‘I’m beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel’

For those of you who have been keeping track of my blogs, I suppose I should start by letting you know how I got on with my recent job application. You may remember I had applied for a post with the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit in Sheffield working to divert young Muslim men from extremism. The bad news is I didn’t get the job.

It was just the kind of project management role which I dreamed this course would lead me to. Perhaps it was a bit too much to expect that would happen before the course had finished (I still have a year and two terms to go after all).

Still, recent sessions on the foundation degree course in sustainable communities, in particular a four-day session in December on organisational skills, have been providing me with some useful tools for this area of work.

I found the module really interesting, in particular the presentation we were given on the two widely recognised approaches to project management.

First there’s the Prince2 approach and I will declare an interest from the start: I really don’t like this method at all. Looking at its methodology on paper is a bit like examining a circuit board with wires going all over the place with no discernable sequence or format. It’s very much like a flow chart and is highly prescriptive (“if A happens, please proceed to B”). There seems to be little room for the user’s own initiative; in fact it almost absolves the user of any responsibility. Their job is to simply make an assessment of what is happening and consult the Prince2 chart to establish what to do next.

Simple eh? Well, not really. I think successful project management has to involve some thinking on your feet, because circumstances on the ground are unique and can change so rapidly. And the absence of any focus on desirable outcomes also makes this approach weak, in my opinion. I’m sure there are some circumstances in which it might work. I just can’t think of any.

Of far more use was the second approach we were taught: the logical framework method. It’s prioritisation of desirable outcomes makes it far superior in my opinion. It takes you through a logical process whereby you consider the objectives of a project, your overall outcomes, your purpose and how you will measure success or failure.

I can see this as being far more useful to me in my current role as a client support officer with Apprenticeships for All in Sheffield. Useful when I am delivering projects like Bright Futures which aims to train a group of young people not in education, employment or training, to be youth workers. I am often very good at coming up with ideas for projects at work. I’m perhaps less good at following through on them, understanding how to make them work and how to assess if they are viable. Using the logical framework approach could help me overcome this.

The organisational skills module has also taught me how to plan more effectively and more thoroughly. And the course in general has helped me develop better ‘thinking skills’. I feel better equipped to look at the bigger picture rather than just the information that’s in front of me. I’m also better able to consider the possible impacts of what I’m doing on other areas; whether it’s a positive or negative impact, and how to plan for this. It’s also made me much more confident in my delivery of ideas (to managers and service users). I’m able to articulate things in much more detail but also more concisely. All of which is helpful in managing projects.

Similarly useful was the teaching on partnership working, especially hearing colleagues’ experiences of this area of creating sustainable communities. It was good to get others’ perspectives on what worked well for them, what had gone wrong and what lessons they had learned. It was an excellent reminder of the importance of making sure all partners know what they are responsible for. Clear lines of accountability have to be drawn if a project is to work.

Speaking of work, there’s certainly no shortage of it at present. January has been d-day for no less than three assignments; all of which is proving a bit too much to be honest. As the days get longer I am beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel around February time. Who knows, perhaps by then I will have the time to put some of this stuff into practice!

This is the fifth blog from Lisa Butchart in a series about the Academy’s foundation degree.