Are you charged with an important project but don’t know how to start?  Or with putting a floundering project on track?

Do you want to make sure all team members understand the project and their roles in its success?

Do you want to build a strong project team?

A “Take Charge of Your Project!” workshop may be just what you need!

Overview

The 3 day, or 24-30 hour, “Take Charge of your Project!” workshop focuses on developing a strong team, a robust strategic framework, and a shared understanding of goals and strategies for a project.

It is appropriate for project teams from NGOs, businesses, governments, and etc. who want to start important projects a solid foundation. It is best if all team members attend. It is critical that the team leader attend!

The facilitator to participating team ratio will be very low, but more than one team can still participate in the same workshop.

At the end of the workshop you will have

• developed a holistic strategic framework for your project that is in alignment with your mandate, as well as your organisation’s vision, mission and values,
• developed overarching strategies,
• formulated a fairly well-defined set of Project Goals,
• cascaded these goals to the level of responsibility of team members attending,
• developed a clear understanding of each team member’s areas of responsibilities and mutual dependencies
• prepared a preliminary Project Charter and Action Plan(s).

You will have done this against the background of stakeholder, and SWOT analyses, and have learned how to formulate SMART goals and implement plans.

Mentoring

Beginning the Journey to Excellence must almost always correspond with a change of mindset in an organisation’s people. This is not easy, and experience shows that the professional mentoring of action plan teams greatly supports the implementation of improvement activities.

How to prepare

Before coming to the Take Charge of Your Project!  Workshop, take some time to reflect on your project and your life.  What would be the impact of successful project completion—not only short term, but also longer term. What would it mean for your organisation, and what could it mean for you personally?  What are the biggest challenges you will face? How will you deal with them? What would be the optimal outcome of your workshop participation?

Please go through this list carefully and come prepared:

• Consider your own personal vision, mission and values, and those of your company or organisation
• Bring along all documentation of the scope and goals of your project that you have available
• Bring along documentation on organisational plans, strategies, goals, measures and results the company is achieving
• Consider why and where, and how much time you spend fighting fires
• Research and bring information about trends in your sector
• Research and bring information about predicted economic and political developments in countries in which you do business
• Know what your competition is up to!
• Inform yourself about technological developments that could impact your business/activities
• Bring along a pencil, sharpener and rubber
• Bring along business cards
• Dress comfortably
• Make alternative arrangements for things like picking kids up from school! You will not have time to do this during the workshop.

Note:  If you are attending this workshop with SAFRI support. The sponsors’ requirements, to which participants must commit themselves in order to reserve a space, are timely arrival, thorough preparation, active participation and full time attendance (including of the team leader).

Case studies

Are you still asking yourself if it is really worth your time? Click here (pdf) and read what earlier workshop participants have to say about their experiences—in their own words.