Module 5: Paper

OGL 321
Lauren Bustad
Friday July 30th, 2021
 Preventing Scope and Schedule Risks
Chapter 4 of this book by Kim Heldman discusses how you can prevent risks

pertaining to scope and schedule. I was initially eager to read through this because this

has been something I’ve been struggling with in our simulations. Although in my day

to day leadership life, I don’t really think about something being a scope or schedule

risk, there are definitely aspects of my job that can apply to this.

The scope of a project is that of the goals and expectations given by the client. In

my work at Starbucks, this would be something like speed of service, customer

connection, or beverage quality. These things are expected to be at a certain level by

not only our customers, but also by the company and the higher ups of the company.

I’d like to dive deeper into the three aspects of what the scope is and how it applies to

me and my current work.

Goals: Goals are the accomplishments you’re trying to achieve, they’re

measurable. In my work this is the speed of service, and customer connection.

Our speed of service is measured from the drive through timer tracking how

long someone is at the speaker box and the window. Our customer connection

is measured by customer satisfaction surveys given to customers who use our

mobile app. They’re able to tell us how fast we were, how friendly they were,

how their food or drink tasted etc.

Deliverables: This is something tangible that you are working to produce.

In my world this is drinks and food items given to customers. The biggest thing
 we want for these items is for them to be consistently delicious and to the exact

specifications given by the customer.

Requirements: When I read this initially I didn't really know how I could

apply this to my work at Starbucks. But then the reading mentions this can

include specific ingredients. Right now nationwide at Starbucks we are facing

shortages of many products. For months we were out of Oatmilk. A lot of

customers were confused because they can go to the grocery store and get oat

milk so why don't we have it. But a requirement of the company was that we use

the specific oatmilk they were working to get for us. This was to create a

consistent experience for all customers nationwide.

The reading then goes on to discuss different ways you can prevent risks

regarding the scope of your project, a lot of this involves planning ahead. Being

prepared for things that may arise starts with knowing and completely understanding

every aspect of the project.

From there the reading talks about scheduling, in my case I don’t deal with too

much responsibility regarding scheduling, but I do have to manage breaks, and

employees arriving and leaving. In my experience the biggest way to be prepared for

risks regarding your scheduling is to plan ahead. If you know a time may be a little

tight, or busy for you to run your breaks, protect that time period, schedule breaks

before and after that. I also always strive to schedule my breaks the earliest I can give
them, that way if they get pushed back a little bit, the break doesn't end up being SO

late that the person is almost off anyways.

The High Cost of Low Performance

“Global economic pressures persist, making it critical for organizations to

accomplish more with fewer resources.” This was the first sentence in this reading

that really stood out to me. This reading was written in 2013… and yet it still stands

true, maybe even more so today. On my retail store level, we are expected to make sure

every customer leaves the store satisfied with a product they love. Yet we are missing

about half of our usual products. I can’t even imagine the struggles that are happening

behind the scenes trying to get us these products back.

The next thing within this reading that really resonated with me is actually

highlighted in larger text on page 9.

It is important to ensure

your team, especially leaders and

project managers feel like what they

are doing is for a good reason. If they feel like they are just stuck going through the

motions, listening to empty promises, they will get tired of that quickly. Their drive for

the work will diminish and their work of inspiring the rest of the team will be pushed

to the back burner. I have personally experienced this, I have been working towards a

promotion for about 3 years now, and at some points I felt really supported in my
growth and development. But there have been other times, when my path seems

blurred, my development is pushed to the backburner of those working to assist in my

growth, and then I just lose motivation to keep pushing to be better. The rest of the

reading talks about some more interesting points such as that of standardizing

routines, which I think is also important. However, the work of supporting and

inspiring your leaders is something I’m personally passionate about. Not only because

I’ve experienced being on the ‘negative’ side of this issue, but also because I’ve

experienced being on the positive side. When your leaders are pushing you to be

better, and supporting your journey to do so, you feel so empowered to grow. In my

leadership, I am always striving to lead others to success. I want to be the one who my

barista team looks at and says “I want to be a shift supervisor because of how you lead.

