The Swiss Project Management Journal
The People Project
to be constantly briefed and re-briefed
with their communications evaluated for
impact. We had to be constantly alert for
new rumors, and respond through several
channels. Though they had the best of
intentions, sometimes these would even
originate from our own existing stake-
holders. It was a constant process of doing
something, monitoring, evaluating, re-
adjusting and doing again.
This looks a lot like Agile does it not?
Constant re-assessment, re-tooling,
addressing if your work is delivering
value. The difference here is that your
value is in the number of survivors, not in
the amount of coding accomplished, or
web portals implemented.
As with corporate projects in offices,
these challenges in implementing actions
do not exempt you from bureaucratic
challenges either. Donors wanted reports
Project Management Institute
SWITZERLAND Chapter 6
health worker’s standard equipment. If
they are available, which is not often, they
are not the right size, or are unreliable
from having being stored in improper
conditions. Even if the materials are
there, you must look at the whole use
cycle of a product: how are the different
pieces put on to ensure maximum safety
and more importantly how are they re-
moved so that the person does not conta-
minate himself or herself? This situation
happened to nurses in the United States
who were highly trained and had the best
possible equipment, managing that risk in
a makeshift treatment centre with staff
who have only received limited training
on the materials is a massive task.
You assess the situation, develop a task
list, note dependencies, identify available
capabilities and capacities, assemble a
team as best you can with the resources
available and get to work.
You not only have to communicate with
your stakeholders, but educate them as
well, like dealing with beliefs that the
illness is caused by bad spirits. As the
outbreak evolves, so does your situation,
risk is ever changing based not only on the
hard facts of the disease situation, but
also on public opinion.
One of the most frightening experiences
I have of communication with the public
being poorly managed was being
threatened by a group of men playing a
casual game of soccer (and their friend,
armed with a Kalashnikov) who were
angry.
They had not been informed by the
government that an Ebola Treatment
Centre was being prepared in their area,
and only when the sign was placed on the
building did they know. We need to
realize that even our stakeholders have
their own projects to manage, some of
which can impact us. We had to go out
and cultivate project champions- local
authorities, celebrities, anyone who
could help us communicate concise and
true information to battle rumors and
adjust public perception of the risk to be
closer to reality. These champions needed
on activities, including pictures. In a
normal situation this would be easy, but
when it takes 20 minutes to send 1 high
resolution picture through your internet
connection, sending enough material for
the satisfaction of the donor who is
making your presence there possible is
just one more hurdle of many.
Disaster relief is another area where
project management skills are pervasive,
but not traditionally seen as project
management within the responding
agencies. The rebuilding afterwards is
readily seen as a project, but the planning,
execution and standing down of the
deployment of personnel, equipment and
supplies, is often not. Setting up disease
surveillance in shelters was not seen as a
project, as the diseases were already
notifiable before the floods, and the go-
vernment continued to collect informa-
2017 Edition