STORIES & SOLUTIONS FOR THE MODERN BUSINESS USER

Project management is more than a methodology; it’s a mindset and we use it more than we think. It can often feel that once your day job ends, managing playdates, parent-teacher conferences, your social calendar, and getting dinner on the table is a second job that doesn’t seem to pay as well or have a growth track. As project managers, it is easy to see the parallels between managing projects at work and managing life at home. Every project manager knows that a project timeline has a beginning and end, and within those points come planning, scoping, identifying risk, negotiating and diffusing conflicts, and creating a contingency plan.

’Tis the season!  

For many of us, the holidays means making a list and checking it twice. As I sat down to create my gift list — the ones I want to give and the ones I’d love to receive— it made me think about the work I do and why I believe deeply in the power of change and the many gifts change can bring to an individual or organization.

Our last post discussed examining your organization’s culture and developing a strong internal communication strategy. Today’s post will explore the three remaining key focus areas and recommendations: documenting your current business processes, aligning your existing policies and SOP’s with the new business processes (ideally before go-live), and identifying (or creating) the unit within your organization that will manage your new ERP.

Over the course of the last few decades, data has become critical in understanding, maintaining, and improving business outcomes. Executives and business leaders need to quickly and efficiently understand the underlying information to make the correct decisions in operations. To address the need to process large amounts of data swiftly and effectively, we have developed modern dashboarding methods.

In today's rapidly evolving educational landscape, student success and engagement are top of mind for college business leaders. Educational institutions are constantly striving to enhance the learning experience, ensure students achieve their academic goals, and are prepared with workplace skills. Data-driven decision-making has emerged as a powerful tool for achieving these goals. Data can serve as a catalyst for improving student success and fostering higher levels of student engagement.

Last week’s post focused on the importance of assessing your organization’s health before a large-scale technology implementation and addressing potential issues before they impact project outcomes. This week’s post explores the areas of organization culture and internal communications, the issues organizations frequently encounter during change, and recommendations on how to address them.

This is a three-part series on identifying and addressing key issues that all organizations should consider when planning a large-scale technology transition.

Congress passed the FAFSA® Simplification Act in December 2020 to streamline the FAFSA application process for students and families seeking financial aid. For colleges and universities, the FAFSA Simplification Act aims to simplify the financial aid application process and reduce the administrative burden on staff. However, the changes in how aid gets determined presents several challenges from a systems perspective.

Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.

~ William Arthur Ward

Change management is a crucial aspect for any organization looking to maintain good culture, implement smooth change, and keep company employees bought into their strategic goals. A key ingredient in the change process is choosing the right change management approach to reach desired outcomes.