I want to inspire people the way you have inspired me.” Because that's how I felt about

my original manager and some of the shift supervisors on that team. Like I said, if your

team, at any level, feels unsupported and like the work they’re doing is just stagnant.

Eventually they will stop doing the work, they will slack off, they will quit. Investing

into your team is the best way to invest into your company's success. The rest of the

reading talks about that as well, if you streamline the way your processes work, it's

going to cause less confusion for your team and they’re gonna feel more understood

and supported through the processes.

 Blog Posts

Does Your Organization Have a Clear Definition of Diversity?

Something I really appreciate about this discussion of diversity in the workplace

is that every person has a different definition of what they view diversity to be. The

company who is being discussed says they asked their team to talk about what they

needed to feel like their organization was diversified. The answers were… diverse.

Women having leadership roles, ethnic diversity on the team, diversity training for all

staff members, and the list goes on.

I like that this article is giving us the tools to figure out what diversity is for

ourselves and for our organization. As someone who is white, it’s easy for me to bypass

the experiences of someone who is part of the BIPOC community. But as a woman, I

know I have different struggles and experiences than that of a male. I also am religious,

so I have different experiences through that. But it brings up that its more than that.

Being diverse within your organization also includes things such as how and where

someone was raised. This comes to light in my personal life simply in comparing me to

my best friend. We are both white, of the same religion and in the same age range.

However, she grew up in California, with a single mom as her primary parent. I grew

up in the midwest, with divorced parents but my mom remarried, so I had a father

figure most of my life. Although we share a lot of similarities in our lives, and opinions,
we still were raised differently and because of that we have different views or

perceptions of certain things.

In my work I would apply this to being aware of how we are creating the “third

place environment” Starbucks strives to create. This applies to how we treat our

customers, and how we treat our co-workers. Do we assume that someone who is

wearing a mormon badge doesn’t have any caffeine? Do we assume that someone who

is wearing a hijab doesn’t eat pork? Or do we create an environment where each

person we interact with feels comfortable to be themselves and ask us for the help that

they need to find something that fits within their ‘restrictions.’ Do we point out what

they can or can't have right when they walk in, or do we educate ourselves on what we

sell so that when they come in, we can support their needs and welcome them into our

space?

Staying Centered

In this crazy day and age that we live in, staying centered can be seemingly

impossible. This is especially true when you are a project manager, juggling so many

moving factors at work, plus you have your personal life to incorporate into that. This

article was written in 2017, if only the writer then knew what life would become in 2020

& 2021. I appreciate the way the writer puts this struggle of staying centered. If you let

yourself get carried away into the intensity of leadership, you unground yourself.
Being a leader of a team is a lot of responsibility, there are so many factors that go into

it, and you have to keep track of that, while maintaining and inspiring the team to be

the best they can. That’s a lot. By focusing on why you’re doing the work, what you can

control, and what you stand for as a leader, you will be able to stay grounded. You’ll be

able to make ethical decisions that benefit your team and your project. You’ll weigh the

pros and cons of things that may seem too good to be true, and you will inevitably be a

successful project manager.

 REFERENCES

Heldman, Kim. (2005) Project Manager's Spotlight on Risk Management. Sybex,

http://site.ebrary.com/id/10131929?ppg=110

PMI (2013). The High Cost of Low Performance.

Abudi, G. (2012, December 13). Does Your Organization Have a Clear Definition of Diversity? Gina

Abudi.

https://www.ginaabudi.com/does-your-organization-have-a-clear-definition-of-divers

ity/

Carroll, J. (2017, March 10). Staying Centered. The Tao of Project Management.

http://thetaoofpm.blogspot.com/2017/03/staying-centered.html