Task management tools are essential for project managers to plan, track, and communicate work progress. But what if you have a team member who resists using them, preferring to stick to their own methods or habits? This can create frustration, confusion, and inefficiency for the whole team. Here are some tips on how to manage a team member who resists task management tools.
The first step is to understand why your team member is reluctant to use task management tools. Is it because they are unfamiliar with the tool, lack the skills or training to use it, or have technical issues with it? Or is it because they have a different work style, preference, or personality that makes them resist change or feel micromanaged? Try to empathize with their perspective and identify the root cause of their resistance.
In a team, everyone’s unique. Sometimes, reluctance to use task management tools is just a reflection of their uniqueness and personal work style. Instead of seeing it as a problem, I see it as a chance to evolve and bring in fresh ideas. Adapting to different styles can actually make our workspace more inclusive and efficient.
Based on my experience employees mostly resist task management tools when they lack a user-friendly design that is intuitive and easy. Choosing software with a simple interface can enhance acceptance and usage. Another very important reason is lack of transparent communication. Try to be open, frank and kind with all crucial project topics’ explanations. Do not try to hide anything and be "mysterious" - this will lead to even higher resistance.
I believe employees tend to less adopt new PM tools can be mainly due to lack of change management inside the team. To begin with we should explain the benefits of utilizing the new tool and frequent trainings, assistance on the tools, workshops should be provided. This will eventually help the employees to adapt to the new environment quickly and accept it with less hesitation. Hope this helps!
I follow two crystal-clear procedures whenever I start a project: Step 01- Get to know the partnerships your client is involved in. These can dramatically limit the tools at your disposal. Step 02- Get to know the team members. ( You must be serious about this phase, as here you can already detect those who are less adept at managing things more accurately). It's easy to do this by having open conversations with each team member. You'll understand their working methods, and you can already see signs that they may resist task management tools. Sometimes they hate the whole management process. Be prepared! A tool like Jira allows you to create tasks as issues and assign them to the team. It is easier to keep track all the way.
Once you understand their reasons, you can address their concerns and offer solutions. For example, if they are unfamiliar with the tool, you can provide them with tutorials, guides, or coaching sessions to help them learn how to use it. If they lack the skills or training, you can arrange for them to attend workshops, webinars, or courses to improve their competence. If they have technical issues, you can troubleshoot them or contact the support team of the tool. If they have a different work style, preference, or personality, you can try to adapt the tool to suit their needs, such as by customizing the features, settings, or views.
Understanding and addressing concerns is not just about fixing issues, it’s about building bridges. If they’re unfamiliar with the tool, let’s turn it into a learning journey. If they lack skills, let’s turn it into a growth opportunity. If there are technical issues, let’s turn it into a problem-solving challenge. And if it’s about their unique work style, let’s turn it into a customization adventure. It’s all about turning concerns into positive experiences.
Set up regular 1:1 sessions with all team members to understand their feelings (positive and negative). Positive can boost your project, improve your processes and help defining your PM tool with better principles. Negative can highlight areas where your project or team can lack transparency and support.
Understand the concerns and clear up any misunderstandings. Arrange one-on-one conversations with team members to figure their problems with the use of those tools. Is it a lack of familiarity, fear of how difficult they are? Or other reason? Perhaps they've had a bad experience with a specific tool or framework. Active listening will help you address their concerns, feelings and frustrations. Be empathetic, changing can be uncomfortable for some. I once struggled with a data architect who hated project management tools (his words). I explained him the benefits of those for productivity and collaboration. But the real change only happened when I showed how valuable this knowledge was to him as a professional. There is always a path.
Another way to persuade your team member to use task management tools is to highlight the benefits of doing so. Explain how the tool can help them improve their productivity, efficiency, quality, and collaboration. Show them how the tool can simplify their work processes, reduce errors, save time, and provide insights. Demonstrate how the tool can enhance their communication, feedback, and visibility with the rest of the team and the stakeholders. Emphasize how the tool can align their work with the project goals, objectives, and standards.
