Lessons Learned: Laguna Hills Leadership Seminar Oct 2009

In last year’s leadership seminar, the overall objective was to come up with projects based on the 2008 World Youth Day message of the Pope. This year, the objective was simply to teach the participants some project management concepts and tools.

The tools I shared with them are the following:

• Stakeholder Analysis
• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
• Risk Breakdown Structure (RBS)
• Risk Register

We were given one 2-hour session each day for three days.

First session

• 10 minutes explaining what a project is
• 10 minutes spent dividing them into three groups, and asking each group to list down the top 3 projects among the people in their group. Among the 9 project, I selected a project for each based on its value as an example for the learning objective, as well as diversity (3 different kinds of projects)
• They spent around 1 hour doing a workshop doing the following (a table with three columns)


• Identifying their stakeholders
• Identifying what each stakeholder contributes to the project
• Identifying their leverage on each stakeholder (why would the stakeholder want to contribute to the project?)


• I explained the concept of a sound business model (where each stakeholder is satisfied with the give-and-take). The example I gave was Gmail:

• I then explained some additional things in a non-profit environment (eg, more non-tangibles, like the desire to serve and to make an impact).
• Each group explained their table. Based on the sound business model concept, I gave some comments on their table (eg, would the sponsors really give you money based on the exposure you are giving them?)

Second session

• I spent 15 minutes explaining the concept of Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), including some examples
• They then spent ~45 minutes creating a WBS for their project
• I spent 10 minutes explaining what to do with the WBS they created (eg, Activity List, Schedule and Budget Estimates, Staffing, Project Control and Reporting and Risk Management)
• We then talked about the Risk Breakdown Structure (RBS) for around 10 minutes
• They then spent ~15 minutes to brainstorm on the risks of their project using an RBS
• I then asked them to score the risks in terms of probability and impact. They got the product between the two scores, and I asked them to pick the top 5
• We talked about mitigation and contingency plans for each of their top risks and how they impact the scope of the project

Third session
I was planning to show them the following videos on motivation and success:

• Dan Pink on motivation (TED talks)
• Itay Talgam on leading like the great conductors (TED talks)
  
• Richard St. John on the 8 secrets of success (TED talks)
  

However, electricity was cut due to typhoon Santi, so we decided to cancel the third session.

Observations
2 hours is too long for a session. Put a video at the middle.

What I'll do next time
Session 1
0:00 – 0:15 Project and Project Management
0:15 – 0:30 Identifying stakeholders
0:30 – 0:45 What is their contribution to the project
0:45 – 1:00 They would contribute because...
1:00 – 1:20 Leadership video 1 (Dan Pink)
1:20 – 1:30 The sound business model
Assignment: explain why your project has a sound give-and-take model

Session 2
0:00 – 0:30 Assignment
0:30 – 0:40 The WBS
0:40 – 1:20 WBS workshop
1:20 – 1:40 Leadership video 2 (Itay Taglam)
1:40 – 1:50 The uses of the WBS

Session 3
0:00 – 0:10 The Risk Breakdown Structure
0:10 – 0:45 Risk Identification Workshop
0:45 – 1:00 Quantitative Risk Analysis (give me the top 5 most severe risks)
1:00 – 1:10 Leadership video 3 (Richard St. John)
1:10 – 1:40 Risk mitigation and contingency planning (I'll lead the discussion and show the impact of risk planning on the WBS)
1:40 – 1:50 Feedback

Documents
Project Management Tools Cheat Sheet (Stakeholder Analysis, WBS, RBS, Risk Register) (I was not able to hand this out due to typhoon Santi...)

Organizing Research and Attendance to an Out-of-country Conference for Univeristy Students

Documents

• Project Charter
• Work Breakdown Structure (mindman file)
• Invitation Letter
• Application Form
  
• brochure jpeg (front)
  
• brochure jpeg (back)
• brochure publisher file (2.4mb)

Risk Management Lessons Learned and Documents

This was the most sloppily managed aspect of the Workcamp. I cannot use my being a first-timer as an excuse. I could have organized a risk identification workshop with the people with Workcamp experience. But I didn't. So to make up for it, here's a post-project Risk Breakdown Structure for the Workcamp. I'm embarrassed to say this, but during the planning, I only identified two (2) risks, a storm and not having sufficient work for the volunteers (I'm an optimist). This RBS has more than 60 risks. It will be useful for the next Workcamp.

post-Workcamp Risk Breakdown Structure (download pdf)

What I'll do next time

• Reuse this RBS
• Have a risk identification workshop with my core team
• Come up with a risk register with options for mitigation and contingency. See an example of a Risk Register.

