We have hit the half-way mark in our apprenticeship this week and are now moving from learning leadership skills to applying them with our WOW! projects.
- We started our day outside (what a beautiful day!) with a partner game. We stood back-to-back as one person drew some sort of figure on a piece of paper. That person then had to describe what he just drew to his partner without peeking. Success all around! Some found it easy, and some found it hard, but it definitely connected the ideas of communication (last week) to reliability (this week) for all!
- Coming back inside and leaving the sun behind was difficult, but we all enjoyed the pickle jar theory too much to regret the transition. We worked in our WOW! groups to put sugar, marbles and pretzel bites into a container. We were all amazed that only the reverse order would allow us to close the lid. With the teachers, we discussed how these materials represent the different priorities in our lives - homework, chores, talking to friends, shopping, and watching television. We talked about wanting to do everything and being able to when we did the most important tasks (the pretzel bites) first.
- Next we came together as a group to add another word to our vocabulary list - procrastination. We recognized that we all do it and then came up with solutions to fight it. This was perhaps the hardest part of the lesson, but if we wanted to be able to prioritize efficiently, we knew this was necessary.
- Now we were ready to apply all this to our WOW! projects. We broke out into our groups to assemble an action plan. We brainstormed the "what," the "who" and the "time" of each small part of our larger mission so that we can prioritize and accomplish our goals on time. It was amazing to see just how much work goes into these projects! And we were all impressed with each other's ideas. We are feeling organized and dressed for success!
We are looking forward to the exciting weeks ahead as we continue to plan, create and finally present our WOW! projects. Everything is starting to take shape, and it all looks mighty impressive!
The executive leadership team or project champion owns the project and is therefore responsible for helping the rest of the organization to understand the vision and the reasoning behind the effort. The charter is the tool that can help bring a consistent message to the team and all the stakeholders that may be impacted.
ReplyDeleteThe PM is the one that needs to assist the executive or champion in defining the charter to help get the message out. Many members of the team may often feel overwhelmed and out of touch as to why change is necessary. The project charter can help them understand and get past the “why” and move on to “how” the plan will positively affect the organization. This, in turn will help them to stay focused on the tasks that need to be accomplished in order for the project to be successful.
http://gravitygarden.com/project101/project-management-charter.html