[For You, the Troubled Leader] What is a Super Simple Team Task Management Technique You Can Start Tomorrow?

"Beyond surprise, it's despair..."

This was my honest feeling when I was first appointed as a leader.

I was filled with anxiety about the future, wondering, "Can I really overcome this?"

The other day, I saw the following survey results on a news site.

The moment I saw the article, as a working mother myself, I empathized with these results.
The timing of being asked to become a leader or manager is when lifestyles change significantly, such as through marriage, childbirth, and child-rearing.

Being entrusted with a leader's job during such a difficult time has
too many immediate disadvantages compared to the future benefits of becoming a leader.

Of course, I understand that there are many benefits to becoming a leader when thinking about the future. If you become a leader, your salary will increase, and you will be able to build your career and grow as a person.

However, at the time, as a working mother of six years raising a third-grader and a kindergartner, I was full of anxiety.
"Leader tasks are difficult and tough."
I thought that, and I didn't have the confidence to balance housework, child-rearing, and full-time leadership duties.

As a result, although I accepted the leadership role, once the actual leadership work began, I was at a loss becauseI didn't know where to start with the difficulty, and tasks were piling up.

However, when I broke down my own worries about leadership work, I realized that
those worries wereall due to 'not being able to manage team tasks.'

So, how should we manage team tasks?

That's when I tried"Organizing Thinking."

Using my experience of obtaining an organizing qualification during maternity leave and supporting over 200 people as a professional organizer as a side job, I tried
applying 'Organizing Thinking' to team task management.

By applying 'Organizing Thinking' to team task management, I was able to look at the team from a bird's-eye view as a leader, and the efficiency of the team's work improved surprisingly.

Leadership work that I felt was complex and difficult
becomes surprisingly simple by applying organizing thinking.

That organizing thinking is only 11 characters long when written down.
It is a method that even a new leader can use starting tomorrow.

Here, I will explain a very simple team task management technique that I, as a new leader, actually used.

If you are a leader struggling with these issues, please try the method I am about to introduce. I will share a super simple task management method that is more practical and useful than difficult leadership books.

Are you ready? The day you become a leader comes suddenly

It started on an ordinary morning, just like any other, as follows.

I had just sat down at my desk, relieved that I had managed to start work safely again today.

“Could you come to the meeting room for a moment?”
My manager called out to me.

What could it be? Being called out of the blue makes me feel uneasy... As I entered the meeting room feeling a bit restless, my manager said just one thing.

“Actually, the project I asked you to handle has been canceled.”

“...Huh? Why?”

“Due to the recent organizational restructuring, the purpose of the project has changed.”

I understood. There had been a major organizational restructuring recently, and the department's structure had changed significantly.

“So, Tororo-san, I would like you to become the leader of a new team.”

“...Ehh!?”

My mind couldn't keep up with the further shock.

A leader? Me??

This is what was going through my head at that time.

I'll tell you in advance, I'm not the leader type.
I never had experience as a leader or club president during my school days; I was more of a 'part of the crowd' type.
Of course, I don't have any 'follow me' type of leadership at all.

Moreover, if you become a leader, it's obvious that your responsibilities will increase all at once.
And the team I'm assigned to is in a field I've never been involved with before, completely inexperienced.

I just returned to full-time work from a reduced-hours schedule, and as a single parent, I'm struggling just to get through my daily life. In the midst of all this, I felt anxious about whether I could handle such a demanding job as a leader.

"I don't have any leadership experience, and my technical knowledge is limited, so wouldn't this be too difficult for me?"

"This time, our new department policy is to
eliminate reliance on specific individuals and aim for job rotation.
We want to leverage your experience from the previous project, Tororo-san.
So, you'll be the leader of this team starting next week, thanks for taking it on."

"Starting next week!?"

I was filled with nothing but anxiety...
And just like that, without any mental preparation, my life as a rookie leader began.

Despair over completely inexperienced leadership duties

"I don't even know where to start..."

On my first day as a rookie leader, I was at a complete loss.

The team I was to lead consisted of seven people.
There were people with different employment structures, such as part-time workers and contractors, and there was a significant gap in individual member skills.
More than half of them had joined the team at the same time as me, and
everyone seemed confused about where to start.

As for me, in addition to my first leadership role, the tasks I was entrusted with were things I had never experienced before, so there were nothing but unknowns.
Even without the knowledge to make such decisions, team members would come to me asking for guidance, saying, "What should I do?"

