Welcome back, readers!
Previously we unpacked change management. This week, we are exploring the tenets of project management (PM) to help us reflect upon a change project at work that used PM concepts… or not!
Project management provides a structure that helps us create unique and tangible products that may change how we do business (Knolscape, 2013). To learn more about project management, check out this 4-minute animated video.
On this blog, I have previously discussed how I developed Cycling Canada’s new grassroots cycling program, HopOn, and its curriculum and instructor training. Overlaying the process with project management phases has been an enlightening reflective process. Let’s take a quick review:
- Initiating
- If we focus only on the 2020 season and not the preceding five years of information gathering, community engagement, and development through trial and error, the project outline started in early May 2020.
- The document included a strategic overview of the implementation process, a SWOT analysis, and a needs assessment. They were presented to Cycling Canada during 2-3 meetings in May 2020.
- Planning
- I started with the end-user in mind (easy to read) and capacity for future edits (avoid Adobe products, use PowerPoint instead due to institutional competencies).
- Needed 1-2 page summary for instructors for each program: school and community
- I needed a detailed textbook with narrated videos, ready to integrate into an eLearning software like Articulate360. At the time, I didn’t know what Articulate360 was or even understood other common options.
- Executing
- June 1: PowerPoint structure and four units started to come together, albeit quickly, by building upon previous versions of the slide deck.
- June 5: first edits shared with stakeholders
- July 7: final draft completed early July, including 10-page executive summary (with 1-page curriculum summary) and 150-page textbook, including screenshots of all movements and drawings of all 50 games.
- July 15: digital learning ‘engineer’ secured on contract and access to the Cycling Canada account provided
- August 1: Articulate360 design starts, uses a google sheet to communicate changes between designers
- August 31: all videos recorded.
- September 25: all movement videos (110) edited, narrated, and shared. Articulate360 units 1 and 2 updated to reflect these new resources.
- October 25: all games videos (45) were edited, narrated, and shared
- November 15: resources uploaded to Articulate units 1-4
- December 7: final Articulate360 draft and textbooks complete, send for translation.
- February 15: Uploaded to Cycling Canada LMS, errors discovered
- March 15: Updates complete, system functioning correctly. Everything is resent for translation.
- Monitoring and Control Process
- March 15 – May 15, Cycling BC used the new system to effectively onboard 30 new staff members. Best season to date.
- Since this time, no administrative or other errors have surfaced. We are now rolling into our 2nd season of using the system and resources.
- Closing
- Although no official end-report was finalized or presented, the system appears to be working.
- At this time, the instructor tool is password protected and made available for free to nominated instructors and coaches across the country.
In our MALAT program, we have also recently explored the pros and cons of system thinking. System Thinking challenges us to consider both internal and external factors to expand the scope of an organization’s problem-solving process when considering the best courses of action (Conway et al., 2017). This can help an organization understand how stakeholders may react or benefit from changes but can also overwhelm and paralyze organizations that take on more than they can chew (Conway et al., 2017).
In creating the HopOn instructor tool, the learner was paramount. This guiding principle helped us develop the program’s structure and content without reinventing the wheel. Acknowledging the 100 contributing authors (instructors from 2015-2020) built favour among existing stakeholders and scaffolding information using short chapters welcomed new instructors, who were not cyclists, learn the curriculum quickly and focus their attention on developing interpersonal skills through the season.
Moving forward, we are exploring how we can create further updates to instructor and coach training leveraging the lessons learned through the above process. But, again, using system thinking and project management principles can help us include key stakeholders and achieve our timelines. Because, after all, cycling is all about efficiency and speed!
References
Knolscape. (2013). Introduction to Project Management.
Conway, R., Masters, J., & Thorold, J., (2017). From design thinking to systems change: How to invest in innovation for social impact. Royal Society of Arts, Action and Research Centre.
