CREA Mont-Blanc: specializing in communication and collaboration
Founded in 1996, the Research Center for Alpine Ecosystems (CREA Mont-Blanc) is an NGO based in Chamonix, France. This small non-profit organization carries out ecological research into the impact of climate change on mountain biodiversity.
CREA Mont-Blanc is a pioneer of citizen science in France, involving the public directly in its research. The CREA Mont-Blanc team leverages MeisterTask’s collaboration features to embrace a system of distributed management and effectively execute complex projects.
The challenge: introduce greater transparency across distributed teams
CREA Mont-Blanc was already familiar with the benefits of MeisterTask, having originally used the tool to bring order to ongoing projects. However, In mid-2020, the team introduced a business transformation strategy based upon a distributed management model.
In the interests of sustainability and becoming more efficient and agile, we needed to focus on distributed roles and responsibilities. This meant moving away from a hierarchical structure.
Hillary Gerardi
Head of Development, CREA Mont-Blanc
As CREA Mont-Blanc's project portfolio grew to involve more stakeholders, it became clear their current workflows needed improvement. The team lacked the transparency the new structure required, and keeping track of deadlines and deliverables was becoming increasingly difficult. To overcome these challenges, they would have to adopt an agile approach to work management and re-evaluate their existing tech stack.
The solution: creating a scalable and customizable management structure
The team needed more functionality than their existing MeisterTask plan could offer. But before deciding to upgrade to the Business plan, CREA Mont-Blanc assessed a number of other tools.
We considered solutions like Trello, which I’d used before, and Focalboard, but MeisterTask was evidently the best fit as a task management solution for our team. Our needs are very specific, so we value its customizability and flexibility. MeisterTask was clearly the most flexible and effective task management solution for our team.
Célia Bonnet-Ligeon
Operational Manager, CREA Mont-Blanc
More than any individual feature, they fell in love with the scalability of MeisterTask. Having seen the initial benefits of the tool, they were confident that MeisterTask could handle the shift to a distributed structure too.
However, CREA Mont-Blanc’s projects are complex and involve collaborations with different organizations. Communication is challenging because project stakeholders can be:
Distributed geographically and thus not all available in the same place, at the same time
Both internal and external
Diverse: projects involve the scientific community and the public
Effective communication is vital to the success of a distributed management model, and the team was unanimous that they needed to up their game.
Distributed management means escaping a top-down approach. In our case, each team member is a “chef de projet”, which requires them to take full responsibility for projects and the team communication they involve. With a pressing need for alignment, MeisterTask has vastly improved our communication internally and with external stakeholders.
Hillary Gerardi
Head of Development, CREA Mont-Blanc
The outcome: key features that facilitate an effective distributed management model
MeisterTask enables CREA Mont-Blanc to approach project management in a more agile way. Using the tool, they have created a “project table” to visualize projects, which are classified by maturity level, i.e. where they are on the progress timeline.
For Célia Bonnet-Ligeon, who manages day-to-day team projects, the ability to streamline communication, decision-making and meeting efficiency have improved significantly thanks to MeisterTask.
With MeisterTask, we finish over half of our weekly team meetings on time. Before, 90% of our meetings overran. MeisterTask provides a clear vision and allows the team to build trust when shifts in responsibility occur — everyone can still see when tasks will be completed. If someone is off sick or leaves the organization, we can hand over projects with no knowledge loss.
Célia Bonnet-Ligeon
Operational Manager, CREA Mont-Blanc
According to Célia, the improvements enabled by MeisterTask are more qualitative than quantitative. The recently adopted distributed management system reflects the values of its employees: shared leadership and the distribution of responsibility. They list the key features in that shift as follows:
Roles and Permissions
MeisterTask’s Roles and Permissions are central to CREA Mont-Blanc’s distributed management model, in which there is no one project manager. By assigning relevant permissions to project collaborators, CREA Mont-Blanc clearly defines what stakeholders may access and edit in any project.
The assigned roles align with the organization’s RACI-based accountability structure. RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted, informed) ensures that project stakeholders are assigned a role at every step of any given process. For external stakeholders, the Guest role provides volunteers, land managers and decision-makers with read-only access to projects.
MeisterTask helps us communicate effectively with different communities, especially in citizen science. We can provide a better vision of scientific protocols and a timeline of what is happening, where.
Hillary Gerardi
Head of Development, CREA Mont-Blanc
Timeline
Timeline, available on the MeisterTask Business plan, helps the team plan and schedule project tasks in calendar view. This Gantt chart-style function has replaced a shared Excel spreadsheet and synchronized schedules.
Integrations
MeisterTask’s compatibility with other tools, namely Slack and Google Workspace, is crucial to CREA Mont-Blanc’s strategy for reducing its digital footprint. Its roadmap for “sobriété numérique”, digital sobriety, largely depends on MeisterTask to self-regulate the use of digital tools.
MeisterTask allows us to send fewer emails, with fewer attachments, which reduces our overall footprint. Integrations are vital to enriching our digital ecosystem.
Hillary Geradi
Head of Development, CREA Mont-Blanc
As a research center, CREA Mont-Blanc’s achievements with MeisterTask have helped them fulfil their bigger picture mandate.
Science is never done: some tasks are never finished in the traditional sense. Others, like the project table, will never be completed, while long-term monitoring of ecosystems can rely on decades of data. Our use of MeisterTask reflects exactly how we work right now: we’re really excited about how we can collaborate even further thanks to MeisterTask.
Hillary Geradi
Head of Development, CREA Mont-Blanc