Documents

• Workcamp 08 post-project Risk Breakdown Structure (pdf)
• Workcamp 08 post-project Risk Breakdown Structure (mindman)
• Mindman software (shareware)
  

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Communications Management Lessons Learned and Documents

What worked

• Making a communications management plan, as always, was quite helpful
• A site visit prior to committing the project is a must
• Budget for cellphone and long-distance bills
• If you are using prepaid, bring extra credits to the site
• Brochures, videos, newsletters and other media are useful for promoting future projects

What didn't work

• I should have given more importance to communications with the local sponsors. I should have engaged them with the nitty-gritty of the project earlier than I did.

Documents

• Workcamp 08 Communications Management Plan
• Workcamp 08 Brochures (front) (back)
  
• Workcamp 08 Newsletter
• Workcamp 08 Video (Google Video) (Youtube)
  
• Project summary for donors
  
• Kick-off presentation to students at the start of the project (hack job)
• Another presentation to students at the latter half of the project
• A sample of the weekly report I gave to the major stakeholders

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Cost Management Lessons Learned and Documents

What worked

• Overall estimate was accurate – The overall cost of the Workcamp was within +5% to -5% of the estimate (including risk reserve). I expected higher, since this is my first time to manage a Workcamp. The category estimates, however, were more inaccurate. The overestimates and underestimates evened out, so the overall actual cost was near to the overall estimate. I consulted architects and construction contractors for estimates of materials given certain dimensions and plans, and asked suppliers for estimates of the prices of materials.
• A glorified excel sheet – I have discovered an enhanced version of excel. It is extremely mobile and energy efficient, has an infinite battery life, no license cost and multi-user (with an option for concurrent usage). It is extremely useful for tracking expenses.
  

a future version of excel

• Not carrying all the cash – The site was 30 minutes away from a city. And we brought our own van. So instead of carrying cash, we deposited to several ATM cards, and just withdrew cash as needed.
• Included management reserve in the budget (buffer for unknown risks) – Part of the budget was for unknown risks. I pegged it at ~25% of the budget, since this was the first time I organized a Workcamp. This was also useful for positive risks (ie, opportunities). Instead of painting just one classroom, we decided to paint three.
• Having some accounting background – I did accounting work for a non-profit for around two years before this Workcamp. Since I did not have any formal accounting training, those were two painful years. But accounting, it turns out, is one of the most useful things in life. For the Workcamp, it was quite useful. Creating the financial reports were straightforward, but it wouldn't have been that simple if I didn't acquire the habit of accounting for each single centavo.

What didn't work

• Category estimates were way off the mark:
• Food: 15% lower than budgeted (we were 27% fewer than expected). Food was 32% of the total expense.
• Transportation of volunteers: 50% higher than budgeted. In the last minute, I decided to bring only 1 van. Most of the volunteers had to take the bus. I was supposed to be the driver for other van, but I did not want to have on my shoulders the risk of driving teenagers in a 13-hour drive. My estimate was also not sufficiently conservative. Transportation, like food, was 32% of the total expense.
• Transportation of materials: I was not able to anticipate this. This ended up being 4% of the expense.

Documents

• Workcamp 08 Cost Estimates
• Workcamp 08 Financial Statement
• Image of daily cost tracker
• Image of daily food expense record and receipt

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Time Management Lessons Learned and Documents

What worked
1) Combined school and project calendar – combining important schedules made it easier to plan
2) Detailed and comprehensive schedule for times with a lot of interrelated tasks by several people – Zooming-in the most critical days (getting the materials and volunteers from Manila to Sto. Domingo)
3) You don't need MS Project!
I prefer to use the simplest tool I can use to accomplish a task. In this case, I used a spreadsheet for the schedule. In my opinion, you only need to use MS project (or other specialized PM software) when:

• There are a lot of tasks distributed to many resources
• You need to make repeated computations that are automated by PM software (e.g., Earned Value, resource billing)

What didn't work
1) What is useful for the project manager may not be useful for others - The detailed and comprehensive schedule was very useful for me as a project manager. However, it did not work for one of the people responsible. The leadership personnel exchange at the middle of the workcamp was a bit complicated (a four-man exchange with a requirement that at least two are always present in the site). I had to go home 1 day earlier than planned :-( since there was a miscommunication. I should have made a clearer schedule model just for the personnel exchange.