"Um... please wait a moment," I would say, visiting several people who might know, piecing together the information I gathered, and somehow providing an answer.
It took forever to make decisions.

Even though I was suddenly put in charge of managing the team's progress, I didn't even have a grasp of who was doing what or what kind of work existed.
Yet, tasks with high levels of abstraction and urgency from my superiors kept flying at me without mercy.

Until now, as a player, I worked with the mindset of "how can I realize my boss's instructions?"
But the moment I became a leader, I was asked for my opinion: "What do you think?"

Overwhelmed by the many things required of me as a leader, I could only see problems, and my heart was constantly filled with anxiety and pressure.

"I really don't know what to do..."

It became a daily occurrence to wake up in the middle of the night, unable to sleep because I remembered, "Maybe the decision I made on that task I was consulted about yesterday was wrong," or to have to get up and write down tomorrow's tasks in a memo so I wouldn't forget them just to be able to sleep.

Wanting to change this situation, I read several books about leadership.

However, what I felt was
"The term 'leader' covers a wide range,
from small team leaders to managers and executives."
Because of this, books on leadership were highly abstract, and although I read them,


"concrete methods to solve my current problems" were hard to find.

That is what I was struggling with.

Are team challenges similar to something else?

I want to break through this situation somehow, but I have no idea where to start or what the solution is.

At that moment, it suddenly occurred to me.

This situation... it's similar to something.

That's it! It's like cleaning up a house when it's overflowing with stuff!

Actually, while on maternity leave, I earned a professional organizing certification and decided to declutter my home.

My house, which used to be a mess, became much easier to live in after I got rid of 70% of my belongings. Based on that experience, I started a side business providing organizing support to people who struggle with tidying up.

Thinking that, I applied the logic of organizing to team management.

As a result, the team's challenges became clear, and the team started running dramatically better.

What are the 3 steps of organizing logic?

There are basic principles to organizing.
They are
"① Sort"
"② Group"
"③ Tidy up".

Furthermore, as a preparatory stage before that, there is "Goal Setting".

This was a way of thinking that could be used for both home organization and team management.

In the very first preparatory stage, I "set a goal" and decide on the team's goal.
This clarifies the direction the entire team is heading, allowing members to act with peace of mind.

In the first step, "① Sort", I take out all the tasks, sort them into "necessary" and "unnecessary," and let go of the unnecessary ones.

In the second step, "② Group", I group related tasks and review them according to the characteristics of the person in charge.
Furthermore, I prioritize them and prepare manuals.

Finally, in the third step, "③ Tidy up", I manage daily task progress and handle sudden emergency issues.
I incorporate tasks into the schedule and check progress regularly.

Now, I will specifically explain how I connected the logic of organizing to team management, along with the actual steps of organizing.

[Preparation] Setting a Goal

Before entering the three steps, I will talk about the most important thing.
Whether you do this or not completely changes the success rate of the three steps.

Before moving on to the three steps, there is one thing you must do, and that is to clarify your goal.

■ In the case of tidying up a house
Even when tidying up a house, the first thing I ask is, 'What do you want to do in a tidy room?'

For example, the approach to tidying up is completely different depending on the purpose of tidying.

Depending on what you set as the goal after tidying up, 'what to keep' and 'where and how to store items' will be completely different.

■ In the case of team tasks
Team tasks are the same as tidying up a house.

For example, even with 'mountain climbing,' whether you want to 'climb Mt. Fuji' or 'go for a picnic on a nearby mountain,'
• what kind of clothes you wear,
• what you bring,
• and what kind of training is needed in advance
are completely different, right?
Therefore, before managing team tasks, I first decided on the 'team goal'.

So, how should you think about the team goal?

There is one point to be careful about when deciding on a goal.
That is not to confuse ends with means.

Actually, a common example of goal setting in tidying up is setting the goal of 'I want to tidy up and have a clean room.'
A 'clean room' is a means to achieve a purpose, not the purpose of 'why you want to tidy up,' is it?

Therefore, for the team goal, I defined the purpose as 'What is this team meant to achieve?'.

Since there was also a new department policy to 'eliminate reliance on specific individuals' this time,
I set the goal by aligning 'what is expected of the team' with 'the direction the department is aiming for.'

When I set the goal, what I specifically did was
'share a single slide with the team goal written on it'.

