Michael has agreed to head the committee to run this years p

Michael has agreed to head the committee to run this year’s pee wee ice hockey tournament. He gathers his committee together for its first meeting and leads a brainstorming session for how this year’s tournament should be run.

The discussion rapidly disintegrates into a complaint session about prior tournaments. A few people do most of the talking and a couple say nothing at all. The meeting runs long, and several people leave before it is over. Other than making some subcommittee assignments based on who volunteered for each committee, little is decided.

After the meetings, Jane who has successfully run the food concessions for the last five years calls Michael to say she is just too busy to help out this year. Two other committee members also call to say they don’t think they will have time right now to help out but maybe another time.

How would developing a WBS (or responsibility assignment matrix (RAM)) alleviate some of the problems that occurred during the first meeting and help Michael organize and plan the project?

What might he have done before the first meeting?

Solution

A WBS or RAM defines the participation of various parties in their respective capacities or responsibilities to carry out a project or a business process. So, with RAM in place at the meeting, everyone would have known about their responsibility right at the start of the meeting and there would have a lesser room of unproductive discussions in the meeting. It was seen that some of the attendees did not even speak once during the entire meeting. So, with RAM in place, even they would have thought along the lines of their responsibility being assigned and raised queries accordingly. To sum up, developing a WBS or RAM would have given structure to the meeting and helped Michael organize and plan on the basis of feedback from the attendees.

Before the meeting, Michael would have had a one on one session discussing the concerns and expectations of each participating committee and accordingly, he should have made an agenda including RAM for the first meeting. This agenda & RAM should have been floated before the first meeting so that each participant would attend the meeting with a clear picture of expectations and roles. The one on one session would also help in giving the impression of inclusiveness approach of Michael in organizing the tournament.