I’ve always felt the necessity for detailed planning in some of my life’s projects, but every time I began the process, it would become so lengthy, such a project in itself, that I would inevitably start cutting corners, getting inpatient, and turning my attention to something else – I would always end up quitting the whole planning stage. The amount of detail would always drive me insane. You can probably afford not planning carefully if you work by yourself, but once other people get involved, the plan has to be in place for others to see and understand your ideas.
One day I decided to try to build myself a bed – something simple and expandable, and that could also serve as storage (I had a tiny apartment back then and every inch counted). I came up with a design, determined what materials I would need and how much I could afford to spend on it. The problem was to build it. I knew the building process would have to happen inside my small apartment, and I did not want to live in a dusty, smelly place for too long. I had to do that quickly – in one day, but I wouldn’t be able to accomplish that by myself. My solution was to invite some friends for help and orchestrate the whole project as a fun, educational and purposeful activity. I was so excited that I actually planned the whole thing in detail – this was probably the best planning job I’ve ever done! Well, apparently, it was still not enough because the project turned out a failure.
Somehow, people were not motivated enough to work: some had to wait for me to give them something to do, some were bored with the assigned task (like measuring); some of them came late, and some had to leave early; people wanted to watch TV, show each other things on computer, eat, drink, and even sleep. Apart from a guy who wanted to improve my design by adding some complex elements requiring additional tools and materials, a couple of people were seriously building until someone made a mistake and cut too short one essential piece. From that point on, it became a mess: the “guilty” person, feeling terrible, insisted on fixing the piece, which brought additional problems, so eventually I put a stop to everything, and we all just had to forget about the project.
Looking back at it now, I still like the idea of inviting friends to help, but I can see several mistakes I made while implementing this idea. First of all, the plan was not detailed enough (I hate to admit that my efforts were not sufficient). I had to divide the project (and the space) into distinct areas and tasks, with certain number of people assigned to each one; then I needed to sequence the tasks while looking for those that can be done simultaneously. To solve the problem of people waiting for instructions, ideally, I needed to approach the project as an instructional design problem and design instructive materials (sort of like the IKEA assembly instructions, well, probably a bit wordier and less graphic to save time and energy), and provide each person with them.
Then I thought of several ideas to address the problem of motivation:
1. Choose people more carefully, perhaps, the less the better. I definitely had too many people over (about 8), and they did not have much to do because of my initial assumption that they would be unhappy if the job exhausted them.
2. Involve them from the beginning by first, letting them know of my prospective project; asking for advice or ideas; perhaps, finding out their areas of expertise; asking them to commit to certain responsibility, maybe even assign some roles.
3. I know, it might sound too much, but maybe rehearsing everything the night before by calling or emailing everyone and reminding them of the sequence of tasks and each one’s responsibility would be a wise thing to do. It all depends on how you do it, for if they are involved enough, they might actually have fun with the rehearsal, especially if everyone is committed to finishing the project in one day.
4. To avoid people being bored with doing one task (like only measuring or sawing), rotating people to give everyone a chance to try all tasks should be good.
5. It is unavoidable, I think, that someone at some point is going to make a mistake, so for people to feel comfortable, there should be extra pieces for each essential element of the construction (or good ideas on how to fix it).
Whew! That’s good that, out of necessity, I eventually came back to this project: after my first disastrous experience, I was avoiding thinking about it, though I knew that one day I would attempt it again. Apparently, this day is near!
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