee leaves or if we need a
  defense for a defect claim, etc.
• Evaluate performance on multiple levels
• Division
• Department
• Individual

6
Start With a Public Folder
7
View By Category
8
Review a Department
9
Review Current Work Priorities
10
Sorting Tools to Define Views
Subject Naming Protocol (consistent for all
departments and tasks)
Owner Department/Project/ Division
Bold Date Names Consistent for each entry
Contacts Task Responsibility
Category Project
11
Devil is in the Details
Additional Fields in Details Tab
Company Sorting Field DD (for Division level
activity)
12
Unlimited View Options
Create a new view, copy and edit an existing view
or modify an existing view.
13
Easily Transition Between Views
Drop down menu shows list of defined views
14
Review Tasks at a Department Level
View Production tasks
Grouped by project
15
Dig into the Details
Project, Activity code, Description , Issue
Hyperlinks to files
Vendor Communication
Copies of e-mails
Project, Work Phase
Responsible Persons
16
Microsoft Functionality

• One location, for all MS programs
• Hyperlinks to
• Files, Web sites, plans photographs
• Insert documents from
• Excel, Word and MS Project inserts
• Timeline of events Progress

17
How We Use Data Fields

• By utilizing the data fields within each task you
  can provide unlimited possibilities to evaluate
  your business operations at any predetermined
  level

We used Subject to reference the project or
Dept and issue Owner to define
department Contacts to document responsibility
order Categories to define the Project
Company to establish priority level
(referenced on details tab)
18
Public Folders

• Public folders enable company or division wide
  access to information
• Access can be restricted but confidential
  information should not be relied upon as being
  secure.
• Public Folders can also be used for
• Contacts by department,
• Calendar items such as escrow closings

19
Obstacles to Overcome

• Define your sorting needs and views first and
  whether you want to make it a high level or
  critical issue tool first.
• Cultural change in working practices.
• Set up access and permission protocol on each
  computer.
• People will drift back into old habits, hold them
  accountable.

20
Implementation Tips

• Once the system is setup and training is complete
  appoint a System Admin to review tasks for
  consistency.
• Take the time to set up new procedures and
  instill them in any new employees.
• If you start a new process keep with it, dont
  give up when you get busy again, thats when its
  most useful.
• Train, train, train to break old habits and be
  consistent in data entry.

21

• Thank you