Asana Tea Session Lecture: Integrating Strategic Management with Agile Practices

During the CEO CSM course, I encountered Zhu Yiqing, a former PMP participant at Changhong who is now the Vice President of BenQ. After a decade of experience, he quickly ascended to a senior executive role, managing a large department of about 130 people.

In that CEO CSM session, he deeply realized that if the company was to promote Agile, it still needed to adhere to the orthodox principles of Scrum. Coinciding with his company’s opportunity to represent the internationally renowned Agile software Asana, Vice President Zhu planned to host a tea session and invited me to be the speaker. Believing in my credibility and influence, he successfully invited 30 corporate executives to attend the event.

Asana Features: Key Characteristics to Enhance Team Efficiency

Asana is a popular agile development tool designed to help teams organize, track, and manage their work. Its main features include task assignment, timelines, project dashboards, and automation capabilities, all of which effectively enhance team productivity and transparency.

Users can create projects in Asana, breaking them down into multiple tasks, assigning responsible individuals, and setting deadlines. It supports the creation of various workflows, such as Agile, Scrum, or Kanban, making it highly suitable for the needs of different teams.

Additionally, Asana allows integration with tools like Google Drive, Slack, and Outlook, enabling users to manage all related work and communication on a single platform.

Combining OKRs with Scrum: Creating an Efficient Strategy Management Model

Considering that the attendees are all senior executives, I chose the theme of combining strategy management with agility. Asana’s expertise in OKR management is particularly suitable for senior executives, as it can showcase the overall company objectives, namely OKRs (Objectives and Key Results).

This aligns perfectly with the needs of senior executives for strategy management, allowing them to see the realization of the overall company objectives. I previously presented a similar topic in an executive management course, which led me to decide to share this subject.

In the presentation, I first introduced the CVF (Competing Values Framework), a model that emphasizes the complementary and conflicting values within organizational structures. I then explained how to combine the company’s strategy management with OKRs, ultimately leading to the transparent model of Scrum, which helps enhance the company’s competitiveness.

Collaboration Advantages of Asana and Jira: Achieving Business Goals

During the presentation, I deeply felt the emphasis that senior executives at Asana place on agile strategies. In particular, Lizzie, the regional head for Asia, showed great interest in this topic. Among the 30 attendees that day, six were PMP certification holders, which gave me a sense of revisiting and reinforcing my knowledge.

Additionally, all of Changhong’s students have advanced to senior executive positions within their companies, demonstrating that they are highly talented individuals with great potential. The collaboration between Asana and Jira can enhance clarity and delineation of responsibilities, maximizing impact and confidently scaling operations.

Whether for small projects or strategic plans, Asana can assist organizations in coordinating work. Asana is widely used by international clients such as Amazon, Affirm, Japan Airlines, and Sky. These companies choose Asana because it enhances the speed of business processes and increases the efficiency of completing business workflows by 40%.

Success Stories from the Asana Tea Meeting and Feedback from Senior Executives

Overall, this tea meeting was not just a presentation for me, but a valuable opportunity for external communication. During the presentation, I deeply felt the emphasis that senior executives at Asana place on agile strategies, particularly the support from Lizzie, the regional head for Asia.

Among the 30 attendees that day, six were PMP certification holders, which gave me a sense of revisiting and reinforcing my knowledge. Additionally, all of Changhong’s students have advanced to senior executive positions within their companies, demonstrating that they are highly talented individuals with great potential. The success of this tea meeting made me realize the value of occasionally stepping outside the company to engage with and learn from the outside world.