How Grecos replaced department silos with clear ownership across Poland and Greece, thanks to Asana

He wanted to check how this work management tool would handle a process that involved almost every department

That allowed every engaged member to understand:

• How to interact with each other using the new tool
• How to exchange information and integrate all communication in a new environment
• What are best practices in that process and general project management
• How to avoid common pitfalls when using Asana

01. Modeling the process in the RACI matrix

A RACI matrix is the simplest, most effective means for defining and documenting project roles and responsibilities. Knowing exactly who is responsible, who is accountable, who needs to be consulted, and who must be kept informed at every step will significantly improve your chances of project success.

As the members of the process were unfamiliar with Asana at this point, modeling was done in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.

It became a bridge between the old toolbox and changes about to happen

02. Mapping and adjusting the process to the Asana environment

Together with the management team and IT department, we focused on increasing communication efficiency, reducing unnecessary actions, and optimizing information shared between the right people with few clicks.

03. Implementation of the process in Asana

Now, the model became fully executable by implementing the whole workflow into the Asana information architecture.

During implementation, we reached several goals:

• The interface of Asana was uniquely tailored for each participant and role (managers’ high-level view vs. executor/creator view)
• All members were onboarded to an environment with the appropriate teams, projects, and templates available to use by external contractors and process members inside the organization
• The process was ready to be followed immediately after we finished this step

With the right attitude of organization members, we started the 3rd stage, where besides the obvious (implementing the tool — Asana), we had to overcome problems mentioned by members, like:

• Ad hoc, unrealistic task deadlines, too often thrown by different members on the same day
• Last change in the structure resulted in a conflict of roles and domains. Sometimes it is unclear who to contact and which channel to use

Delegate tasks with the assurance of almost 100% commitment

Organize files inside and outside of Asana

Plan the day and manage personal tasks

In smaller group meetings, managers learned how to adjust the interface to coordinate multiple projects.

We used real-life examples of reports that were copy-pasted to the environment of each manager, further tailoring the knowledge to single-user needs.

Next, we discussed the empathetic way of assigning ad-hoc tasks going both ways (manager and team member) that led to a better understanding of everyday tasks, time estimates, and responsibilities of each person in the organization.

Now, the clarity of who is doing what and when led to much better workload management and eventually higher employee satisfaction

The most significant Return On Investment (ROI) was learning how to create and use task and project templates. This is the biggest accelerator in company growth because:

• Even in complex cases, people act accordingly to a set scenario and do not waste time thinking about what to do next, as the process template guides each step of the way
• New employees have ready-made instructions on how to perform tasks, which allows them to deploy faster
• Duplicable SOPs (standard operating procedures) give experienced employees time to do their work instead of constantly training newcomers