NewsBreak Original

During my first year working at an agency, I was overwhelmed with the amount of jargon and basic project management terms thrown around daily. My boss asked me to put together a Gantt chart to schedule our next project while team members were scheduling sprints — I basically spent that first year doing a significant amount of nodding, followed by just as much research.

Your boss is driving you crazy. You feel as if they don’t understand what it’s like to actually do the work. They aren’t considering the consequences of their words or decisions. They play the political game too often to be trusted. Their vision is self-serving or flawed.

note: First-hand account. the building has been torn down and the unit relocated; images published with permission. In the world of hospital-based nursing practice there’s myriad personalities that work together to make the 12-hour shift go by without any untoward incidents. Although never perfect, the goal is excellence and patient safety, ensuring that the professional license of each one is never put at risk, that fires are put out and all needs addressed. This is a monumental task for the staff and charge nurse when the team isn’t rowing in the same direction. Something’s has to go, and unsafe practice has to change.

If you are assigned to a team that has to work together to do a project at work, you may be wondering how to make things run smoothly. You might have a timeline in which your project is due, and you may be wondering how everyone can work together to get everything done in a timely fashion. So, what is a good way to go about the project? How can everyone incorporate their skills while still working together? Though the answers to these questions can be different for everyone, here are a few suggestions.