I've been busy. Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while may remember what happened last fall when I was engaged to develop a workplan for one of my international clients. Long story short -- after many frustrating weeks of trying to deal with a client that didn't show up for meetings and didn't provide me with the materials and information I needed, I decided not to continue with the assignment. I later learned from a contact there that they had brought in someone else to do the plan.
Well! A couple of weeks ago I get a call from this same client. They want to know if I can come in and start the workplan process again. The workplan never got done, and now they are desperate. Very little exists in terms of written documentation, schedules and activities. The MBA that they had brought on to replace me didn't know what to do and apparently just produced a jumbled list of tasks that were of no use. The client has now put someone in charge of making sure that the plan gets done and that people actually show up for scheduled meetings, etc. I was pretty hesitant about taking this on again, but I decided to go down and talk with them. After a couple of meetings and several hours of discussion and promises that things would be different this time around, I decided to give it another whirl.
And things really are quite different now. So far, I have had extensive meetings with 5-6 people who are responsible for directing various project components, and more meetings are scheduled for next week. I've been able to gather a lot of information, and the discussions themselves have revealed a number of problems and gaps that my client will need to address in order to effectively manage their project. A planning retreat will take place overseas at the end of July, and they've asked me to attend. In anticipation of that retreat, my job now is to develop an initial workplan that can be reviewed, discussed and refined with all the actors present.
I think all of us have learned something from this experience.
Hi.
I am a contract grant writer too, and I really enjoy reading your blog.
I think I spend most of my time as a contractor just managing my client's project -- from project planning to risk assessment. It would be so much more cost effective for my clients to get their project plans together before they contacted me. There are so many good project management websites/resources out there that it's a wonder that more people (especially E.D.s) don't take advantage of them.
- J.C.
I can definitely understand where you are coming from. I tell people that they have access to the biggest library in the world which is the Internet. In fact a very often overlooked resource is one's own computer! You know what I found on my computer (as an example) - a listing of general contracts and legal documents that I can edit and suit to my needs! I have used them including one that was for a contract/agreement for tenants/renters.
I think some of it has a lot to do with time. A lot of clients no matter how big or how small their company is don't want to be bothered with little details (which is something that they are going to have to be "bothered" with when you are talking about funding resources).