Documents

• Combined school and project calendar
• Comprehensive schedule (includes a to do list for the leadership team)
• Workcamp Daily Schedule

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Scope Management Lessons Learned and Documents

What worked
1) Using mindmaps and mindmapping software for the work breakdown structure (WBS).

• Very useful for project control. I colored the completed tasks green. This gives a very visual way of seeing how far you are in the completion of the project tasks.
• Gives you an idea of what type of work to expect. For this project, half of the WBS was taken up by logistics. This was a pretty accurate prediction of the actual project work.
• The software I used was Mindman, which has a 1998 freeware copyright. Mindmapping software seems to be a commodity; there does not seem to be significant differences between mindmapping software. Mindman is one of the first mindmapping software I got hold of, given by my manager back in P&G. It never occurred to me to look for another one, not because it is a brilliantly written software, but simply because I did not feel the need for anything more.

The WBS of the Albay Workcamp
See how the logistics branch takes up half of the WBS
Download the PDF of this here

2) Have some rigidity with the scope...

• We pinned down certain aspects of the scope like venue and dates as soon as possible. These are needed for marketing, fundraising and some of the logistics. Changing them entails a lot of replanning and rework, so it is very important to agree on these as soon as possible with the major stakeholders. I worked with some very opinionated people, so I had to defend the scope a few times from brilliant ideas :-P

3) ...but some flexibility as well

• One has to remember that the purpose of the project is not really to fulfill the documented project scope to the letter, but to make the vision of the project a reality. In this case, the purpose was not really to “install ceilings to damaged classrooms;” it was to help a community and at the same time form young men through that act of helping. My natural tendency was zealous adherence to the documented scope, schedule and budget. Fortunately, I had some iron-willed people with me who counteracted my rigidity. The original scope was just painting of one classroom. We ended up painting three. We went over-budget, but it was worth it.
• I was more open—quite enthusiastically open—to innovations in solutions. For instance, I thought we could use insulators rather than plywood to act as ceilings. These would be cheaper and better at insulating from heat. I had some resistance from a risk-averse stakeholder. But when one of our informal consultants (a construction expert) suggested the same thing, I shamelessly made use of his authority, and we ended up with the insulator solution.
• One has to be even more flexible using solutions one is not familiar with, like using the insulator. Since we were not planning to put a plywood ceiling to cover the insulated roof, the flimsy insulator attached to the wooden frames with tiny staples had to be reinforced. Many decisions had to be done on the fly. The original option was to cover it with chicken wire. It would have cost us around 25% of the total budget if we did that. I decided to have us make our own lattices using aluminum wires held in the intersections by mushroom nails. The regular mushroom nail turned out to be too difficult to drive in the wood (for our untrained arms hammering up side down). Fortunately, we discovered a thin type of nail with a plastic “mushroom head.” No one else seems to have been using it, so the hardware store was only too eager to get rid of that old inventory (I think we got it at a discount). It worked perfectly. Most of these decisions were made in the hardware store as we took a look at the different materials available. It was fun. I almost felt like McGyver.

Documents and software
1) Workcamp 08 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) in PDF

• Includes post-Workcamp additions (unanticipated tasks)
• Historical WBS's are useful for planning similar projects

2) Workcamp 08 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) in mindman
3) Mindman software (shareware)

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Integration Management Lessons Learned and Documents

In the typically dry language of the PMBOK: “The Project Integration Management Knowledge Area includes the processes and activities needed to identify, define, combine, unify, and coordinate the various processes and project activities within the Project Management Process Groups.”

