Question 2

Project Description

The project I chose for question 1 took place in my undergraduate when I was in charge to plan and hold
basic psychology knowledge education open courses for sixth-grade students. In college, I was the
director of the Mental Health Guidance Division of Youth League Committee in Law and Political
Department. Our department consists of 12 members from freshmen to juniors. Normally, our team was
mainly responsible for providing publicity of basic psychological knowledge for the whole grade, as well
as some off-campus volunteer activities, like Special Education School volunteering. One month before
the Children's Day in 2016, I was told that the university had carried out some communication activities
with the nearby primary school, Dagang Fifth Primary School, hoping that my department could hold
open courses on adolescent psychological education for the sixth-grade students. Then I started the
project by:

1. Determination of the lecturers: there needed two lecturers for two classrooms to hold the courses at
the same time.
2. Content of the speech: although there was no clear stipulation on the content of the speech, all can
be based on the ideas of the lecturers, department personnel should also participate in the discussion
and put forward their professional suggestions.
3. Contact the primary school: discussing the specific time, places and students’ number of the courses.
4. In order to get closer to those young students at that time, I planned to purchase some small gifts and
distribute them to participants to make the classroom atmosphere more relaxed.
5. Determine the participants of our department, then calculate the approximate cost: in addition to the
lecturers, we also needed support staff who recorded the courses or distributed the gifts.

We had an estimated budget of 500 Chinese money, which equals 72 dollars, to bear the cost of buying
gifts and the expenses incurred by all members in the process of the project, such as transportation fees
and food expenses. The gifts were bought on the Chinese online shopping site, Taobao. This was not a
costly project and we ended up spending about 59 dollars.

As the director of the department, I served as the manager who was responsible for planning the whole
project process and making decisions. The decided lecturers were me and another boy of the same
grade, each in charge of a class. To enrich the courses, our speech contents were different. I used the
clips of the movie In And Out as the beginning to attract the attention of students and then started the
whole course from different emotions. Courses were scheduled at the last part of the morning before
the Children’s Day, which took 45 minutes to finish.

Classic Mistakes

Weak Personnel

a. As a school organization, the only condition for selecting members is interest rather than professional
skills. All our team members come from different majors, as a result, in the face of such a project that
requires psychological expertise, most of the members lack the professional ability. In the project, due
to the limitation of personnel selection, some time had been spent in selecting the most suitable
speakers. The final chosen speakers were me whose major was applied psychology and another student
who had the public speaking experience.

b. Coaching& Team Building& Motivation

In the project, for the formed team composition that the ability of everyone is different, we can use
team building to improve the skill level of each personnel. As a school association, it relies on everyone's
interests when recruiting, however, after the formation of the team, corresponding requirements and
standards should be put forward for the team members. For example, as a club related to psychology,
there is supposed to have some coaching about learning relevant knowledge, making members not only
“interested in the club” but also “learning knowledge” and “becoming professional”. Team building and
motivation should be implemented as well to aid in improving personnel’s’ skills and their trust and
dependence on the organization which is beneficial for the organization itself and its members.

Wishful Thinking

a. "We don't need to show the final prototype of the program to customers, and I'm sure that's what
they want."

"The team said they would work very hard to finish the task on time. Although they were delayed for
several days at the first critical time, I believe they can finish it on time."
Are you familiar with these questions? This is what I often heard in the project. This wishful thinking is
not optimistic, but something that you expect with your eyes closed, and had no reason to believe its
exit. This kind of idea will cause great trouble in the final stage of the project, which does not only
weaken the meaningful plan but also hides many unknown risks. In this project, when we determined
the theme of the speech, we chose it according to our own subjective preference, without considering
the characteristics and needs of the target audience. As I mentioned in Question 1 paper, I originally
chose the subject that seemed very professional and difficult, and even as a college student, I spent a
long time to get familiar with the content. I focused on my wishful thinking and forgot that my target
audience was primary school students aged 12 who would only feel tedious and meaningless to the
subject. Fortunately, I changed the content of the speech before delivering the results, otherwise, it's
not hard to imagine how big a failure it will be.

b. Communication

Communication is an effective way to find solutions. When you get stuck in a personal task, it's easy to
get lost in your wishful thinking. At that time, if you communicate with members, the emergence of new
thinking is likely to lead you to find the shortcomings of the original plan and provide you with more
fresh ideas. Communication means cooperation, which will improve the quality of deliverables.

Noisy, crowded Offices

a. The reason why I chose this mistake is about the “environment”. Although in my project we didn’t
have an issue with offices, we did have a poor work environment. Usually, our team randomly chose a
classroom to meet and the atmosphere of the meeting was also very relaxed that caused the meeting
went to uncontrolled every time. We are not one formal team in the business, and we advocate free
expression of opinions internally which is our usual working environment. However, in the face of a
relatively serious and important project, this habit affects the productivity of the whole team. Too much
discussion on meaningless topics hindered the development of the project and we had to hold meetings
again and again to design the project, which wasted a lot of time.

b. Leadership

Effective leadership is critical during the whole process of a project especially the beginning. The
foundation of health leadership is to be able to provide the group with the resources they need. When
the team needs a screw, leadership is a screw, and when the team needs a hammer, leadership is a
hammer. In this case, the problem my team had was the long and meaningless meetings, thus, we
needed one leader to control the overall meeting, and the manager needs to become this person to
guide the direction and development of the meeting to increase productivity.

Insufficient Planning

a. If there is no one completed plan, it's impossible to finish the project well and quickly. At first, when
faced with this small project, we ignored the importance of developing a clear step. Without a complete
plan, we started the project in a hurry. The project seemed to have started, but there was no any
progress in a certain period: Many people were preparing the content of the speech, but the specific
speakers were not sure; many people were thinking about what kind of gift to buy, without considering
the budget, and so on. These disordered tasks consumed the energy of members but there had no
practical effect on the completion of the project.

b. Leadership& Communication

Effective leadership brings the team together, provides a common goal and vision for the team, and sets
a specific direction. Communication enables members to learn how to divide the work and how to
cooperate. Also, through adequate communications, the plan should be completed to describe each
member’s responsibilities, aiding in the orderly and stable development of the project.

What’s More

Most classic mistakes have seductive exteriors.

Do you need to save a project that is behind schedule? --Then increase the number of people.

Do you want to reduce the schedule? --Then make the schedule tighter.

A key figure in the team angered the rest of the team? --Let's fire him at the end of the project.

Do you have an urgent project to complete? --Then gather all the available human resources to start work, the sooner the
better!

When you are involved in many projects, you will see many examples of classic mistakes. But once you
understand the impact of these mistakes on your development speed, you can control the risks when
you plan.