Feeling that way, I shared the slide with the team goal not only with the team members but also with my boss and other related teams.
By defining the team goal, team members and stakeholders were able to have the same understanding of the team.

Also, regarding newly arising issues, we became able to make judgments from the perspective of 'What should we do to achieve the team goal?'.

[Step 1] Sort

The first step is 'sort.'
Take everything out, sort them into 'things you need' and 'things you don't need,' and let go of the things you don't need.

■ In the case of tidying up a house
When tidying up a house, first take everything out of the room and sort them into 'things you need' and 'things you don't need.'

Since I became the leader of a task I knew nothing about, I hadn't grasped 'what kind of work is in the team' or 'which member is doing which work.'

When tidying up, what you do at a time like that is "take everything out." You take everything stored on shelves or shoved into drawers out, and visualize what you have and how much of it there is.

For example, this is what it looked like when I took everything out of the storage room while tidying up my own house.

When you take everything out of storage, most people feel like, "There's so much stuff, it's impossible to tidy it all up!"

However, if you don't take everything out, you won't know "what and how much" you have, so it is a very necessary step.

■ In the case of team tasks
, what does taking everything out mean for a team?
First, it's visualizing the tasks held by each individual!

So, I had everyone on the team list their tasks. As a
"Task List," I shared a single Excel file and had every team member write down their "own tasks" and the "person in charge."

When I asked them to "please write down all the work you usually do, everything you can think of, in the task list," in just one day, it became clear at a glance who was doing what kind of work.

And when I talked to the members while looking at the task list,

Various points for improvement like these also came up.

The points for improvement that emerged while compiling the task list were listed as a "Issue Management Table."

Then, we added priorities and proposed solutions to the "Issue Management Table" and took action toward resolving them. Using the "Issue Management Table" as a starting point, we were able to eliminate clearly unnecessary tasks after confirming with the relevant parties.

[Step 2] Organize

The next step is "(2) Organize."
Here, we perform the work of organizing according to frequency and characteristics.

■ In the case of tidying up the house
When tidying up the house, you organize items of the same category for storage according to frequency of use, who uses them, and when they are used, right?

For example, if you are tidying up a closet, it looks like this.

■ In the case of team tasks
So, what should we do to "organize" team tasks?

As a team, we grouped the tasks that emerged from "(1) Sorting" and
reviewed the assignments based on members' characteristics and skills.

Grouping makes it easier to visualize and understand what kind of work is being done.
We assigned responsibilities according to members' skills and characteristics, and updated the task list to show "who is doing what."

The specific method we implemented as a team was "creating work manuals" and "sharing skills".
Since team tasks were only known to the person in charge and there were no manuals at all, I was very lost on which tasks to start documenting and handing over first.

Therefore, I classified tasks into four categories based on "frequency of occurrence" and "level of expertise," and prioritized them for manual creation.

Here, the priority for manual creation should be "A: High frequency, low expertise tasks".

When I laid out all the work in "(1) Sorting," I found that in my team, category A tasks accounted for about 40% of the total.
My team had many new members, and there was a tendency for significant differences in individual skills.
Because of that, by quickly creating manuals for category A tasks, I was able to assign those tasks to new members.

Creating manuals sounds difficult, but it's enough to just 'take lots of screen captures while writing comments on the side during a work handover.'
Also, I recommend writing the purpose of the task, such as "what this work is for," in the comments,
so that when the situation changes later, you can consider "whether this work really needs to be continued."

Then, have the new person in charge actually try it out and add points that are difficult to understand or prone to errors to the manual.
By doing this, you not only prevent mistakes by the new person in charge, but it also becomes very convenient for the next handover.
By creating manuals, many members became able to handle tasks while referring to them, and we were able to support each other when busy.

Once the manual creation for category A tasks is completely finished, the next thing to work on is "B: Low frequency, low expertise tasks" manual creation. For these, the person in charge creates the manual when the work occurs and performs the handover.

Once category B tasks are finished, it's "C: High frequency, high expertise tasks".
For category C tasks, along with manual creation, a handover that includes technical and specialized skills is necessary.
Since the steps for handover differ depending on individual skills, it is necessary to take time to share skills while checking "how much is understood" for each individual, not just using manuals.

[Step 3] Tidying up

The final step is "Tidying up."
In "Tidying up," we check daily progress and handle sudden emergency matters.

