Brothers In Blog

Earlier this week, I helped out a local church with setting up the orchestra pit for their annual Easter theatrical production. The work involved pulling back the carpeting near the front of the sanctuary, removing the flooring, and installing stage extensions that protrude over the pit. It’s a major undertaking, but not insurmountable with the right amount of planning and that’s where things went wrong.

I’ve helped this ministry once before in moving the props for their Christmas production from a storage warehouse to a tractor-trailer, which then transported them to the church. In both situations, the same person coordinated the project and was very knowledgeable about what needed to be done. However, he failed in sharing an overview of how the evening’s work needed to flow with the volunteers, which resulted in unnecessary delays between tasks and frustrated volunteers.

 Being the operations-minded person that I am, I submitted an email the next morning to one of the church employees who was also acting in a supervisory capacity and saw our frustration with the project coordinator. The contents of my email were very constructive and can apply to all types of projects whether conducted by non-profit or for-profit organizations:

1. Document - especially if this is a recurring project, write down what needs to take place. Break it down into bite-size tasks so that it can be better managed and your workers can see the progress being made. The documentation should include the sequential order of tasks to be performed; the suggested number of workers needed to perform each task; the resources or tools needed; and the estimated time needed to complete the task. I would also suggest that the document highlight any common mistakes to avoid and any areas that need special attention. For recurring construction projects, take pictures or short video clips for future reference.
2. Give Advance Notice - this rule applies moreso when working with volunteers. You need to let workers know when and where to show up and if they need to bring any special tools and/or data with them. In my experience, we could have greatly benefited by having more cordless drills and socket sets, and I would have gladly brought mine had I been told to bring them.
3. Be Prepared -  Make sure you have the necessary components and the proper amounts whether it be paper goods, call lists, nails, paint, etc. Nothing brings a project to a quicker halt than running out of something or not being able to find what you thought you had.
4. Hold a meeting - for the record, let me state that I absolutely loathe planning meetings. They usually end up being too long and raise more questions than they answer. However, the meeting I’m referring to is just a pre-work gathering to quickly review what needs to get done, in what order and who to contact if questions or problems occur. Bring a box of hot Krispy Kreme original glaze doughnuts with you and you’re guaranteed success unless you’re speaking to a no-carbs crowd.
5. Develop Teams - on a project with multiple tasks that can be performed simultaneously, assembling teams and appointing a team leader within each can really get your project moving forward. Going back to my recent experience, we had only a dozen volunteers show up, but we still had about 3 teams working on various tasks.
6. Appoint the Right Leader - I cannot stress enough the need to have the right person for the job leading your project. In my scenario, although the Coordinator had done this same project for many years and was very knowledgeable, he micro-managed the installation of every nut and bolt. He had no documentation to warn him of past pitfalls (no pun intended), so when we fell into them again it meant undoing the work that had already been done and start over. Late into the project, the Coordinator realized he had not paid attention to one major alignment, which required everyone stopping what they were doing to muscle the materials back into position. Had that remedy not worked, we would have been forced to disassemble several large and heavy components and start over at a time when most of us were tired and ready to go home. The Coordinator would have better served as a Technical Advisor and report only to the Project Leader who would then communicate to the workers.

Workers, volunteer or paid, are easier to recruit and retain if they understand the project being undertaken and have confidence in the person leading them. If there is “confusion and delay” as Sir Topham Hatt (Thomas the Train series for those of you with young children) would say, you’ll pay the price in worker morale on your current project and a lack of workers for the next.