Sunday, March 17, 2013

Project Management- Righting the Course



As a principal intern, several years ago, I participated in two school climate projects simultaneously.  The first was a bus safety project and the second was reading buddies, a program to partner older students with primary age students to improve reading while building community.

I approached these two projects through my work on the Site Council at the elementary school, where I taught and was completing my administrative internship.  During  my preparations for both projects, I involved administration, the Site Council, families, and students.  As I approached the reading buddies project, I worked with both primary and intermediate level teachers in order to ensure its success.  For the bus project, I did not include teachers unless they were part of the Site Council since it was a before and after school project.

Extensive preparation was involved in both projects.  I worked with primary level teachers to select appropriate reading material, classified  staff and administration to ensure supervision, mentored the intermediate students, communicated with parents, and more, as related to the Reading Buddies Project.

I rode the school buses with students after school to research what the route was like, identify concerns, and then developed an incentive plan to encourage positive bus behaviors and reward students for their participation.  Weekly, I designed bus activity packets for Kinder/1st Graders, 2nd/3rd /4th graders, and 5th/6th graders.  I included vocabulary related to state standards, Sudoku, riddles, games, tic-tac-toe, crosswords and a variety of other activities with the main goal of entertaining students on their ride home to prevent bus incidents.  I worked with the bus drivers and the transportation department, provided all materials to students, and was at the bus area before and after school.  I distributed and collected the packets on Monday mornings and was available to students every day before and after school. 

Reading buddies went on without any issues, but I heard through the grapevine that a few teachers were frustrated that they did not know what was going on with the bus project.  My intent in excluding teachers from the bus project was out of respect for their time and was an attempt not to burden them with it.  Although I did not have a client list, I had drafted an outline of individuals who would be impacted by each project (Portny et al, 2008, p. 273).   I learned through this experience that the stakeholder list can grow during a project and that revisions can be made throughout the project at least to some extent.  I also found through this experience that it is better to over-communicate that under-communicate.  If you provide the information to someone who does not want it, they can filter it out.  However, if you do not provide information to someone who wants to be involved then it will appear that you do not value that stakeholder’s input or involvement.

As soon as I became aware that teachers wanted to know what was going on, I sent out an email to all staff explaining the program and advising teachers that they were not required to do anything with the project, but that their input regarding the activities was welcomed.  I also decided to discuss the project at the next staff meeting.  Although not every teacher was out of the loop (any teacher on Site Council or morning/afternoon bus duty was aware of the ins and outs of the project), the whole staff seemed to appreciate a clearer overview of the project and the purpose.  Most of the questions were about implementation and whether or not teachers would be responsible for collecting or distributing the project packets.  Others asked if they were required to provide rewards to students for completing the project.  Simply clarifying that I would provide all the support needed alleviated concerns dramatically. 

As a project manager, it is important to realize that stakeholders want to know what is going on even if the duties do not involve them.  Including them in planning also affirms your value on the input that stakeholders provide.  Additionally, it is critical that we realize we do not have to live with our mistakes.  We can correct them as they arise and doing so shows we value feedback and are open to constructive criticism. 

In both projects, I engaged the participation of many stakeholders from a variety of roles.  I researched practices of other professionals in the school district, referred to Safe Schools information, consulted the Site Council, and was highly interactive with parents and students.  The paperwork sent home for both projects was clear, concise, and timely.  Directions and timelines were spelled out and followed accordingly.  Reading buddies was successful, as evident in positive mentor-type relationships between younger and older students, cooperative reading observed by staff and parents, and through feedback received from students, parents, teachers, and other staff.  The bus project was also successful as measured by decreased bus incidents before and after school, follow-up ride-alongs which observed marked improvement in behavior, positive feedback from students, families, and staff. 

As the project manager faces the post-mortem of any project, he or she should realize that one glitch in a project does not define its success.  Learning from mistakes or omissions will only support our growth and will improve future projects.  However, I value mini-evaluations throughout the project.  One should not wait until the end of a project to measure pros and cons.  Issues that arise that can be corrected should be resolved in a timely manner.  During the post-mortem, the project manager takes notes of those path-redirections in order to proactively change patterns for the next project.

Communication is the most important piece in project management. Use proactive, positive communication to pull input from stakeholders before you begin your project.  As you design the project, provide drafts to stakeholders for continued feedback and continue to communicate and collect input throughout the project.  At the end of any project, provide all stakeholders with a tool to provide constructive feedback such as through a survey.  Celebrate successes with stakeholders and also communicate what changes you will make as a result of the post-mortem.  This validates the feedback you have received and helps stakeholders to feel they have been heard.  This further builds trust and creates a professional relationship that will be valuable in future projects together. 

References

Ertmer, P.,A. & Quinn, J. (2006).  I.D. casebook: case studies on instructional design.  Pearson Education.  Prentice-Hall, NJ.
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. John Wiley & Sons, NJ.




1 comment:

  1. Hi Aubrey,

    Your post was very interesting to read and learn about. You make a great point in regards to how sometimes, some stake holders, such as the teachers, in this case, may not need to participate in the project but feel that their input is just as valuable and important. I think that all input within a project, even from those on the outside, can benefit the project and the project manager because it allows them to see and get a viewpoint of it from a different perspective.

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