Big projects can be intimidating. As a leader, you need to come up with a strategic plan to introduce new projects slowly and incrementally. With gradual inductions, your employees will be more receptive and open to the new changes. Here are some insightful tips to smoothly onboard your team to a new project.
1. Organize All the Crucial Project Details
Before introducing a major project to the team, make sure all the information you need is perfectly organized. This way, you will be able to pass it on to your team in a coherent, organized, and structured way.
Each project will require a different set of resources and materials that you will need to prepare beforehand. If it’s a new project, you will need critical business documents, a detailed background on the client, how their previous projects have been like, and whether there were any gaps that your team could fill with calculated risk-taking.
You will also need to brief your team about the project schedule, deadlines, a weekly status report, and the current statement of work. With a detailed plan to share, your team will have sufficient information to kick-start the project. It will give them the confidence they need. This is better than if you were to withhold these critical project resources, budget, and timeline.
2. Setting Up the Management Tools
The next step is to introduce your team to a management system that will host the new project. A new project management softwarewill require you to bring in new collaboration tools, time tracking systems, and communication channels. Even if you don’t have a project software, you can use online tools to help you kick start this phase.
Slack, Clubhouse, Bitbucket, and Confluence are some extremely useful project management tools that can give remote working teams access to project guidelines, improve internal communication, and hit deadlines on time.
Slack can improve day-to-day communication so it’s a must-have if you’re sharing group tasks. There are also time sheets that allot how many hours each task and project genuinely needs. With ready access to all the channels and tools, your team will always stay updated and improve internal collaboration.
3. Conducting Onboarding Sessions
Now that you have the entire project brief, the tools, and a team of people who know what they’re doing, the next step is holding as onboarding session. Bring in your client and host a small seminar or workshop with them. In the session, allow your team to pitch in their opinions, understand the risks of the project, and get constructive feedback.
They need to know what the client’s expectations are and whether everyone is on the same page. If there are any conflicts, disagreements, or inconsistencies that are blocking the progress, they need to be resolved first.
This is also a good time to discuss the long-term goals and future of the project with your team and the client.
The secret to successful onboarding is letting your team in on all the inside details of the project so that they feel a sense of familiarity and confidence in taking up the project.
