FREQUENTLY ANSWERED QUESTIONS
Project-Based Structure
All the information will be released in the Project-Based Structure wiki. http://www.myaiesec.net/content/viewwiki.do?contentid=10234306
1. Why and how the Project-based structure will increase our Exchange performance? The most important thing is FOCUS. A project-based structure pushes mainly teams with high focus on specific deliverables, what makes them more assertive. The Projectbased structure also pushes more autonomy, because of its focus and clear awareness about what is expected from them. In this structure, it is expected that more people become involved with exchange operations, pushing a result-oriented organizational culture.
2. plan;
What should I do until the end of the year? Align the whole concept and timelines with your EB elect; Map your needs until March 2013 – This is part of your Align with your LC about the incoming changes; Check in the portfolio what projects supply your structure; Project Managers should be elected;
3. What should I not do until the end of the year? Do not innovate or create different projects; Do not elect Coordinators or Middle Managers the way we do today;
Do not forget to align everything with your EB elect and your LC; Do not throw the message to the LC – Explain the whole flow 4.
Will you release a Project Portfolio?
Yes and is high recommended (almost required) that LCs use the projects described in the portfolio, at least in this adaptation period. The portfolio will be released at 01/11. You can find it in the Project-based structure wiki 5.
Where Internal Communication will be allocated?
Internal communication will be allocated in the DEV area, because it’s a tool used to shape organizational culture, which is DEV responsibility. 6.
How DEV area links with Project Structure?
A structure based on project accelerates organization results, but also bring some challenges and burning questions. How a leader can deliver high volume experience in only 2-3 months? How guarantee that the projects won’t start from scratch eatch time? Learning and knowledge management are two main challenges that surround a project-based structure. So DEV will strive to provide capacity to run those projects. See some activities in the area that will help: level; -
Fast and focused education; Reports for knowledge management ; Project management education in basic, medium and high Transition for ST, MT and LT experiences.;
7.
What will be DEV responsibilities?
DEV will work basically with Training, Development and Knowledge Management, accelerating the member’s learning curve, improving efficiency and performance, guarantying management capacity for structure based on project and keeping the most amounts of knowledge and experience as it can. Learning activities are being planned as: - Transition for all members that change their position,; - A LEAD program that is more customized according to leader reality and moment,; - Induction ongoing faster, so members are prepared to perform rapidly and in a high level; - Local education cycle to capacitate members according to demand; - Organizational competence to shape the LC culture according to its ambition; - Learning program with 3 different levels of knowledge – basic, medium, high. - Special program for sales and selection members, considering that this job is similar to all AIESEC core business. 8.
My LC won’t have Dev, what should I do?
In LCs that won’t have a Learning & Development area, all the education planning will be delivered by trainers. For this, it’s important that they have a systemic vision, are proactive,
communication/facilitation skills and high capacity to selfmanagement. However, in this case it’s important to highlight that the VPTM role will be guarantee the LC’s management capacity. All the LCs will have trainers, but their job description will be different in LCs that have VPDEV and in LCs that don’t have. 9. What’s the role of COMM and FIN in this Project-based structure? Both COMM and FIN areas will provide support to the LC projects. They will have a lean structure and, sometimes, work with functional projects focused on specific demands. E.g.: Recruitment Cells, Audits Process Creation, etc. The MC will provide Job Descriptions and the organogram of each area until 01/11 in the Project-Based Structure wiki. It’s important to remember that you must have more than 70% of your members allocated in operations-related jobs. 10. How to guarantee organizational culture in this Project based structure? You can guarantee organizational culture through an efficient upsales management. Upsales is to sell an ELD program to someone who already has lived another ELD program. The idea is not to make all the experiences in AIESEC faster, but make them more tangible through projects. There will be people experiencing just one project and there will be people experiencing much more.
