The 5 Best tips to running effective meetings  Part 2 Show that each attendee’s time is valued and respected by starting each meeting precisely on time. Time wasted, waiting for a meeting to start is very annoying, unprofessional and unproductive. Late beginnings to meetings lead to late finishes which can cause further problems later in the day. As a time saving strategy, distribute any appropriate documents either for people to prepare or to work on prior to the meeting. Be sure to use it during the meeting so participants will feel their preparation time was well spent. Meetings that a ..read more

Meetings have a bad rap for being a waste of time. Meetings can be plagued with inefficient, unproductive processes such as: People are unprepared (thus waste time retrieving information or setting up) People are distracted by other work (checking emails, replying to texts, answering calls) No clear actions are decided during the meeting Decisions from previous meetings are not executed People grumbling about having to come to a meeting No one brings input but the person calling the meeting More meetings scheduled to make up for all of the above Ineffective meetings can zap morale and can be v ..read more

There is one thing that you can bank upon in business: change is inevitable! Not only will change happen, but change is also happening at a faster pace than ever before. Change will happen in one way or another, so businesses need to be proactive by preparing for it.  Advances in technology, changing demographics and customer trends, updated regulations and global crises, all require a change management strategy to optimise performance. can be defined as the way a business will approach and apply knowledge, resources and tools to address change in and around it. The primary purpose o ..read more

Productivity can be explained as the efficiency by which we convert inputs, such as capital, raw materials and labour, into output. To increase personal productivity we need to grow our output faster than our inputs. Our inputs will therefore become more efficient and productive. There are two ways to increase our output. We can either work more hours or work smarter. I am confident that anyone would rather work smarter than longer. Making smart choices, by knowing and understanding best practice can help you to work more efficiently and improve productivity. Following are several ways in whic ..read more

A regular diagnostic check of the health of your business projects can offer valuable insights to determine high priority areas for remediation and focus. Being proactive rather than reactive using the information gained from a health check can help solve issues before they become problems and capitalise on strengths to successfully execute projects that  actually deliver the desired business outcome. Collagis employs a comprehensive health check for business projects. The diagnostic health check addresses factors that influence successful project implementation and avoid common execution ..read more

can be defined as broad statements of what the organisation intends to achieve. O rganisation theorists V.H. Vroom in 1960 defined organisation goals as, “ Koontz and Weihrich define it as: “ Goals are the ends towards which activity is aimed –they are the result to be achieved. Organisational goals provide directions on which the organisation's decisions and actions are based upon.  Goals are the specific targets or standards against which actual performance can be measured.  Organisational goals are not just where we hope to end up, but need to be relevant to decisions around what ..read more

Procrastination is the action of unnecessarily postponing decisions or actions by delaying or putting off tasks. There may be several reasons for procrastinating including: disliking the tasks to be done, or finding the work too difficult or tedious, or perceiving that the work is not urgent and doesn’t need your immediate attention. Procrastination can become a habit, one that can easily lead to difficulties in managing your workflow and time and effecting your productivity. We can become very competent at coming up with seemingly valid reasons for putting off tasks, but to increase productiv ..read more

Making full use of your calendar can’t generate extra hours in the day but it can certainly save you time by raising your efficiency and productivity. Millions of people every day use a program to manage their emails and calendar at work. Unfortunately, few of us really know how to make full use of all the features and benefits in these programs! Moreover, we can often become reactive, allowing others to schedule and plan our time, rather than taking control of our calendar to ensure we are spending our time on the things that matter most to our strategic objectives. Used effectively, your cal ..read more

Emails, reports, subscriptions, market research,  newspapers, books, and brochures are just some of the information sources that we are inundated with, in our modern workplaces. Like it or not, we are caught up in an age where there is an explosion of information. With this constant bombardment of information it has become more and more difficult to manage efficiently the information we receive. It is only natural to sometimes suffer from information anxiety and a sense of being overwhelmed. It has become crucial to have systems in place to be able to organise this information efficiently ..read more

With the impact of Covid19 on our workplace, the percentage of people remote working from home has skyrocketed. Working from home has its own unique challenges but if your goal is to increase productivity, it is important for you to understand how crucial the role habits can play. The habits we develop can have a significant impact on our productivity. Our goal should be to replace bad habits that are often caused by reactive patterns of behaviour with good habits that will make us proactive and enable us to take charge of our own agendas. While we are experiencing workplace changes, it is an ..read more