by Katy Beloof on March 12, 2018
Is organizational complexity making it difficult for your teams to successfully accomplish projects on time and within budget? Multiple communication channels combined with cross-functional teamwork can cloud accountability and muddle decision-making authority, resulting in a lack of employee ownership in a project or process.
One solution to this lack of ownership and its effect on performance is “clear pressure”, a form of peer pressure based on the idea of giving employees real-time visibility into the progress of everyone’s work, so they can hold each other — and themselves — to a higher standard. But are the tools that provide visibility enough to create a culture of clear pressure? Or do leaders need to think more broadly about a solution?
by Katy Beloof on February 20, 2018
In order to stay competitive, business leaders must find new ways to make better decisions faster. A critical part of this is establishing visibility, or making sure the right people have access to the right information at the right time — in real time.
Businesses leaders need a way to free up employees to move swiftly and empower them with the information they need to execute. Leaders also need a way to see how day-to-day work is progressing, to keep their teams on track. At the same time, they need to ensure that high-level information is accurately and promptly communicated to the C-Suite, so they can more quickly make the critical decisions needed to move the business forward. With these challenges in mind, here’s a look at the three layers of visibility organizations need to make better decisions faster, execute more quickly on new initiatives, and ultimately thrive in today’s competitive market.
by Chris Magill on January 25, 2017
I recently participated in a customer security review to give an overview of Smartsheet's security architecture and how we utilize Security Enhanced (or SE) Linux. "SELinux in Enforcing mode is definitely secure," the customer responded, "... provided you were actually able to get it to work."
The customer’s skepticism was understandable… in fact, I’ve heard this same reaction many times over. When I review Smartsheet’s security architecture with customers, one of the main topics that I discuss is the fact that our application is built on Security Enhanced Linux operating in Enforcing mode. In Information Security circles, it’s a well-known secure operating system.
by Chris Magill on February 2, 2017
As more enterprises undertake digital transformation, cloud services and solutions are one of the top technology investments that CIOs plan to make this year. Yet security and privacy remains the top concern for CIOs going into 2017. This doesn’t mean that CIOs should rethink their strategy, but it does reflect the need for thorough vetting of security for any cloud services or solutions IT buyers plan to add to their portfolio.
Here are three questions to ask when assessing SaaS software to get a clearer picture of security:
by Ignacio Martinez on January 12, 2018
As more and more of our daily lives take place online, it’s only natural that we’ve become more accustomed to sharing personal, sensitive, information online. Email communication is a constant part of our daily communication – and unfortunately is also a common tool used by hackers to attempt to gain access to your sensitive information in a scheme known as phishing. Smartsheet will never email you to request sensitive data, such as passwords, credit card details, and social security numbers. As you head into a new year resolute with new intentions, we’d like you to add a renewed commitment to online security to your list. Here’s some helpful information about phishing – and how to keep yourself safe. Make Collaboration Work: Empower teams to execute with agility, speed, and accountability.1/15/2018
What’s the best way to stop your team from maximizing their potential in the new year? By unintentionally impeding progress. It’s time to ask yourself — have you turned into a bottleneck?
It’s all too easy to become a hindrance for progress, and little things that make it challenging for your team to move quickly add up to one big stop sign. Luckily there are a few ways to identify whether or not you’re the problem. Here are three signs that indicate you are a bottleneck – and what you can do to get out of your team’s way.
This week’s troubling news on “Meltdown” and “Spectre” — the Central Processing Unit (CPU) bugs — is generating uneasiness for global consumers, including Smartsheet customers. While details are still emerging, we can confirm that there is no evidence of these exploits being used against Smartsheet. We are constantly evaluating technical details as they become available, taking appropriate actions, and continuously monitoring for malicious activity. We are also working closely with our technology partners to ensure risks are being properly addressed. These measures, along with our data center architecture, further mitigates these bugs from being exploited.
As initiatives get bigger and headcounts get smaller at large organizations, business leaders are challenged to do more with less. Despite their best efforts, it’s easy for productivity to tank when time-wasting workplace conventions and habits continue.
Common unproductive tasks can lead workers to spend less than half of their time on their main jobs. One survey found that U.S. employees at enterprise companies of 1000 or more employees only spend 45% of their time on primary job duties. The other 55% is spent on email, meetings, administrative tasks, and interruptions. Here’s a look at five time-wasters that are draining your team’s productivity and taking time away from creative and innovative work, and what you can do to help them get more of the important stuff done.
When was the last time your department’s best new idea came at the end of a day of data entry or back-to-back status meetings? History’s greatest innovators (Albert Einstein, Warren Buffet, and Bill Gates to name a few) regularly tout the importance of creating space for reflection and deep thought to unlock their best ideas, yet employees are busier than ever and logging increasing hours. Even with these longer hours, workers report they spend almost half of their time on repetitive, low-value tasks.
This is significant time that is taken away from high-value, innovative work. So what’s at the root of this rampant repetitive work? Rework caused by human error, suboptimal meeting culture, and email overload are three of the biggest factors preventing your team from maximizing their potential. To gain a competitive edge, organizations must find a solution to remain relevant. Here’s a look at what’s keeping your team from innovation and what you can do about it. |
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