War room meetings gather key team members together in order to tackle a challenging problem or project.
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To set up a war room in Kosy go to the Design Office tab and choose a meeting room from a set of templates.
Since this meeting format has its roots in military practices the design of the room should be able to support the team's needs for focused work and uninterrupted concentration.
If you need more flexibility, Kosy also allows you to start with an Empty Room template and build it from the ground up.
Drag and drop the room into your virtual business headquarters, adjust its size, and give it a name.
Now your company has a space to tackle big problems and get things done!
There are a few things project managers can add to their Kosy war room in order to make it more effective.
Situation rooms need to be specially equipped to make project information as easily available as possible.
Kosy's newest feature allows teams to have a permanent project board assigned to a virtual room. With it, you can keep a variety of related documents and web-apps (e.g., Figma, Miro, Notion, Jira, Asana and more) in a single location — laid out on a canvas board. This workspace allows teams to have an overview of the project at all times while also working together on specific documents.
In order to use it, click on Open room board from the dropdown at the top of your screen in Kosy.
Most companies stock up their control rooms with tons of office supplies to help project teams visualize their tasks better — sticky notes, whiteboards, markers, and so on.
Kosy's Whiteboard app is the digital equivalent of a physical whiteboard. It allows team members to draw and write on it in order to better visualize their work.
To best understand the nature of war rooms and why they were adapted into the business world, it is helpful to understand their origins.
With the name "war rooms" it might not be surprising that this type of meeting has its roots in the military. These were used as the main command center during times of war, where military leaders would gather together all of the information and resources they needed to make the best strategic decisions.
The most famous war room you might have even heard of is The Cabinet War Rooms — an underground military headquarters used by Winston Churchill during World War 2.
The war room concept has since been adapted to a variety of different settings and industries outside of the military. For example, you might have heard of the "war room" being used during political campaigns or in IT development.
The reason for the popularity of control rooms is simple: the same principles that apply to military campaigns — the need for clear and effective communication, coordination of resources, and strategic decision-making — also apply to other types of challenging projects.
For most businesses, a war room is about having a centralized meeting space with all the resources, information, and people that they need in order to make decisions and take action on a problem or project.
This can be everything from a physical space with whiteboards and monitors, to a virtual space where team members can share information and work collaboratively.
Due to a war room's problem-solving nature, you can often see this type of space in IT or software development companies.
But really, any type of business or organization can benefit from using a war room where project teams can gather and tackle a challenge head-on. It is an ideal format for any type of project management that aims to:
There are many benefits to using war room meetings , but some of the most popular ones include:
A war room provides a central location for team members to come together and engage in direct verbal communication. This can help reduce misunderstandings and tackle common communication challenges as well as ensure that everyone is on the same page.
By gathering everyone in a centralized location, status reporting and updates can be given in real-time which can help reduce the knowledge-sharing lag.
A war room also creates an environment that is conducive to collaboration.
Since teammates are gathered in one space, it becomes easier for them to work together and bounce ideas off of each other. This can lead to better problem-solving and decision-making as the project team is able to draw on the collective knowledge and experience of the group.
The war room can also help to increase productivity as it provides a structured environment for team members to focus on the task at hand. The clear goals and defined roles that are often associated with this meeting format can help to eliminate distractions and keep everyone focused on the project at hand.
Additionally, war rooms rely on data visualization — from milestone maps showing the project's progress to sticky notes and whiteboards with key information — which can help teams process information more quickly and make better decisions.
Since war room meetings gather key members of the project team together in one place, it becomes easier for them to make decisions.
The ability to have open discussion and debate can help to ensure that all stakeholders have a voice in the decision-making process. Additionally, the fact that vital information is easily accessible in the war room meeting can significantly shorten the decision-making timeline.
Finally, war rooms can increase team commitment as it creates a sense of accountability and responsibility for the project.
When teams see that their input is valued and their work is contributing to the overall success of the project, they are more likely to be invested in its outcome.
When planning a project war room meeting it is important to abide by the best practices that have been proven to work. The most successful war rooms share a few key components:
To successfully accomplish tasks and solve problems, war room meetings often need to be longer than a traditional 30-minute conference.
Having a few hours set aside for tackling a specific problem allows team members the time that they need to fully engage with the challenge at hand and come up with viable solutions.
As we mentioned before, a war room can be either a physical space or a virtual one.
The important thing is that it provides a centralized single location for key team players to gather and work together. This space should be large enough to accommodate all the necessary information and people, and it should be designed in a way that encourages collaboration and idea-sharing.
Also, since discussing project management can take a long time make sure the meeting is conducted in a welcoming space.
One of the most important components of a war room and project management as a whole is data visualization.
This can take many forms, but some common examples include charts, graphs, milestone maps, and sticky notes.
The ability to visually communicate project activities, goals, and progress can help team members better understand the situation and make more informed decisions.
Before starting the meeting, it is important to define what the goal of it is as well as what role each team member will play.
Despite a project war room having a less defined hierarchy than a typical boardroom meeting, having someone head the discussion, like a project manager, can help to ensure that the team stays productive and efficient.
Having all the information relevant to a project in the same room will allow your team to dedicate their complete focus to the matter at hand.
This way, your team can spend more time analyzing and strategizing instead of finding links, shuffling through notes, and trying to remember what’s what.
If you’re struggling to keep a war room effective and active when operating with a remote team, Kosy’s a great solution to that problem.
Create as many war rooms as your business needs in just a couple of clicks for everyone on your team to stay coordinated and in the loop at all times.
Try it out with a free account by following the link below and get started!
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