Further Difficulty with Planning

Backstory

On 9 November 2012, the WPI team decided that in order to help the working group learn better working and communication skills, we would give them a calendar and have them write down each day’s accomplishments.  We hoped that these types of activities would help them to be better prepared for meetings and be as productive as possible.

Cast of Characters

The WPI team and the Langrug working group

Setting

The Wendy House

Scene

Today we worked with the working group to create a calendar for the rest of the time WPI will be in Cape Town. We put important tasks for the working group in one colour and WPI team in another colour. We also put down the dates the WPI team would be away on Safari and would be leaving Cape Town. We hoped that this would give a sense of urgency to the working group members. The WPI team then created a planning exercise for the working group members, by asking them to fill out a white board of the major accomplishments for the day, things that needed to be worked on and plans for moving forward. The WPI team referred to this as homework, hoping the working group would complete it when we were gone and they could share it with us when we came back the next day.

Both of the calendar and planning exercise were difficult for us to work on with the working group. They seemed disinterested and got distracted by cell phones and each other. It was difficult for us to know when we could step in and ask them to pay attention.

Reflection

Although these types of planning exercises are extremely valuable in helping the working group learn better working skills, they take time and are often unproductive. There is so much to be done in regards to the MPC, but these exercises will hopefully benefit the working group members in the long term. The WPI team has to decide which focus is more important as of now.

Furthermore, the WPI team is frustrated by the working group members’ lack of interest in all types of exercises we are working on with them.  Figuring out how to get their full interest and create meaningful meetings with them is vital to moving forward since we only have about a month left in Cape Town.