DEFINE AND REDEFINE YOUR PROJECT - Define your goals and risks
(*Requires 30-60 mins)
Our experience: as with other exercises in this toolkit, defining the goals and risks of a project is not unique. We decided to undertake this to create shared goals from the project, and develop strategies to mitigate any potential risks to its success. On a personal level, we wanted to understand what each of us individually wanted to get from the project, particularly considering we had academics at very different career stages with very different needs. Appreciating individual risks also enabled the project ethnographer to work with individuals to ensure that these risks and fears were allayed or strategies put in place to deal with them.
Why?
Identifying goals and risks can make project partners think much more clearly about not just their individual involvement in the project, but also to agree the overall project goals and threats.
Exercise
This exercise can be done at the beginning of the project and revisited throughout.
1. Individual goals and risks
• Using post it notes get each person to write down their individual goals from the project
• These can be kept confidentially if someone wishes – this would be the responsibility of the project facilitator/ethnographer.
• Do the same for everyone’s risks
Individual goals and risks can be used effectively by the project facilitator in ensuring that people feel comfortable within the project and are achieving value for themselves and their career.
Sharing these individual goals/risks may provide opportunities for peer support in achieving/avoiding them.
2. Team goals and risks
• Using post it notes get everyone to jot down what they believe are the team goals
• Do the same for team risks
It is then up to you how you use these – ideally the team goals and risks should be shared. This will obviously enable a discussion around how to ensure goals are achieved, and planning for risks. Similarly it should enable the team to identify any disparities between people’s opinions.
Goals and risks can be revisited at any time as the project progresses and may one form of end evaluation.
A further exercise, could be to get everyone to define SMART goals? Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time sensitive.