Leading for Impact: Project Lead Workshop # 1

Leading for Impact: Project Lead Workshop # 1

Date updated: August 15, 2017

Updated by: Mike Ciccarone

Session overview: 1 hour 20 minutes total time for the module:

Sections / Time / Cumulative time
Welcome / 5 min / 0 hr 5 min
Experience sharing: Project leads share about their experience following a prompt / 20 min / 0 hr 25 min
Project examples: Share select project output examples (if applicable, e.g., model hypothesis and workplan that shows client team focusing on vital few analyses) / 10 min / 0 hr 35 min
Content: Presented by Bridgespan (selected from list of topics, tailored based on cohort) / 15 min / 0 hr 50 min
Exercise: In pairs from each organization with coaches rotating) / 25 min / 1 hr 15 min
Next steps and wrap-up / 5 min / 1 hr 20 min

Facilitation notes

Note on customization by cohort / city

Project Lead Workshops #1 and #2 follow the flow above. Content modules presented by Bridgespan and related exercises should be customized for each cohort based on the project mix and client progress to-date. This guide and the related PowerPoint slides provide a selection of potential modules (and Bridgespan teams may choose to further innovate and create new modules as fits the cohort). This workshop agenda has been informed by client feedback that they value the opportunity to get to know and learn from one another, customized content, and time with their Bridgespan coaches to work on their projects.

Note on attendees

Each organization should send the Project Lead plus one additional team member. As a default, this second team member should be the CEO/ED, but based on client and project, teams may select a second individual to attend in their place (e.g., a member of the program team closely involved in the project). The purpose of this is for teams to be able to have a productive conversation during exercises (after finding that pairing two teams together was often unproductive, and that there aren’t enough Bridgespan coaches to go around).

Note on content: We have experimented with several content modules for project lead workshops, tailoring the content based on the progress of a given cohort and the state of their projects. There is not enough time to cover all of these topics during the two project lead workshops, and so each LFI city team should select 1-2 content modules and exercises to include in each workshop. As a default for Project Lead Workshop 1, consider modules on Stakeholder Engagement and Overcoming Data Obstacle (assuming work planning can be addressed by consultants and Project Leads offline and sooner).

Content modules

Content modules / Content / Exercise
Managing the project with a detailed work plan / Best practices in developing a work plan / Identifying major work streams, inputs required, milestones, deadlines, etc.
Stakeholder engagement / Considerations on who to engage and how / Thinking about engaging key stakeholders: identifying stakeholders and how/when to engage them
Overcoming data obstacles / Strategies to overcome common data obstacles (asking the right questions, triangulating, evaluating data sources, going for “good enough”) / Identifying data obstacles and ways to overcome them (triangulating, going for “good enough”)
Turning data into insights / Getting to key takeaways / insights;
Sticky note synthesis tool / Beginning to think about key insights: What patterns or themes are emerging from your data already? How might you engage your team to make sense of your data and identify key insights?
Translating insights to action / Translating key takeaways into actions and/or goals;
Prioritizing among initiatives/actions with 2X2 on importance vs. resources required / Creating an action plan: Given your emerging insights, what types of actions or changes do you think your team might take? What challenges or risks do you anticipate in implementing these actions?
Setting project milestones / Developing the right milestones to track your progress / Identifying quarterly milestones for priorities coming out of project
Other TBD

Welcome (5 minutes)

·  [Slide: Cover Slide]

·  Welcome to our first project lead working session!

·  In developing LFI, and working with many organizations on many different projects, we’ve recognized managing a project like this requires a particular type of problem solving. Thus, we have designed these sessions to provide you, the project leads, with the tools that we’ve found especially important for this particular type of project. We’ve asked you to bring a second member of your team to serve as a thought partner during a few exercises we have planned for the session so you can push ahead on your work.

·  [Slide: Agenda]

·  We have an hour and 20 minutes together (may be less if people show up late and we don’t start on time) and we’ll cover the topics here

·  We’ll spend some time checking in with each other

·  Then we’ll look at a project example from one of your colleagues

·  We’ll talk about a key skill relevant to your project (Content and exercise – insert topic)

·  And we’ll wrap up talking about next steps for you as project leads

·  [Slide: Calendar]

·  As a reminder of where we are in the LFI program - this is the first of two project lead working sessions over the next few months, designed to give you a little additional support and guidance in leading your teams through these projects. Along with the project working lunches and your calls with your team twice per month, these are the big touch points to help push your project towards impact.

Experience sharing (20 minutes)

·  [Slide: Check-in Question]

·  Before we dive too deeply into the training, let’s spend just a little bit of time getting to know each other. Let’s go around the room and introduce ourselves - organization, name, role, and a quick 30-second description of your project

·  Then, please select one of these questions (reference slide) to answer

·  Facilitation note: Try to get participants talking to each other

·  Use participants names when referencing them

·  Draw connections (e.g., “Dave – Sue’s description of her challenge of managing all this work reminds me of our conversation last week about your hypothesis – could you share a brief word on how you decided to focus in on one particular analysis?”)

