Who cares what the number of the reason is? I made it up anyway. This post is about how to stop projects failing. Or at least, how to lessen the chances of your project failing.
And the solution is … keep on top of things.
Sounds banal, but it most certainly is not.
Read on to find out why…
E- petition to help learning disabled adults have a secure life when their family are no longer around.
Rosa Monckton, one of the parents featured in the recent documentary on television called ‘Letting Go’, which looked at how parents of young people with learning disabilities are managing the transition to greater independence, has set up an E-petition.
She calls on the Coalition Government to ring-fence funds allocated to people with learning disabilities and to review the way in which the money is spent to ensure lifetime care.
If the petition secures 100,000 signatures, the issue will be debated in the House of Commons.
It takes all of two minutes to add your name to the petition, and think what a difference ring-fencing funds would have on people with a learning disability.
Before you go home, sign it. Please.
Here’s a link you should use by the end of today.
http://howsecureismypassword.net/
Put your password in here and it will estimate how long it would take a bad guy with a PC to crack your it.
Don’t be complacent. My “hyper-secure” password (which took me ages to dream up) would be history in considerably less than a day, whereas my everyday password would take getting on for 780 years.
Guess what I’m doing this weekend? Maybe you should take another look at your passwords?
Here’s an interesting blog entry from Michael Hyatt about the benefits of taking a nap during the day.
When I had a “real job” (in corporate) I used to shut the office door at lunchtime, turn off the light and catch 40 winks. I believe it made me more energetic in the afternoon. It also took care of that awful feeling around 2:30 or 3 when I couldn’t stop yawning.
I recommend trying it if you can.
This has nothing to do with charities other than the people who work for them are usually nice people and might be interested in my findings.
I have a little bird table in my garden and like to think I’m doing my bit to support wildlife in south London. I have a little thingy hanging on the table that holds 3 fat balls, which the little birds seem to like.
I was in a pound shop the other day and they had fat balls much cheaper than my usual supplier so I bought a bag.
Bad decision.
The Robins, Tits and Sparrows didn’t touch them. They obviously know quality when they taste it and ignored the cheap and nasty ones.
I replace them with RSPB fat balls and am having trouble keeping up with the demand. So, if you’re a nice person and want to help the garden birds, it’s not worth buying pound shop fat balls.
Now all I have to do is to figure out how to keep the fat Robin away and let the others get a look-in!
I attended a strategy day last week where we looked at the direction in which the charity was going – was it the right direction, were the priorities right, etc? It was a good and productive day.
The one phrase that stuck our for me was ‘.. so that …’.
It is a truly magic phrase which should be compulsory at strategy reviews. It helps you to focus on the activities that will help you achieve your goals.
An example. Suppose our charity provides help and support for sufferers of Fred’s Disease. (This is an entirely fictitious ailment). We also support research into the causes of Fred’s Disease. What is our ultimate goal? Surely it’s the eradication of Fred’s disease. This may not be possible in the short term, or even the long term, but it has to be the ultimate aim of the organisation.
Within that aim are our goals which could include offering help and support to sufferers. What sorts of things can we do to achieve this goal?
We could prepare information packs for GPs. Why? So that they will be better informed, so that they can diagnose it earlier so that patients can get care earlier so that they will live longer and more comfortable lives. And that supports our aim to offer help and support.
We could set up a research fund to provide funding for medical research, so that progress can be made to understand Fred’s Disease so that we might develop preventative measures so that fewer people develop the disease so that it is ultimately eradicated.
It’s so straightforward. Two little words that are so powerful. In these interesting times we can’t afford to do anything that doesn’t support our ultimate goals, so I encourage you to use so that when you think about what you’re doing.
I sit in a darkened room writing this blog so that I might help charities to make more effective use of their resources so that they can devote more of their resources to their aims and objectives so that they can do a better job. That’s good enough for me.
I’m getting up now so that I can get a cup of tea so that I will feel refreshed and invigorated so that I can do some more work so that …. I think I’m overdoing it. Help!
Difficult to know when to post this. The new calendar year was a month ago, the new financial year is a couple of months away. But a new year, whichever one you use, is generally seen as a time of reflection. What’s gone well in the last year, what hasn’t? What are the priorities for the next year?
In these interesting times* charities need to think really hard about what’s important to them. When times are good we all do things that are fun or interesting in addition to the things we need to do. But when times are difficult we need to look really hard at everything we do and decide if it’s an activity we really must not give up, or whether it’s a nice to have. It’s not always an easy decision, but getting it right could mean the difference between the charity surviving or going under.
How are the finances of your organisation? Can you easily tell which of your services and/or projects are contributing to your core activities? Can you tell which of them need propping up with your unrestricted funds? This is the sort of information you must have in order to make an informed decision about which services you can afford to keep and which you have to cut in order to survive.
None of these decisions are easy. For example, which of the following is more important to you?
At first glance it’s the helpline – more people involved. But could those people find the information in another way or from another agency? What about the job seekers? Is there any other way for them to find jobs? Are there any spin-offs from the job finding service? Is the cost of the helpline crippling the organisation and preventing it from doing all sorts of other things? Is there a way to provide the helpline in some other way? Does the job service contribute anything to the core activities of the organisation?
And so on…
With the new year it’s really useful to take some time out and have a really hard and cold look at what you do and the way you do it. I’ve found it works best when staff and trustees are all involved. It’s hard work, but worth it. I have two of these days coming up, and I’m looking forward to them, because, no matter how hard they are, they tend to leave everyone with a clearer sense of what’s important and what’s worth fighting for. They’re strangely inspirational.
*from the ancient Chinese curse “May you live in interesting times”
It’s the first of December and that means Advent calendars. And, despite the grey hairs, I have an advent calendar – with chocolates in each door. Why should the nippers have all the fun?
This year I not only get a little chocolate first thing in the morning, but also a “joke”. Note the inverted commas.
Today’s offering.
What do you get if you cross a shark and a penguin?
All projects should be run properly with due regard for objectives, deadlines, budgets – all that good stuff.
Some projects are big and complicated and need detailed plans to make sure they work.
Then there are some smaller projects which don’t need the big tools, and to use those big tools would be serious overkill.
For those projects a simpler tool is required and today I uploaded a video to outline a method you might like to try for a simpler project. It’s called (inspiringly!) the Simple Planning Tool.
You can catch the video here and download the tool itself from here. I recommend you download and print off the example before you watch the video.
I hope it’s useful to you. Any comments are welcome
Yesterday I delivered ‘Running Successful Projects’ in London. A good say. For some reason only a small number of delegates on this course which allowed lot of time for discussions and swapping experiences. You don’t get that with larger numbers, but you do get more different experiences to share.
Where to strike the balance? I reckon between 12 and 15 is just right. It’s enough for people to spark off each other but not too many that I can’t give everyone some attention.
To those who attended yesterday – hope you had a good and worthwhile day.
PS – to South Eastern Trains and First Capital Connect – it’s just as well you’re not running a brewery.
Click on the image to find out more about this remarkable book
