Very, very briefly a large segment of road (more than 15kms) is being upgraded. My role (what I am being paid to do) is to ‘Build the capability of determined leaders in Workplace Planning specifically applied to this project’.
Weekly, on a Thursday, as a team we have a 30-minute review. We follow an agenda, which is now in its 5th iteration. We discuss what was planned last week and the current week, then review what was completed last week. We then review individual plans for the upcoming 2 weeks.
Each resource in the project reads their own tasks and provides the update. All adjustment (did not go to plan) are made green and the reason behind the change is discussed (as it will affect others).
Unfortunately based on the tyranny of distance the review is not face to face it is done remotely; however, we all look at a live plan.
We’ve been having these reviews weekly now since the beginning of the year. The teams are now getting into the rhythm, there is often healthy banter between participants. Collaboration and trust is increasing. (On projects with many moving parts this is critical). Plans will change, things happen in a long project that haven’t been predicted, assumptions during initial planning will be continually tested, which means those on the ground, doing the work need to adjust. These adjustments affect many stakeholders.
What I am really enjoying about the exercise (besides the project being delivered) is the collaboration between the participants. The review assists this collaboration, it assists the conversation, it assists the ownership and relations between the participants. Here are three key points that are building collaboration:
- Clear expectations of each participant. Ours are:
- Attend.
- On time.
- Prepared (prior to review) with next week’s plan updated.
- Changes to the plan are green. Green was chosen as red is often seen as a negative. We want participants to discuss the change; we need people to feel safe in bringing these ‘out’ into the open.
- Each participant reads their own plan and provides the update. In this case the Leader of the work team reads the plan for the team – they own it.