Background
Our client, a large NGO for Mental Health recovery approached us with a request for Oslo Consulting Group to develop a project management workshop for the administrative headquarters. The incentive behind this was to assist the administrative headquarters with organising and structuring their management for projects regarding marketing and fundraising activities. In addition, they lacked the skillset and resources to develop smart processes for working towards the common goal for the organisation.
Our goal was not to reinvent project management, but rather to make it as simple and accessible as possible for our client, while helping them realise that the main tool in project management is leadership.
Approach
Oslo Consulting Group led an open dialogue workshop with the CEO and employees of the administrative headquarters, where the main goal was not just to make them understand what project management is, as well as giving them tools to work with, but also to spend time learning how to use the tools and to create more hands-on training and practice using their ongoing and upcoming projects.
The first step was to talk through the meaning of project management and leadership during different projects they have coming up, along with the challenges and how to deal with them. We gave them tools for different phases in a project and how to look at a project from above and take it step by step. In addition, we created a project management check-list according to the different phases for them to use moving forward.
The second step was looking at concrete tools like stakeholder analysis, RACI-matrix, risk assessment and building a business case. We took already existing projects that were in the starting phase and let them fill out the different tools, after which we went over it together and saw what we could change and how to make it more structured and organised for them moving forward. At the end, we filled out the business case together and saw how it all started becoming clearer to them. Finally, we went over the project management check-list step-by-step for them to structure their time correctly in their upcoming projects.
Outcome
After the workshop the client implemented the work from the workshop and used the different tools in their continuing projects and stated that the increase in structure and productivity was clearly noticeable. The boosted understanding of the complexity of project management and the use of concrete tools to secure the selection of projects and simplifying the process to prioritise and choose more appropriate projects made it easier for them, not only in the planning phase, but also in the implementation phase.