It’s a TXP responsibility to guarantee effective up-sales and it’s a DEV responsibility to work with Organizational Culture though different actions. 9. How to sell it to my LC? A message will only penetrate into your LC’s roots if it’s repeated constantly. To reinforce the message: Use booklets, visual handouts, FAQs, LC meetings, Area Meetings and all the channels you have. Make it clear. Explain the whole flow, starting with the efficiency issues that we have, going through the timeline of teams versus the timeline of programs, value-proposition based experiences and finally to the solution presented by the MC. You will be the only one generation to have the honor to build the way AIESEC will work in 2015. This is such an amazing opportunity that can motivate a lot of people. 10. How to work or guarantee upsales? 1. To have an effective pipeline management (who is in each project? when each project finishes? when another one starts? How much people do we need for each project?) 2. Approach in the right time – the TXP team must approach every single ELD participant in the right time to offer opportunities with a clear value proposition, made upon demand to that public. 3. Clear value proposition – Guarantee that all the positions you are offering have a clear value proposition and a good service. 4. The VP TXP must have clear focus on upsales.
11. How the Project-based structure is aligned with the short term strategy? Once the projects are focused on specific deliverables, they will be, most likely, shorter than the current ones. It means that our short term portfolio fits perfectly with the whole project-based structure concept. It is stimulated to have projects that last 2 or 3 months, but projects with more than 3 months are allowed.
12. What will be the MC support and when will it happen? The MC will provide: Booklets to clarify the structure (November/December/January) Classroom trainings to all the Local Committees (November) Management Models focused on projects (November) Learning and Development Models focused on projects (December) Portfolio of projects for each area (November) Job Description, timeline and Organogram of each area CONAL 100% focused on the project-based structure
13. How will GIP work in this structure? GIP will not have many differences.
For GIPo 1. Each project will be based on one and just one of the national programs, if the LC runs more than one national program, another project must be created. 2. Each project will manage the whole EP flow, from promotion, going through raising, matching and realization 3. An LC can run 1 national program and have 2 or more projects for it, based on markets (Universities or operational units).
Examples : 1 National program,1 market
For GIPi: 1. All the teams must have the project characteristics (specific timeline, resources, realistic, purpose, can be assessed, made up to stages, uniqueness) 2. Some projects can be created to push a very specific performance. E.g. Local Corporate sales team – A team of high specialized sellers with the goal to make 900 meetings in 3 months, for example. 3. The programs have, most of times, a very long timeline (since raise until reintegration). So, it can be broken into different projects, encompassing just part of the processes. E.g.: A project for Sales and another one for Match and Delivery. Service, can be a process, according to the demand you have. 14. What about my Operational Units? They have to work in this structure as well?
1 National program, 2 universities
Yes. It will be easier for an operational unit to work in a
2 National programs, 1university. project-based structure, mainly because they use to have a very lean structure and capacity for a lot of results. The must be focused and have clear understand about what they have to deliver 15. Is my Operational Unit a Project? Yes. Expansion to new market fits in all the projects characteristics, so it is a project and it must be treated as one.
16. What is the role of TXP ? The TXP area has the following activities: Generate team member experiences demand through Jovens Talentos portfolios focused on specific needs; Generate team leader experience demand through Jovens Líderes portfolios focused on specific timelines; Supply team experiences demand through several recruitment models, considering specific backgrounds and skills; Track the project-based structure timelines, guaranteeing that operations are working well; Guarantee satisfaction of team experiences through NPS and also quality standards through TPP; Generate team experiences and supply them in new markets for expansion The TXP area will work as a PMO (Project Management Office), which means that it will be responsible to support each project in the LC, guaranteeing that all of them are working very well the way they should and providing support. The VP TXP will have autonomy to break matches and realizations of Team Experiences if one of the parts doesn’t accomplish the responsibilities they should. 17. How a VP will be able to manage 7 projects at the same time? A project-based structure naturally pushes more autonomy of project managers. It means that the tracking and management of each one is easily and more strategic. Nevertheless, in order to make team management easier, the MC will provide different Management Models during November. Another thing is the
implementation of Podio in AIESEC in Brazil, an online platform to support project management. The VP TXP is also responsible to track each project’s effectiveness. 19. How the structure affects retention rate? The concept of retention rate had to be adapted from the program-based one. It means that retention rate is calculated by the number of people that lives a program until the end. Considering this, once we have clear ends in all the projects together with a clear valueproposition, it will become more attractive to finish each experience, making our retention rate better. On the other hand, it will be possible for people to get into AIESEC to live a project and leave the organization (As a promoter). This movement is totally acceptable, once we have to explore and develop the leadership potential of everyone, even those who are just able to live our experiences in certain periods of the year.