How to manage for success
Not enough money, greater accountability and they want better results! Find out what you can do about it at this new 2 day workshop
Does this sound like you?
Find out what you can do about it at this new 2-day workshop!
Don’t worry: no one’s out to get you. But things are certainly getting tougher.
Funding bodies, government agencies and even your own organisation all now insist that you define what you want projects to achieve, track and report how you are doing and take steps to improve.
Good intentions, spending a lot of money or trying hard just won’t wash any more. Now your projects really must produce changes for the better. Changes that can be seen, measured and “sold”.
And all this throws up new challenges. You must know how to bring about those changes - and how to document them.
You must also discover how to communicate the value of what you do. You have to be perceived as being effective. This is the public relations side of project management, which has been very underrated – until now.
The truth is, many managers haven’t been trained in all the critical areas I have just mentioned. As a result they either throw their hands up in the air, do nothing and hope all this will go away. Or they do the best they can, knowing they aren’t really prepared.
Well, it isn’t going away. It’s going to intensify. So how do you become more effective – and communicate the fact that what you do has real value?
First, you need to know how to use project outcome data. This means you can measure your performance and thus chart your success. To do so you must go through some essential stages. You need to:
- Clarify what your project is about and what you intend to achieve
- Decide what results (outcomes) you want – and by when
- Pick several results you can use to monitor your progress
- Define measurable indicators of success so you know when things are working
- Establish where the data you need will come from and how you will collect it
- Understand how you are going to analyse the data
- Know how you can use the information to become more effective
- Know how to communicate the value of what you achieve
One of the most important subjects of all is what “manage for results” means - why it’s so topical at the moment, and likely to become more so. But there is much, much more.
Like any fairly specialist area, there is some jargon, but it will be de-mystified for you. For instance:
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The difference between inputs, actvities, outputs and outcomes
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The difference between an outcome, an indicator and a target
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Measurable indicators and how you develop them
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Which of your desired project outcomes you should use to monitor progress
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Logic models - and how you develop one to help you plan your work
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How to tell when a programme or project is too ambitious - or not ambitious enough
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How to identify data sources for each indicator
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The best way to collect that data
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How to analyse the data you have collected so as to make it useful
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And of course the one essential thing is, how do you use what you have learned to get better at what you do?
The course is ideal no matter how much or little you know now. It starts at a basic level - essential for for beginners, but a good refresher for those with more experience. Then it brings everyone along step by step. It focuses on community based projects, but the approach is relevant for anyone managing any project or programme.
Your trainer
Your tutor is Mike Hendricks, who has taught this course literally dozens of times. It’s always very effective and delegates without fail report that it has helped them to improve how they design services, evaluate progress, and most importantly, increase their effectiveness.