«Plan. Act. Check. Influence». No, this is not a motivating speech. This is a cycle of continuous improvement of Shuhart-Deming PDCA (Plan-do-Check-Act), which is taken as standard in ASTARTA. On June 4-5, 18 employees of the IT department and AgriChain team were trained in compliance with the PDCA standard.

The training “Efficient Manager: Development of managerial skills in IT-Managers” was held within two days at the company headquarters. It was headed by an external expert of the international consulting firm Tack&TMI, a trainer with many years of practical experience Maxim Egorichev-Krimberg.

What was the purpose of studying?
To form an identic understanding of who an efficient IT manager is. To define the manager’s roles, area of responsibility, and work standards. The main idea is not just to convey the theory. The most important thing of the training is to motivate the use of the instruments of an effective leader in his daily work.

How it was?
It was interesting because it consisted of a harmonious combination of theory and practice. The format of the studying was like training, during which most of the time was devoted to working in teams, working out tools in practice, and interacting between participants. Our colleagues studied: the manager’s areas of responsibility, expert, managerial, and leadership tasks, established interaction in a team

In the course of the study, many things were also discussed about priorities: How to define them and how to delegate tasks to colleagues. ГSpoke about motivation as a combination of the driving forces and conditions that encourage the person to work, the necessity of self-development, and the development of the team. Taught the rules of how to give effective feedback.

Oleksandr Voynalovych, IT-Director of ASTARTA:
“The training was not just teaching for the sake of teaching, because it performed several important functions. At first, is the establishment of communication and increase of interaction between the IT-Development Department and AgriChain. It was important to understand who works on what tasks and where we have crossing points. It is not too much to repeat that effective communication is the key that closes all doors and prevents misunderstandings or problematic situations. Therefore, the establishment of communications within our teams is a priority task that we have already solved. And this will definitely help to work more effectively for the development of not only IT-teams, but also for the whole business of ASTARTA.

Also during the training we checked how well organized IT-functions, because during one day our teams worked autonomously because all managers were trained. This test was also successful and concluded that the work was built correctly and systematically.

Of course, the training helped to grove manager skills it-managers. Also, the study showed who is at what level. That is why our next steps are continuing development of the whole team to increase interaction, communication, and teamwork on projects”

Natalia Bogacheva, CEO AgriChain:
“Knowledge is the best investment that will pay off many times over. According to the results of the training, my colleagues and I already feel it, because the training brought us to one information field and strengthened our understanding of many management tools. The material was extremely interesting and relevant, and most importantly, easy to understand. We really liked the practical tasks ─ role-playing games, during which we could change roles and analyze how best to do in a given situation. It was a kind of team building for our AgriChain team. Because we got even closer to the colleagues of the IT department, with whom we have recently been working in the same team. “