■ In the case of tidying up a house
When tidying up a house, you regularly check if items are overflowing from storage or if there are items left out, then return them to storage or consider disposing of things that don't fit.
Tidying up a house is like returning cluttered items to their original storage locations.

In my home's "Tidying up," it looks like the image below.

If you don't tidy up the room regularly, naturally, the room will become cluttered and difficult to live in.

■ In the case of team tasks
"(3) Tidying up" for team tasks involves daily progress management and checking issues.
The key points of "(3) Tidying up" are
"checking the progress of each member's work, task volume, and issues" and
"identifying sudden tasks that haven't been assigned and assigning them to someone"
.

What I specifically did to "tidy up" was to start a daily team meeting (morning meeting).

In the morning meeting, we use an issue management table for about 30 minutes to check daily progress and issues.

By checking these as a team, I tried to minimize the time that a person in charge spends worrying and holding onto tasks alone.

Also, at the end of the morning meeting, we set aside time to share each member's concerns and worries.
We have them bring up any neglected sudden tasks, and if they were missing from the task list or issue management table, we added them and assigned someone to them.

Before we started morning meetings, there were frequent instances where tasks involving unprecedented cases with unclear procedures or tasks where it wasn't clear who to ask were left unattended.
By creating an environment where it is easy to bring up issues during morning meetings, we have reduced task omissions and enabled individual work to be shared across the team.

Before implementing morning meetings, there were times when supervisors would directly assign highly abstract work requests to team members, making it difficult for members to understand what was being asked and leaving them unsure how to respond.

So, as the leader, I stepped in and:

By keeping these two things in mind, I was gradually able to create“a system for moving work forward as a team.”I was able to build this.

By incorporating tasks into the schedule and monitoring progress during morning meetings, projects will proceed smoothly.
Even when problems arise, we can now respond quickly, allowing the entire team to move as one toward achieving our goals.

Before and After of Team Task Management x Tidying Thinking

I have tried out this 'tidying thinking' approach, and I will share how I, as a leader, have changed through these three steps in a before-and-after format.
(Please read this while playing that background music in your head.)

■ Leader Before
Tororo-san, who was always in a rush due to responding to inquiries and sudden tasks.
Always being chased by something, work never got finished, and days were spent spinning wheels.
Unable to rely on team members effectively, and decisions were inconsistent from time to time.
Regarding the content of decisions, there were remarks that worried those around, such as 'Maybe it should have been B instead of A after all.'
And because she always seemed busy, team members found it hard to consult with her, which sometimes led to major trouble later on.
She often woke up many times in the middle of the night worrying, unable to sleep, and often left fatigue for the next day.

■ Leader After
Oh my, what a transformation...!
Tororo-san, who used to be passive and always in a rush, is now acting proactively and staying ahead of the game.
She relies on team members for their respective areas of expertise, shares the work, and focuses on management.
Decisions are now clearly shared, including the reasoning, such as 'Considering the team's goal, how about doing △△ because of 〇〇?', and there is almost no inconsistency in decision-making.
By bringing up issues that members have during morning meetings, we are able to take immediate action toward solutions.
Because decisions and actions are fast, the task turnover rate has increased, and the team's productivity has improved.
Since she no longer carries worries over, she sleeps soundly with her children at night and wakes up refreshed in the morning.

To the troubled leader

The key points of task management using tidying thinking are summarized in this table.

When you replace it with tidying, it becomes easier to visualize team task management.

There is an African proverb that goes like this:

By managing tasks as a team using tidying thinking, I realized that I could maximize team productivity and achieve goals that I could not reach alone.

“Being a leader is difficult.”
“Being a leader is tough.”

I thought so too at first.
However, by incorporating tidying thinking, I realized thata leader's job is actually simple.And the perspective you gain from being a leader is completely different from when you were a player.

The joy of achieving something as a team is immeasurable.
I am still struggling myself, but when I get lost, I will return to tidying thinking and tidy up my challenges as a leader one by one.

To all leaders struggling with team management,
If you'd like, why not incorporate tidying thinking into your work tomorrow?

The organizing mindset is “separate,” “group,” and “tidy up.”

In writing, it is only 11 characters.

By incorporating the organizing mindset into your work, you will surely be able to solve your challenges as a leader and improve your team's productivity.
I hope that your actions tomorrow as a struggling leader will change and that you will shine a little brighter.

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