Highlight not only benefits but also show clearly disadvantages if you do not use the tool at all - discuss this within your team and calculate time effort and costs related to scenarios when you use / not use the tool. Also try to "buy in" your key stakholders to push usage of the tool.
Emphasize how these tools are essential to a successful project. They provide transparency, centralize tasks, making work progress clear and improving team alignment. There are plenty of choices, take a moment to share your knowledge as a manager, showing the benefits of tools such as Jira, MS Project or Trello. Make it an excuse to show you know what you're doing, it conveys security. Use the specific needs of your project to show how it can optimize processes, reduce repetition and cut team effort. MS Teams and Slack ease communication, Jira Software allows you to plan, implement and monitor activities. These tools combined provide data and metrics. Explore how valuable this is in decision-making.
Remember, patience and open communication are key. Highlight how embracing task management tools benefits both the individual and the entire team, sometimes people don't understand the capability of these tools and how they can make their work lives more efficient, I have recently had a similar conversation within my Project Team where the Team simply didn't know these things existed or what they could do.
You also need to set clear expectations and boundaries for your team member regarding the use of task management tools. Define the roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities of each team member and how they relate to the tool. Establish the rules, guidelines, and best practices for using the tool, such as when, how, and what to update, share, and report. Communicate the consequences of not using the tool, such as missing deadlines, losing track of tasks, or compromising quality. Monitor and measure their performance and compliance with the tool and provide feedback and recognition accordingly.
A smooth-running project hinges on setting clear expectations from the get-go. This means everyone involved needs a crystal-clear understanding of their role, what's expected of them (their tasks), what they need to deliver (outputs), and when it needs to be done (deadlines). Essentially, setting the ground rules upfront ensures everyone is aligned on the project's key aspects. RACI is one tool to achieve this and can help in clarifying roles and responsibilities, improves communication & in increasing accountability. It enhances decision making and in engaging stakeholders among several benefits. RACI is a valuable tool that ultimately contributes to the success of the project.
Set clear expectations for the use of the tool and its importance to the success of the project. Be specific about deadlines, updates and reports. Define the consequences for non-compliance, such as impacts on performance evaluations and project results. Sometimes you have an excellent squad dealing with their goals in its own way and getting good results out of it. But it's your job to make them realize that everyone needs to report to someone. Show them how this behavior will affect your work as a manager. The direct result is that you'll need constant one-on-one sessions to ensure the alignment of these members, After all, you need a good basis for your retrospective meetings.
Finally, you can involve your team member in the process of choosing, implementing, and improving the task management tools. Ask for their input, opinions, and suggestions on how to select the best tool for the project, how to set it up and configure it, and how to optimize it for the team's needs. Encourage them to participate in the testing, evaluation, and feedback of the tool and to share their experiences and challenges with it. Make them feel part of the decision-making and problem-solving process and acknowledge their contributions and value.
Remember that patience, active listening, and flexibility are key when managing team members who resist change. By understanding their perspective involving them in the process and demonstrating the potential capability, you can foster a positive work environment and encourage the adoption of task management tools
Encourage collaborative decision-making by involving the team in the choice of the tool and asking for feedback during its evaluation and implementation. You'll need time for that, but you will increase the likelihood of acceptance. Keep an open channel for feedback and resolve problems promptly to ensure ongoing involvement. Promote active participation in creating and updating tasks, This will also make sure the team is leveled up when it comes to the use of the tool.
I've seen a lot of reluctance in working with task management tools. I think it's important that the tool is user friendly and everyone knows how to use it. But especially you have to stress to people that it's not a monitoring tools, not meant to see how many minutes / hours everyone is working in total every day and compare person one with person two.
It is important to train the team. If you know how and can act as a coach, you could provide training sessions or any other resources that, you think, could improve the level of adoption of the tools. Use SCRUM ceremonies to get constant feedback. Try to check in more often with the team member who is showing resistance, but don't be pushy. Let them know that you always have the best intentions and be honest about your concern for your own performance. There's nothing wrong with that. The most important thing is to be open and flexible. Patience and empathy are always great tools. And finally... It is possible to manage a project using more than one tool at the same time. Sometimes this extra work pays off.