Top 4 barriers to your team’s productivity and how AI can solve them, according to Asana’s Head of Corporate Marketing

You open your laptop on Monday morning and you’ve got a couple of Slack messages concerning the marketing campaign you are launching on Tuesday.

After you reply them, you test your inbox and see that you’ve got been tagged in some slides for a similar marketing campaign.

As soon as you have responded, you make a Zoom name to speak with stakeholders about last-minute duties that should be accomplished for the launch. Some stakeholders need you to electronic mail a follow-up from the assembly, so that you do.

However others would fairly you tag them within the applicable Google Docs, so that you do too.

Out of the blue it is 1 p.m., and you have not achieved something vital in your to-do listing to get this venture off the bottom. Your total day is spent out and in of various messaging apps, slide decks, and Zoom calls, simply attempting to get everybody lined up.

Sound acquainted?

I spoke with Jake Cerf, Asana’s head of company advertising, concerning the greatest productiveness challenges dealing with 2024 — and how one can resolve them.

Groups get it flawed in the case of productiveness

Jake empathizes with the chaos that may happen when you do not give attention to creating environment friendly processes for team-wide productiveness.

“It may be chaotic,” he informed me, including, “Earlier than I joined Asana, I mirrored on how I spent my time coordinating with folks—and it was a multitude. We have been in electronic mail, Slack, and Google Docs and Slides. And also you by no means actually knew who was doing what, when, and it was very straightforward to lose sight of the purpose we have been after.”

Which sounds painfully relatable. Happily, he has some tried-and-true ideas for cleansing up your group’s processes and creating extra scalable choices for bettering cross-functional collaboration.

1. Each group chief must understand how their work ladder reaches company objectives — and make it clear of their workflow.

Folks all the time wish to understand how their work connects to bigger strategic initiatives. They wish to really feel seen, valued and know they’re making an impression. A variety of a pacesetter’s job is to ensure individuals are engaged on the fitting priorities, and aligning with objectives that transfer the needle.

That is what makes a product like Asana so essential. Jack has a neater time ensuring he isn’t micro-managing his group on particular duties and that is as a result of in Asana he can see how every sub-task his group is answerable for laddering the corporate’s key aims for 2024.

Moreover, to resolve conflicting cross-department objectives, it may be useful to make use of a centralized productiveness instrument that highlights top-down priorities for the corporate.

“As a pacesetter, a variety of our job is to ensure individuals are engaged on the fitting issues, to allow group members to unblock and get their reply stars. It is good for productiveness as a result of when folks really feel like they’re engaged on issues that matter, they do higher,” says Jake.

He provides, “You do not have to be a weed within the particulars. You possibly can inform group members what and why, and so they can determine the remainder. However being clear about big-picture aims unlocks productiveness up, down and throughout the group.”

When you’re coping with productiveness points, begin by ensuring every chief aligns with the corporate’s key aims for 2024 — after which activity them with demonstrating how all of their group’s initiatives result in that final purpose. If a job would not match, it is time to take into account refocusing on that exercise.

2. Assign your AI a “function” to extend your group’s productiveness.

There was a variety of dialog round AI within the final two years, however individuals are nonetheless skeptical concerning the enhancements it might probably deliver to their day by day lives.

In actual fact, 62% of entrepreneurs worldwide imagine folks ought to use some AI of their roles. As for Jack, the AI ​​proved to be far more helpful teammate fairly than only a instrument.

“Once I stopped prompting the AI ​​with generic requests, my life modified drastically,”Write this weblog put up‘, and as an alternative honored the AI ​​I wished to be:’Please write this weblog put up as should you have been a tech author at a big SaaS firm.‘”

Jake recommends assigning AI a “function” when utilizing AI for productiveness.

“When groups work on an essential initiative and also you give every AI bot its personal particular function, the output is large. As an example you are writing a weblog put up — you may rent AI as an editor, fact-checker or content material strategist.”

“Or,” he provides, “should you use a instrument like Asana, you will have entry to an AI that is the most effective venture managers on the planet. It could allow you to unblock points and triage requests and ensure individuals are engaged on the fitting issues. .”

Ideally, the productiveness instruments you leverage have already got AI capabilities constructed into them. If not, see what plug-ins or exterior instruments you should utilize to extend effectivity

3. Use AI to cut back engagement.

The antithesis of productiveness is busywork.

In case your group is slowed down by small duties, they doubtless haven’t got the power or time to give attention to the large image aims that account for many of your group’s impression.

This can be a main roadblock – and it may be solved with AI.

Jake gives examples of content material repurposing as a chance for elevated productiveness. He mentioned, “With AI, you may take a keynote presentation and ask the AI ​​to draft a weblog put up on the keynote. Or, you may take your keynote script and ask AI to design the presentation itself.”

“Discovering new methods to extend the longevity and impression of your content material is without doubt one of the finest methods to make use of AI,” he added.

As well as, Jack encourages entrepreneurs to leverage AI for content material creation, in addition to extra inventive output akin to supervisor opinions, sending suggestions to teammates, riffing on concepts, role-playing situations, and extra.

4. Have a centralized workspace for groups to work cross-functionally.

Lastly, none of that is doable with out constructing a powerful basis for environment friendly, scalable cross-functional collaboration.

Keep in mind these slide decks and Google Docs and Slack messages and emails I discussed earlier? Why not strive preserving extra of your work in a single centralized place?

“Productiveness comes right down to visibility,” says Jake. “Your group must be rowing in the identical path. Having a instrument like Asana has been massively useful for our group’s productiveness — you want a spot the place you may set your objectives after which monitor the entire group’s work and maintain folks accountable.”

“Plus,” he provides, “it is essential to make use of the identical centralized workspace if you’re setting technique so you have got alignment across the duties and initiatives that allow you to obtain your objectives.”

In different phrases – leaping between 30 totally different messaging and content material creation apps and instruments shouldn’t be conducive to long-term productiveness. As a pacesetter, it is your job to determine the way to centralize as a lot as doable in a single place – after which supercharge every little thing utilizing AI.

To be taught extra about how HubSpot and Asana are serving to entrepreneurs drive productiveness, check out the HubSpot and Asana integration obtainable at the moment.