·  Great – it’s important to get to know each other not only to commiserate about the 8am start time, but so you can see each other as potential resources – your projects may be different, but many of you will experience some of the same opportunities and challenges

Project example (10 minutes)

·  [Slide: Agenda]

·  In our Project Lead workshops, we’ll try to bring in real examples from your projects and other LFI projects to push our collective understanding of key points.

·  [Slide: The Four Habits of an Effective Project Lead]

·  So what will we be covering in these workshops? What we like to call the “Four Habits of an Effective LFI Project lead.” You’ve actually already learned and practiced the first habit - beginning in our last session with Project Planning and over the last month with your coaches, you’ve developed and honed hypothesis trees that outline the critical assertions you want to test and the analyses that can help you do that. During our session today and in session 5, we’ll talk a bit more about how to use this project a mechanism to help your team take action, making data-informed, insight-driven decisions.

·  [Slides: Example hypothesis and Work plan]

·  We’ve asked PERSON X from ORG ABC to share their work-in-progress hypothesis and work plan. Can you tell us more about what we see here?

·  Facilitation note:

·  Pre-select a team with a strong project lead and good hypothesis / work plan (if they have a work plan done yet) to share

·  Pre-wire the project lead to focus on key points:

·  How did they determine which analysis to conduct using the hypothesis approach

·  How are they planning to prioritize their work – what is the most critical analysis?

·  What informed the work plan (if they have one) – how are they going to make sure everything gets done?

·  Give time for questions from the room

Content and exercise (40 minutes)

·  [Slide: Agenda]

·  Let’s dive into TOPIC X a bit more (see specific sections on different content modules)

Next steps (5 minutes)

·  [Slide: Next steps]

·  Each of you is responsible for making sure that your project working time at lunch is spent productively, and you should have had a conversation with your Bridgespan coach already about how you want to spend the time today. There are a few options you might consider:

·  Discussing the key stakeholders to engage and how

·  Discussing the most important activities that need to be accomplished by when and by whom, etc. (your emerging work plan)

·  Discussing upcoming analyses you will conduct

·  Your coach will also work with you over the next few weeks to finalize your project work plan and get your team conducting analysis. As we make progress, the feel of your twice per month calls with us will change, where we’ll move from planning the work to actually discussing the analysis and the insights from it, to ultimately making decisions.

·  [Slides: Linked In and Website reminder]

·  Quick reminder about additional ways you can seek help – in addition to using this peer group, you also have access to our LinkedIn groups! Past and present LFI teams can be a great resource for questions and advice. And all of the classroom resources are available on Bridgespan’s website.

Content module – Managing the project with a detailed work plan

·  [Slide: Considerations when work planning]

·  Before we write down any deliverables and deadlines, let’s start by asking some important questions. We recommend you think through this set of questions before embarking on your work plan.

·  What major activities or tasks need to happen to accomplish your objectives?

·  What are the key deadlines for the overarching goals or milestones? Can you work backwards?

·  When are you going to get feedback and input from others on your work-in-progress?

·  What big events, notable dates, or key meetings should you use to guide the deadlines of your work plan?

·  What is realistic to achieve in the next five months?

·  [Slide: Example High-Level Work Plan]

·  Once we’ve answered those questions, we can start sketching out a work plan. We introduced this during our module on Project Planning – this is a very high-level work plan, designed to allow us to consider major milestones or deadlines, and ideal for sharing overall planning and progress with certain audiences, like boards

·  Again, you’ll notice that this version simply lays out large categories of work to be completed, against some rough timelines

·  While this version may work well for your ED or board, as Project Lead, you’ll likely want something a bit more granular than this – something that tells us exactly what each team member is doing, and by when

·  [Slide: Questions to get to next-level work plan]

·  So how do we drill down to that more specific work plan? The one that lets you keep your team on track?

·  What is the output, deliverable, or outcome of each activity or task?

·  Who will lead each activity or task? What input from the team will be required?

·  Are there any important dependencies? (e.g., Task C can’t be completed before Task A)

·  When must each activity be completed?

·  [Slide: Example: Key activities, with deadlines and owners]

·  Answering those questions will allow us to create a much more detailed work plan that outlines key activities, and could look like what we’ve projected here

·  For each of our big buckets, we’ve outlined the data or analysis needed, and what key activities will give us that data; then we’ve left space to put an owner and deadline against each activity

·  Some of you have done this and could create this work plan in your sleep; for any of you new to this process, your Bridgespan coaches are happy to help as you develop this layer of specificity

·  [Slide: Lastly, identify the desired inputs and outputs for important milestones to ensure you stay on track]

·  One last tool that may help you and your team stay on track during this process – remember those important milestones we identified just a few minutes ago? It’s a best practice to list those, along with what inputs are required, and the outcomes desired, in order to be very clear about what success looks like, for this project, for each milestone.

·  [Slide: As you refine your work plan, keep these watch outs in mind]

·  You’ll continue to work on these work plans and refine them - as you do, a few things to keep in mind

·  Be specific (e.g., “conduct three focus groups” instead of “solicit input”)

·  Be realistic about what can be accomplished; pull in additional resources if needed

·  Use Bridgespan as a thought partner (share drafts and ask for feedback!)