Turn visions into actions

Overview

This is all about working together to pinpoint activities needed to achieve the group's goal - and organising them in the best sequence. It's an action plan that the whole group creates and supports - and a great kick-off session.

Benefits

Helps the group understand all aspects of the work, involving everyone in how it should be organised. Focusing on the project goal, it also provides a sensible sequence of events for the work - and builds consensus from your project team and stakeholders from the outset.

Preparation

• Familiarise yourself with the activity to guide participants through it smoothly.

Materials

• Post-it notes, blue tac, flip-chart/large-format paper, and a camera to capture the final plan in order to share it with everyone.

What you do

Run this session as a long workshop, rather than separate sessions, to allow in-depth engagement.

Step one - Agree goals

• Agree the goals you want to achieve within your vision, then identify all the projects needed to meet your goals.
• As a group, choose the first project and write out an unambiguous description of the ultimate aim of this initiative. A group discussion around this will help create a shared understanding and offers a chance to clarify exactly what you're all aiming for - this is crucial!
• Write your goal on a large piece of paper and stick it on the wall. Everything you do from here on should support reaching this goal.

Step two - Breakdown the work

• Use different coloured post-it notes to create a scatter diagram that identifies the project's goals and the major chunks of work needed to achieve the final goal.
• Think through everything that you will need to make (reports/plans/funding applications etc.) during the project. Write these on individual post-it notes and stick them on the large piece of paper around the goal.
• The scatter diagram has no sequence, no arrows, no activities, and no dependencies (yet). It will help organise people's thoughts, scope the project, and establish what everyone needs from the project. It also encourages 'buy in' from stakeholders and team members at an early stage. It will set expectations, and can help to organise outputs in a logical way.
• Take a photo of the finished scatter diagram for your records.

Step three - Create Flow Diagram

• On a fresh piece of paper, working from left to right, arrange the post-it notes in a way that shows the sequence of outputs along with the project's development over time. The left should be the start point with activities placed along the time line; right should be the end-point of the project. (Post-it notes are ideal for fitting more things in as you realise them. Blue tac can help if the post-its fall off.)
• All outputs you are aware of should be included in this diagram. It begins with outputs that are available at the start of the plan, and ends with the highest level output of the plan (e.g. a school building or a new curriculum).
• Draw lines on the paper between the post-it notes to illustrate the dependencies and to show relationships between them.
• This process will help to identify missing outputs, understand where decision points may be, and identify activity dependencies. You can even assign them names or time frames against different sets of post-its.
• Take a photo of the final flow diagram and send it round to everyone involved, as a shared record.
• Turn this into your first project plan!

Top tips for your group activities

• Be well prepared
• Consider changing your usual meeting environment
• Know what you want to come away with before you start
• Break the ice with a warm up
• Give people enough time to get into and do the activities
• Keep people engaged and motivated
• Encourage and proactively get input from everyone
• Think about how your going to capture the notes
• Use flip charts, coloured post its, coloured pens, paper, stickers
• If possible use a flexible and effective facilitator