Increase your team’s effectiveness using magnetic boards

We can learn a lot from game coaches and from military strategists.  Strategies used in games as well as in the military are highly effective.  Sure, there are high end technologies adopted in both of these fields, but what makes them really effective is not technology.  It is the simplicity with which information obtained from these technologies are conveyed to the players or troops. For example, we may amass a vast amount of player’s statistics such as batting averages, bowling records etc., but based on this data, the strategy that you lay out should be clear, concise and visually easy to understand.  A board visually displaying a player’s batting order, substitute players, player’s locations etc. is far more effective than a report stating the same. A board indicating all enemy locations in combat zone is far more effective while formulating a strategy than a 100 page document.  A weatherman giving you a table showing the temperature ranges of many cities in the country can put us to sleep whereas a map displaying the temperatures at each location can make us look forward to it every day.

You may be leading a team of journalists, factory workers, soldiers, players, hospital staff, school children etc.  It doesn’t matter what group of people or processes you are leading.  Magnetic boards customized to your needs can help you come up with an easy way to convey information to your entire team so each member of their team can do an effective job.

For example, a building company that has several homes under construction uses magnetic boards for managing their pre-production, production and closings.  For pre-production management, they use a magnetic calendar board.  On this magnetic calendar board, they display all jobs that are supposed to start using magnetic tags (data card inserts in magnetic card holders.)  They simply write the homeowner name on the magnetic tag and place it on the date that the job is projected to start.  The same principle is followed for the production and closings board.  During their meetings, these magnetic job tags are deliberated upon and status is updated (with notes on each tag) with the consensus of every team member present in the room.  If needed, the projections are altered by simply moving the tag to a new date.  The whole team acts in unison and things get done with a lot more efficiency both during and after the meeting.

You may have electronic systems that track all kinds of data.  Unless this data is transformed into meaningful information and communicated effectively to your team, it is of not much use.  Magnetic boards used as visual communication systems have proven to be far more effective than electronic systems in countless number of companies across the world.  Think about your processes today and see what you can accomplish just by converting your data into visual information.

Tags: data card inserts, data cards, data versus information, magnalite monthly planner, magnetic boards, magnetic calendar boards, magnetic card holder, magnetic tags, managing teams, planning board kit, production planning board, team efficiency, team management, visual communication systems