What worked

1. Making a project charter organically. I did not follow a template, but created one from need (the way it should be). There were four sets of stakeholders: the beneficiaries, the non-profit group, the volunteers and the donors. The project charter, or at least its equivalent, is the project summary I made for primarily the prospective donors. Another “project charter” is the presentation I gave to students.
2. Project management plans. E.g., communications management plan.
3. Weekly project reporting to the non-profit leadership team. At certain points where I was a bit immersed in my day job, the reporting forced me to see where I was behind in the project.
4. Still to come (part of project closure): news-letter and video (for showing to the sponsors and for marketing for future workcamps)

What didn't work

1. I should have planned to manage the fundraising better. For instance, we could have asked for gifts in kind like transportation rather than just money. For projects like the workcamp, fundraising should be a section in itself in the management plans.
2. Some misses in project closure. E.g., volunteer satisfaction survey, lessons learned sessions with the volunteers and the non-profit leadership team. This should have been documented as part of the closure section of the integration management plan.
3. Preparing the team. I was not able to plan this well. This only turned out well because Paul, the director of Maynilad, took charge of this. Next time, how this is to be managed should be included in the management plans. I think this was very helpful in getting the team to mesh.

What I'll do next time

1. Plan out fundraising better
2. Plan out closure better
3. Plan out volunteer team preparation better

Documents

1. Project summary for donors
   
2. Kick-off presentation to students at the start of the project (hack job)
3. Another presentation to students at the latter half of the project
   
4. Communications management plan
5. A sample of the weekly report I gave to the major stakeholders
   

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Project Initiation – Gathering Lessons from Previous Projects

What worked

1. Asking people with a lot of experience organizing workcamps (I asked two guys who have lead a non-profit called UCF)
2. Asking “what questions should I ask?”
3. Including project management work, particularly gathering of lessons learned from similar project in the past, in my work breakdown structure
4. The experienced workcamp PM's having documentation (see below)
5. Having contacts with different expertise (e.g., my architect friend helped a lot in estimating the materials needed)

What I'll do next time (or now)

1. Paying forward—what I'm trying to do with this blog. The handbook, templates and notes of experience that UCF provided was extremely helpful. I'm hoping to share my lessons learned as well.

Documents

1. UCF Workcamp Organizer's Manual (An excellent document. Thank you Jun!)
2. Questions to ask the prospective hosts (compiled from the organizers manual and correspondences with UCF)
3. Sample letter to hosts (from UCF):

I am currently scouting for possible volunteering activity for Taiwanese and Hongkong Chinese volunteers on January 2008. The Taiwanese volunteers are organized by xxxx, while the Hongkong Chinese are organized by xxxx.

I would like to seek your assistance in exploring volunteering opportunities in Cebu. I am looking for organizations (NGOs, Pos, Community Orgs, LGUs) who are willing to host volunteers for a few weeks to help in their programs and projects. For your reference, mentioned below are the preferences of the volunteers:

1. Type of work: basic manual work not requiring specialized skills such as digging ditches, painting, basic construction work, etc.

2. The manual work should be part of a project of a local organization of any of the following kind:

a. Social projects for cultural minorities, children, and elderly people.

b. Environmental projects such as tree-nurseries, tree-planting, cleaning of rivers and the sea, construction of educational paths in protected areas.

c. Educational projects such as classroom repair and renovation in schools.

d. Reconstruction projects such as repair of public or community buildings destroyed by disasters.

e. Rural development and renovation projects such as community infrastructure work.

f. Low-cost housing for under-privileged families.

g. Cultural heritage preservation (with assistance from professional experts) such as renovation of historical structures, repair or renovation of churches/chapels.

3. Group accommodations for 10-15 boys of a dormitory-type. It could be a big room where they could lay their sleeping beds with toilet facilities.

4. Food could be prepared by local cooks for breakfast, lunch and supper.

5. Tap water for toilet use, preferably.

Please let me know of possible work activity (scope of work and estimated cost of materials). Then we can do an ocular site visit. During the site visit, negotiations could be made to identify the job description, cost of materials and other things.

University Center Foundation (UCF) is a private NGO based in Metro Manila. Among its programs is the International Volunteer Service Program (IVSP) where UCF coordinate with some foreign organizations to undertake volunteer projects that could benefit local communities. For more information, please visit our website, http:\\ucf.ph.

Thank you for your time and best regards.

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