Advanced Task Management Skills

Introduction:

Maintaining a high level of productivity in today's successful businesses takes work and continuous learning in a variety of management skills and techniques. To be successful in daily work tasks, knowledge and skills in management techniques must be learned, practiced and implemented. People in all types of organizations find themselves needing to find more productive methods of planning work and tasks, setting appropriate goals, using good interpersonal skills and using effective means of making decisions. A focus on using productive practices allows for effective and efficient management of work and making changes in the organization.

In this course we will assist in furthering one's ability to set goals, plan work and tasks, manage time, make good decisions and work more productively with others. The program offers a range of practical and highly effective techniques and tools that can be implemented in any workplace. It will build confidence in one's ability, increase the ability to lead people and build skills to apply management concepts and techniques. 

The first module of this course focuses on the concepts, principles, and challenges of the task and work planning, with additional topics on time and stress management and how human interaction skill impacts our effectiveness. The second module establishes a focus on key management skills such as setting goals and objectives, establishing performance standards, decision making processes and change management.

Targeted Groups:

• Head of departments
• Managers
• Supervisors
• Team leaders
• Project managers
• Employees who are potential for promoting to a managerial or supervisory position

Course Objectives:

At the end of this course the participants will be able to:

• Use simple frameworks for planning, including allocating and managing priorities, scheduling work, working proactively and reactively and project planning
• Learn leadership techniques to do work planning and establish priorities
• Learn management techniques to plan, establish priorities and set and maintain goals
• Understand and develop the skills necessary to get assigned work completed on time.
• Use basic planning project tools to plan a work strategy
• Set goals and targets effectively and efficiently
• Learn how to establish and maintain task deadlines
• Understand the characteristics of colleagues who assist in our work assignments
• Develop positive interpersonal techniques for better management of our work
• Learn how to plan work balancing the constraints of time, cost, scope and quality
• Understand the role of stakeholders in a project and learn techniques of stakeholder management
• Develop techniques to deal with organizational change, including delegation and empowerment
• Develop communication and human interaction skills with others
• Understand and develop skills necessary to set goals in a strategic and organizational context
• Consider methods of improving decision making
• Understand how delegation can be used in the setting of goals and planning
• Identify decision-making processes and how they impact on organizations
• Develop the ability to make higher quality decisions as individuals and teams
• Build and maintain effective and efficient planning procedures and processes
• Integrate planning management functions into the overall mission of the organization
• Develop skills for leaders which will raise their capability, skill and morale
• Improve preparedness to deal with task and work contingencies
• Improve performance in setting and completing work objectives
• Allow teams and leaders to better meet challenges of dynamic, constant change
• Establish organizational and personal decision-making capabilities

Targeted Competencies:

• Project Management
• Task Planning and Monitoring
• Prioritizing
• Time Management
• Human Interaction Skill
• Creative Imagination
• Decision Making
• Change Management
• Communication skills

Course Content:

Unit 1: Effective Time, Task & Work Planning:

• Our changing world - personal assessment
• What do I hope to achieve?
• How will I achieve it?
• What has changed in work and life?
• What other changes can we expect?
• How do we manage this?
• What are the implications for me and others?
• Balancing life and work

Unit 2: Why Time Matters and How Your Use of Time Affects Others:

• How am I using my time?
• What are my time wasters?
• Time logging
• Why do I put things off?
• Ways that other people use time
• Timelines - how do I view time?
• How does my use of time affect others?

Unit 3: Work Planning and Project Management:

• Work management methods diagnostic
• Pressures on work plans - time, quality, cost
• The planning process
• Planning work in progress
• Analyzing and managing risk
• Contingency planning
• Problem-solving techniques

Unit 4: Practical Techniques for Managing Time Wasters

• Managing paperwork, real and virtual
• Managing travel
• Managing meetings
• Making the best use of the phone.
• Using the diary - the key time management tool.
• Managing Interruptions

Unit 5: Making It All Work:

• Work planning practical
• Debrief
• Testing your plan
• Analyzing your strengths and needs
• Developing your development plan

Unit 6: Current Status of Setting Goals, Planning, and Decision Making:

• Overview and context of organizational change and the impact on goals, planning and decision making
• Understanding of the current status of the organization, team and personal work
• Review of management processes and skill areas
• Using a planning process to set goals and get work started

Unit 7: Importance of Goal Setting and Planning Management:

• Integrating goals, scope, work structure and management planning
• Identifying initial resource requirements
• Identifying risk techniques that affect work assignments, priorities, and deadlines
• Communication that responds to who, what where, when, how, why
• Understanding the importance of quality planning in work assignments

Unit 8: Setting Priorities and Making Decisions in the Planning Process:

• Using planning to ensure task priorities are established
• Planning for time management, scheduling and meeting deadlines
• Integrating the functions into a final work plan
• Improving communications and listening skills
• Planning for delegation responsibility and authority
• Techniques for making good decisions

Unit 9: Working with Your Team:

• Identifying the skills required to obtain the help of others
• The importance of group skills to achieve team success
• The importance of interpersonal skills in making personal and team decisions
• Empowering the team through delegation and decision making
• The importance of effective communication in team relations

Unit 10: Developing Personal and Team Change Action Plans:

• Innovation and improvement for personal and team change
• Identification of change processes and human change
• Techniques to set personal and team change goals
• Dealing with people who do not want to change
• Developing an action plan for personal and team change