Eliminate waste, accelerate results by creating consistent system for organizing critical content

Whether you're a team of two located in the same office or part of a group of 20 working across different time zones, chances are you routinely squander time trying to find critical documents that you know exist somewhere, editing a document for hours only to find that you've been working on an old version, or trying to piece together elements of several documents that use different structures or formats.

Having a poorly-organized filing system for your own work can be wasteful enough. But when you're working with people who rely almost entirely on asynchronous communications to get work done, establishing and using a consistent framework for creating, storing, sharing and editing documents is critical.

So why don't more teams take the time to set up a consistent system right up front for documenting and organizing shared work products? The answer: It takes making tough trade-offs, a good deal of discipline and a lot of time, something many teams seem to be in short supply of these days, given the volume and velocity of their work.

In this edition of Communiqué, I am joined by Jane Woolsey, president of Toronto-based An Organized Vision. Here we provide several useful tips for improving results, in far less time, through better organization of documents, messages and schedules, for both teams and individuals.

• Start at the top. While each team needs its own system for creating, naming, filing, storing and distributing important documents, definitions and naming conventions should mirror those used by the originating departments. For example, if the corporate finance group uses a certain application and format for the annual budgeting process or if the central marketing group uses a particular template for product launch planning, all groups within the organization should follow suit. As a result, everyone in the organization can easily find the latest annual budget proposals or product launch plans for any entity, such as for a particular division, function, region or area. Of course, this means that organizations originating these documents need to create and share a document inventory, along with naming conventions, application type and version, template locations, etc.

• Design a team information architecture that's elegant and easy for all to use. Think in terms of general categories, directories, subdirectories, folders and then documents. As a team, start by creating a map of those documents most likely to be needed by most team members, placing them into logical categories, directories, folders and so on. Agree on naming conventions that make sense to everyone, including those who may speak another native language. Whether you use a team portal, shared folders or some other method, use this map as a foundation upon which to start posting documents. Frequently validate your design with those who have not participated in the planning to ensure easy and intuitive navigation. Set aside time during team meetings to discuss the relative ease by which people can upload and find documents, and adjust as needed during the formative stages.

• Agree on format and version of all document types. Within any team, all members should be using the same format, structure and application version for shared documents. Imagine how painful the task will be for the team leader who has to integrate several different project plans using different applications such as Excel, Microsoft Project, Word, or some custom application! All members submitting similar documents, whether project plans, status reports or budget proposals, need to use the same application and version, format, and content type. Standardization is crucial for real integration and a shared understanding of the big picture. This may mean that some members will need new software, related training, or both. The related costs will be far less than the ensuing confusion and work required to attempt to integrate disparate documents into a holistic view.

• Maintain version control. How many times have you reviewed and edited a crucial document only to discover that the version you found in your inbox from three days ago is now four revs behind? Not only do you have to figure out how to find the latest rev, but now you have to redo the edits you just made. Establishing a convention for tracking versions is of course essential. But that's only a partial answer, especially if a team has not agreed how and where members can always find the latest version. Make sure you have an obvious and easy place for people to store the latest version of shared documents, whether it's on a team SharePoint directory, shared messaging folders, or almost any place other than each member's inbox.

• Saving needed content is everyone's job. Many of us like to winnow down our inboxes by deleting emails that we're confident that someone else will have when we really need them. But if everyone follows the same logic, teams are in danger of inadvertently losing important information that may take days or weeks to reproduce if misplaced or lost. Agree on a convention for saving and storing email messages, attachments and other documents. Hammer out details such as who is responsible for maintaining the most current copy, location, filename, etc. Set ground rules around each member's responsibility for finding or maintaining the most current copy of particular types of documents. Otherwise, some team members will spend far too much time spoon-feeding those who abdicate responsibility for maintaining needed content themselves.

• Decide when to push and when to pull. Should team members attach team documents to emails, such as status reports or project plans? In most cases, no. Try posting them to a shared portal, to make sure that everyone is viewing the latest rev at all times, especially important if some team members will be making revisions. This also makes it less risky for people to jettison email messages from their inbox. When setting standards about when to push and when to pull, consider variables such as file size and type, timeliness, email storage capacity, and local availability of certain applications. The more people are using laptops from different locations, the greater the need to centralize team documents in an easily accessible location. Think, too, about how your team can use wikis and blogs to replace more conventional, static documents. For example, would a "lessons learned" blog be more fresh, inviting and engaging than opening and reading a pile of documents? Probably. But make sure to consider intergenerational differences when thinking through the options.

• Put your inbox on a diet. One of the greatest enemies of an elegant and logical organizational system is the tendency many of us have to use our inbox as one giant file cabinet that has no drawers, folders or labels to guide us. Make it a point to keep your inbox to a small number of messages (ideally, under 50 read messages) and sort the rest into folders that reflect the same folder names in your My Documents area. Also, if you're constantly receiving emails that you really never need to see, let the sender know, diplomatically, why you're asking not to be included on the distribution in the future.

• Help others trim down their inboxes. Make sure to send emails only to those who really need them for their work and only when "pulling" such information won't work as well. Establish protocols as to what it means to be on the "to" list vs. the "cc" list. For example, are the "to" recipients expected to take some kind of action, while "cc" list recipients can safely file the message away until needed? If you're asking for a reply, establish a default team protocol that people are only to reply to the sender, unless there is a compelling reason that everyone should reply to all. State this ground rule clearly at the top of each message until it becomes second nature. The original sender then has a responsibility to make sure that the right people receive the replies they need. Of course, such protocols must be agreed upon in advance, since new ways of working require thought and discipline by all.

• Keep emails easy to read and file. Create a subject line that will make it easy for people to file and find what they need later. This means resisting the temptation to simply reply to a previous email without changing the subject line, especially a message that carries a long email trail. Take a few seconds to create a subject line that indicates what your particular email is about. For example: "Yes to your request for help with the Acme project," or "Action required to input budget requirements by October 30." A good goal is to make your message clear in the subject and in the first line of text, if needed.

Taking the time up front to create a shared system for creating, saving, storing and distributing important team documents will be repaid many times over the life of a team or project. For some, the work can be overwhelming, especially when some of the changes require a radical rethinking of everyday communications. Choose one or two places to start and involve the team in introducing changes. When you see how much time you're saving as the quality of work improves, tackling the remaining time-wasters will be easier.

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