Deadlines and Expectations
We are back in office straight from the county youth summits. Next big project is reporting on our experience and recommending changes for things that did not work well and continuation of things that did work as planned. This included numerous meetings, arranging Skype calls and check-ins with our Technical advisers from EDC’s Headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts, analyzing raw data from the county youth summits and extracting key findings and establishing deadlines.
One thing that was helpful in this process was the manner in which tasks were delegated. We used the “divide and conquer” method to reduce the general workload on the team with each team member having a specific responsibility in the entire reporting process. I was responsible to report on the Focus Group discussions, my supervisor was responsible for completing the quarterly report while our other colleague was in charge of creating the report on the general county youth summit. In any case, we still needed to touch base with each other as the individual tasks we had were really interlinked that we needed to make inputs and give feedback consistently. The delegation made it easier for us to be accountable and adding deadlines on top of that made the work go faster.
I’m realizing, more and more, the extent to which group oriented learning is really useful in such work places where almost all the job has to be done through a concerted, idea-sharing approach. I can’t be more thankful for an ALA & Babson styled learning that is paying off greatly at the moment. The weeks to come promise to be really engaging with more field visits and case studies development – what a learning opportunity!