As a COO how do I organize Projects Assigned to Others

ivanjay205

Registered
Hi everyone,

I am looking for some help on this one... I am very loyal to GTD utilizing FacileThings as my tool of choice.... I am a COO for my company and this time of year I work on formulating our business plan which contains many over-arching goals and projects for next year for the company. Many of them I have direct work to do, many of them I delegate and review progress, and some of them I delegate and have little to no involvement post that other than to ensure it is done.

How would you recommend I set these up in my GTD systems? I often create Projects for each of these, but for me I am not actually doing the work vs keeping on my radar to ensure it is progressing and ensuring it is complete. And review "plans" once they are drafted by management team.

Thanks!
 

mcogilvie

Registered
Test the different ways to organize delegated projects in Facile Things, and see what you are most comfortable with. I find very often that testing a new organizational scheme with real data gives a quick yes/no answer where abstract reasoning does not.
 

ivanjay205

Registered
Test the different ways to organize delegated projects in Facile Things, and see what you are most comfortable with. I find very often that testing a new organizational scheme with real data gives a quick yes/no answer where abstract reasoning does not.
Thanks, certainly doing that I just wanted to see if anyone had any other similar situations and found some good methods.
 

mcogilvie

Registered
Thanks, certainly doing that I just wanted to see if anyone had any other similar situations and found some good methods.
For what it is worth, I have delegated stuff in many different areas of focus, and I keep the delegated stuff associated with the area and project. One special case: I have both a "Wife" area of focus and a "Wife" context. I finally figured out that "we" have some projects in which she is actually the team leader with decision-making power, and I am support personnel. :) This is actually less work for me. So projects in her area of focus have been "delegated upward" so to speak. For some projects, the chain of command sometimes seems to be me-> wife -> daughter strategically but my 4-year-old granddaughter has tactical command.
 

codemac

Registered
For delegated projects, it depends on the project and your level of involvement with that project. It is not about the direct report's level of involvement. You only need to track what you need to do.

If it's something I need to hear about weekly or closer, then I leave the project on my projects list, with a dependent waiting for task. This is usually straight forward to set up in any GTD-ish system. Usually once a month or more there is something I need to do with the project anyways to support the direct. These are usually things I've delegated for the first time, or potentially a newly reporting direct where I need to establish communication habits.

If it's something I expect to hear about less than weekly, I make sure it's in some other format. For example I ensure it's in the direct report's quarterly goals which I do monthly checkins on. Another example is that I set a waiting for item (without a project associated) along with the deadline in the future I expect to hear about it, so I review it if that deadline goes by.

I strongly urge you to not evaluate based on the direct's involvement and commitments, but your involvement and your commitments.
 
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