A couple of weeks ago, our team at Innovatively Organized held a really productive strategic planning meeting. We thought it would be beneficial to set aside half of a day to meet as a team. With so much to discuss, we wanted to be sure we stayed focused and spent our time wisely. So here is a little insight into how we kept our meeting efficient (Hint: Tip #7 is the best one):

1) Change of Scenery

We reserved a private conference room at Thinkspace. We’ve learned that a change of scenery helps our team focus on the task at hand without the distractions we encounter in the office on a daily basis. If you need help finding a conference room near you, use eVenues, a conference room finder that allows you to search by city, capacity, and price, along with other search criteria.

2) An Agenda

Set a specific agenda and stick to it.  For our meeting, each section of the agenda had a time associated with it so we knew when to move on to the next task.

3) A Time Keeper

We used a timer called Cool Timer. One person was in charge of setting the timer, but they never had to worry about interrupting the meeting because Cool Timer’s alarm feature did it for them. The timer also has a large display so anyone in the meeting can see at a glance how much time is left.

4) A Moderator

Have one person run the meeting. For this meeting, it was Elizabeth Bowman. The leader should guide the rest of the team and introduce each new topic in order to stay productive throughout the entire meeting.

5) A Large Whiteboard

Our team likes to draw diagrams, write lists and create timelines. A whiteboard allows us to erase as we go, color-code with different color markers, and adhere sticky notes. It allows for a lot of flexibility. For instance, at one point we were trying to finalize the order of events, so we used sticky notes to map out various options on the whiteboard. Once we finalized the order we were able to add additional notations with whiteboard markers. But don’t forget to take photos of the whiteboard before you erase it!

6) Actionable Items & Deadlines

Throughout the meetings we made a point of identifying the actionable items, who was responsible for it and when it was due. One person tracked the actionable items and distributed them after the meeting to ensure everyone was on the same page.

7) A Reward

Strategic planning can be exhausting! As a reward for finishing all of the items on our agenda, we rewarded ourselves with a late lunch and wine tasting in Woodinville, Washington. The photo at right is of (from L to R) Elizabeth Bowman, Elizabeth Kent, and Jackie Chapman.

With the rise of telecommuting in business, web meetings and virtual conferences are becoming more common tools for team communication.  At Innovatively Organized, we use web meetings on a regular basis to stay in communication with one another from different locations.

While virtual meetings have the advantage of allowing teams to communicate from various locations, it’s important to remember that they are still meetings. And like any meeting, they can quickly turn unproductive if you’re not careful.  Here are some of the tips we recommend to help yours run smoothly:

Make sure you have a good microphone

Few things are worse than repeating yourself over and over (or listening to it).  A good microphone will help you reduce background noise and improve the clarity of your voice. We recommend the Snowball microphone for it’s intuitiveness and it’s ability to pick-up sounds in a variety of environments (individuals speaking vs. a group of people sitting at a conference table).

Arrive early

Think of logging into your web meeting similar to parking your car to go to an in-person meeting.  You never know what bumps you’ll come across when you’re logging in, so better to leave buffer time to ensure promptness.

Be prepared

The same rules apply to web meetings as they do with in-person meetings.  In order to stay productive, you still need an agenda, a timekeeper, and all the right people in attendance. Don’t forget to add time to your calendar to complete follow-up tasks from the meeting.

Don’t forget the “little things”

Make sure your laptop is charged, have a strong internet connection, and look presentable if you will be using a web cam!

For more help conducting business in the cloud, we offer business productivity solutions, including process improvement and project management.

No time to handle the influx of mail coming into your office?  Wish you could focus more on building your business, attending to your customers, and working efficiently, rather than opening invoices, scanning documents, and filing correspondences?

At Innovatively Organized, we are big fans of Earth Class Mail, a service that allows you to do just that. Earth Class Mail is an online service that manages your incoming paper mail, scans it, and then sends you an electronic version.  This allows you to take all the actions you would with email—file, delete, archive.  They have a variety of products and offerings, including a Virtual Mailroom, Mail and Parcel Forwarding, and Virtual Warehouse, that make you more efficient.

