An example of a project that could have gone better dates
back quite a few years to when I was an elementary school teacher. Every year at the school where I taught, a congratulatory
dinner dance party was thrown for the 8th graders about a week prior
to their graduation. Each year, the
coordination of this event was the responsibility of the 7th grade
home room teacher (which in 1991 happened to be me) and so I found myself leading
a project. Thankfully with the help from students,
teachers and parents, we pulled it off, however, I was too naïve at the time to
realize that the team members and stakeholders really carried me through.
Since this dance was an annual tradition, there was already
a pre-event planning process in place and I quickly conformed to it. I got the students involved early on and we
incorporated making decorations during art class, and fundraising activities
into our general business class. My
students really wanted their kickoff dinner dance to top all years prior so motivating
my team members was not an issue. I did
have clear vision and sold them on the theme of “A night on the town “– with a
silhouetted NY skyline city scape – black white and silver stars and an elegant
glittering disco ball. They selected an
Italian themed menu and we even restored old wine bottles as candle
holders. Things really came
together.
Rallying up the parents was easy. This was a small Catholic school grades 1-8
much like the one I attended as a student and it was really like a community. Lots of parents came forward throughout the
year and offered to help however they could.
One parent offered her home to make homemade spaghetti sauce two nights
in advance of the party and a group of parents and teachers including me got
together to prepare an Italian feast so nearly everything could be reheated the
night of the dinner in the large utility kitchen at the school.
So, those were things that went well, but I was (and still
am) so much more of a ‘doer’ than an organizer/planner. The biggest mistake I made as project
manager was that I failed to plan the details of the actual event and breakdown
the duties for that evening. I did not outline
roles and responsibilities! The actual
dance event ended up being quite chaotic behind the scenes, primarily since I
felt that I needed to be personally responsible and involved in every
facet. Confused parents and teachers were
standing around asking me what they should do and meanwhile I was running
around like a one armed paper hanger.
At one point a couple parents came up to me and were like, “Mrs.
Bellitto! You can’t be doing all of these details, you need
to step back and oversee how things are going in general!” You’re in charge!” I was stunned, I felt
so uncomfortable telling parents
what to do! I was in my early twenties
and had no problem leading my students, but felt very awkward directing
adults. So, I very timidly put each parent ‘in charge’
of something. In hindsight, things would
have gone so much smoother, had I mapped out the various duties in advance and
delegated specifics to individual parents.
I should have had a work breakdown structure “an organized, detailed,
and hierarchical representation of all work to be performed.” (Portney et al
2008) For example, greeting the DJ upon
arrival, assisting him to the area where he should set up, ensuring the sound
checked out okay and answering any questions he may have. Having a checklist with subtasks outlined,
would have eliminated a lot of unnecessary frustration and confusion for my
team members.
The other big lesson learned was that we didn’t keep records
or track our progress, like how long planning activities took. Had we kept and saved organized records, it
would have made things easier for the next year’s 7th grade teacher.
References:
Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S.
M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning,
scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Hi Karen,
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading your blog I felt a connection to everything you were saying. I feel the exact same way when I have to be in charge of something as large as this at my school. I absolutely LOVE being a part of things and want to have my hands in everything, but I really don't like to be the person pointing fingers. I would have been uncomfortable in the situation and to have parents telling me what I need to do would make it so much worse. Sometimes people really do need to realize we are doing things (as teachers) for the first time, too. I think they often think of us as the experts at everything. Why is that? Even in a crowd of friends I can't make a grammatical error without being reminded I am a teacher? A bit off topic here, but are teachers why is the teaching profession the only one that expects perfection from the employee?
I think it sounds like you did very well with your project. It may have been good advice to seek advice from those that had run the same project in the past, if that was possible. Maybe they could have helped to delegate the roles of each person beforehand to assure each stakeholder had a position and each job was complete by the timeline. As we have learned in this course, thus far, starting a project with a meeting to set the details in motion is very important. Greer (2010) calls this the "kick off meeting" and I feel it would have helped you tremendously in setting up your project. I think for you it may have even been easier in a meeting setting to have delegated the stakeholders with tasks because there they could have just picked from a list of jobs the group brainstormed. In my opinion, that would be an easier setting than in the moment when people are scattering trying to do what they want and tension is high. What do you think about this idea? I do, however, feel you handled yourself well and I am glad you have grown from it now.
Jenny
Resources
Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc.
Thanks Jenny, I really like your idea and I would have definitely been more comfortable had I delegated in advance during a meeting. At a kickoff meeting would have been ideal, but even a last minute dress rehearsal' type meeting would have allowed things to surface in advance of the actual event so it wouldn't have been so much pressure.
DeleteI also agree with you and am glad you brought it up how the expectation/standards for teachers is very high. thanks for your comments! :)
Karen,
ReplyDeleteYour summary of your project made me chuckle at different points. I can truly empathize with your feelings of trying to do everything, and running around like a one-armed paper hanger. I can also understand how difficult it is at times when you have to instruct someone who is older than you. It can be uncomfortable. One word of advice that I would give to teachers, parents entrust you with their children for 8 hours a day, in many ways they look to you for guidance, as you have more interactions with them many times than they do.
I do agree that is you would have had a meeting to “assign people to all the project role” and “give and explain tasks to all team members” (Portny et al., 2008, p. 79) the dance would have gone much smoother. You would have had the luxury of being able to oversee how things were going, and point others in the needed direction to when there were issues that needed to be resolved.
I am confident we all could have benefitted from some project management training in our past. We can certainly learn from our mistakes and pass on information to those that will follow in our footsteps. In your situation you stated that you did not keep records to pass on. Even though this was overlooked, I am sure that the next teacher could have benefitted from a post-mortem summary.
References
Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Thanks Jordyn, As I wrote it I found myself laughing as I was remembering. I think your advice to new teachers is excellent! I had some good mentors when I was young, but I wish someone had sat me down and worded it like that. I didn't always listen either, sometimes, I just have to experience things. Thanks for your comments!
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