In particular, the Virtual Mailroom is a great service for individuals and offices that travel frequently, enabling them to stay on top of their mail while on-the-go.  It’s especially helpful for people that want to be more paperless because it keeps physical mail from piling up at the office. They even offer scanning, shredding, and shipping services so you have more time to focus on the tasks you want to be focusing on.

How do you currently process your incoming mail?

You’ve probably been frustrated by these email faux pas before. Perhaps you’re guilty of a few yourself? Here are 10 email faux pas to be mindful the next time you hit send on an email:

1. Subject Line Confusion: Subject lines can be a very valuable tool—they help us decide if we should open an email now or later (or delete it all together).  When there is no subject line, an irrelevant subject line, or a ridiculously long subject line, we feel like our time is being wasted. Remember to take a look at your subject line before you send. Is it still relevant?  Sometimes the subject of your email changes from the time you start writing to the time you finish.
2. CC’ing the World: CC’ing others is important, but make sure the people you’ve included actually need to be on the thread. Also, keep in mind the difference between “To” and “CC.” By including someone in the “To” field, you are implying that an action is required. “CC” typically suggests the person has been included for informational purposes.
3. Can I Have Your Number? Have you ever tried contacting an email correspondent via phone after an email conversation, only to find they don’t have an email signature?  Make sure your signature includes all the contact information others need to reach you.
4. Email Novels: Emails shouldn’t be the next War and Peace.  The very nature of an email is to be concise.  Channel your Twitter skills and make sure you’re not sending unnecessarily long messages.
5. Email Tweets: In the same vein, don’t you despise emails that are so short they didn’t deserve becoming an email in the first place?  If you have a quick comment or question, connect through instant message rather than email.  You’ll probably get a faster response too.
6. Tpyos: Did you catch that one? You should not have to guess what a word means.  Especially with auto correct and spell check. Take a moment to glance over what you’re sending before you send it.
7. Replying to the Wrong Part of a Thread: If you haven’t checked your inbox in a while and begin opening the earliest messages first, make sure you don’t respond to outdated emails.  Turn the “conversations” feature on in your inbox so you can respond to the most recent email in the thread, rather than comment on parts of the conversation that have been resolved already.
8. “Where’s the Attachment?” How many emails have you received detailing the important attachment you must review and sign off on, only to find the attachment was not…attached.
9. Too Big Attachments: How do you feel about emails with way too many graphics in the body?  If you need to send large files, images or documents, try sending them a link via Dropbox to download the files directly.
10. Wait, What Are We Talking About? If your thread conversation starts to round a corner towards a new topic, just start a new thread with the appropriate subject line.  This helps recipients stay on track with the conversation and find the archived thread later.

How many of these pesky faus pas are you guilty of?  Share this blog post with your team to help everyone avoid these tendencies and stay on track!

Finding time for yourself is hard enough, but coordinating time with co-workers or your team to collaborate is a completely different beast to tackle.  Sometimes if feels like the time spent coordinating a meeting takes more time than the meeting itself (talk about unproductive).

In order to stop wasting time and unnecessary emails to fit meetings into your team’s schedule, here are 3 ways to schedule more efficiently:

1.    Microsoft Exchange Server

If your team is already using a Microsoft Exchange Server for email, you can share your individual calendars.  With a few clicks of a button, you can see when coworkers are available, send them calendar invites and share meeting agendas. Here is a quick overview of how you can share calendars. If your team is not currently using a Microsoft Exchange Server, contact us for details about setting one up.

2.    Google Calendar

More and more small businesses are using Google to collaborate with their team and Google Calendar is no exception. Instead of having to individually invite people to share your calendar, you can set up a Google Group and invite everyone at once. Here is a quick overview of how to share calendars using Google.

3.    Doodle

Doodle is a simple tool to help you schedule more efficiently, especially when people outside your team are involved in a meeting.  The person coordinating the meeting can input a list of potential meeting dates and times into a form on Doodle. Doodle will automatically generate a poll to send to participants. Once all participants have submitted their availability, you can determine what works best for everyone and confirm the appointment time.

How does your team or small business schedule to collaborate or meet?  Do you use a shared team calendar?