WHERE
C3 is a proactive partnership of 11 organisations in the West of England sub-region. C3 supports social economy organisations by promoting continuous improvement and quality standards.
The partnership is piloting a range of new business support services and providing expert advice in improving the performance of social economy organisations. C3 aims to influence the range of support services delivered and how they are delivered in the future.
Process for prioritising and action planning after self assessment
Facilitation is provided by advisors from four of the partners: Black Development Agency, Cooperative Development Agency (BRAVE) Ltd, Social Enterprise Works, Voscur.
WHY
This tool was developed to assist with action planning (stage 2 of the C3 approach to performance improvement). It is one of several approaches used for action planning.
The purpose of action planning is to transform ‘ideas for improvement’ that have been suggested through the self assessment process, (usually using C3Perform) into achievable improvement actions that are realistic and achievable. Specifically the process should agree timescale and responsibility for each action or group of actions.
HOW
The Participative Gantt Charting tool was developed specifically in order to clearly identify timescale and responsibility. The specific benefit of the Gantt chart is that it demonstrates in a visual way a schedule of action that needs to be taken and the specific order in which actions should happen. It can take into consideration existing events and deadlines to ensure that timescales are realistic and achievable. The tool also encourages the identification of the steps that need to be taken in order to implement each ‘idea for improvement’.
What is it?
Gantt charts have become a common technique for representing the phases and activities of a project. They focus on setting out a schedule for achieving a project within a specific timescale and identify which actions should happen in which order in order to complete the project in the shortest possible timescale.
Participative Gantt charting is a process intended to involve a group of between 3 and 8 people in developing a performance improvement action plan which identifies a clear timescale for actions and responsibility for who will do what. It ensures that staff and volunteers have a sense of ownership of the plan, which means that they will have a greater interest in ensuring that the plan is implemented.
The completed Gantt chart will look something like this view of part of an action plan (PDF)
How is it used?
The process consists of a number of steps.
- Identify actions from the self assessment session and write them on post it notes.
- Place the post it notes on a wall and organise into ‘sets’.
- Prioritise actions to be included in the plan
- Identify a schedule of activities by organising actions within a gantt chart template on the wall.
- Identify responsibility for actions
- Discuss and agree next steps.
What equipment is needed?
- A report of the ideas for improvement identified as part of the C3Perform self-assessment.
- A large blank wall.
- Post it notes (or other moveable sticky paper). If possible, use four different colours.
- Thick pens.
- Coloured stickers (sticky dots).
Time required – 3 – 6 hours.
Process
Step 1. Identify actions from the self assessment session and write them on post it notes.
The starting point for the process is a report summarising the results of the C3Perform session. Specifically, C3Perform will have allowed the group to identify a number of ‘ideas for improvement’ (ideas for improvement is the term used in the C3Perform diagnostic workbook to refer to suggested (but not agreed) improvement actions.)
These need to be transferred to post it notes so they can be placed and then moved around on the blank wall.
However, whilst some of these ideas for improvement might include a specific action, others might be little more than ideas or resolutions. The action plan can only include specific and achievable actions so the first step is to identify a specific action for each idea for improvement.
This can be time-consuming, depending on the number of ideas for improvement. One way to do this is to divide the group into sub-groups and ask each sub-group to take different criteria and to identify specific actions arising from the ideas for improvement. Ask the groups to write each action in clear and large writing on a separate post-it-note in no more than five words. Set a deadline to keep the process moving and repeat the process until all 9 criteria have been completed.
Step 2. Place the post it notes on a wall and organise into ‘sets’.
When the sub groups have identified their priority actions, they should present their post-it notes to the group and place them on the large blank wall.
Once the actions of the first two or three criteria are up on the wall, ask the group if they can see any overlaps and logical connections between actions. For example, an action to ‘review the communication between staff and management committee’ from the leadership section and ‘review communication and planning of team meetings’ from the processes section might logically fit together into one area of work, or ‘set’. As participants suggest how to organise the post it notes, the facilitator should organise them together.
Step 1 should then be repeated for the next 2 or 3 criteria, which should then be presented to the group, placed on the wall and then organised into sets as described above.
At this stage, identify a title for each emerging group, for example ‘internal communication’. Write this on a post it note and place on the wall together with the corresponding set.
Continue with this process until all actions are placed in an appropriate set on the wall.
Organised actions may look like this:
Step 3. Prioritise actions to be included in the plan
Prioritisation needs to happen to ensure that the plan is manageable. First the sets of actions should be prioritised and then each individual action. Participants cast votes using Coloured stickers (sticky dots)
Step 3.1 Vote on the priority sets of actions
Allocate 5 or so sticky dots to each member of the group and ask them to place them on the titles of the set(s) they see as most important. Explain that they can place all dots on one set title or split them between more than one.
Those set groups selected with dots will form the areas of the action plan.
Step 3.2. Vote on the individual priority actions
Allocate 10 or so sticky dots of another colour to each member of the group and ask them to place them on the specific action (s) they see as most important. Explain that they can place all dots on one action or split them between more than one.
Those actions with dots will then be included in the action plan.
Step 4. Identify a schedule of activities by organising actions within a gannt chart template on the wall.
Step 4.1 Mark out the Gantt chart on a large space of wall
Mark out the Gantt chart on a large space of wall by;
Arranging the titles of each set in a vertical axis on the left hand side of the wall.
Writing the names of the forthcoming months on post it notes and arranging them in a horizontal axis along the top of the wall space.
The chart should look something like this at this stage:
Step 5 Position the specific actions within the Gantt chart.
Start by placing all of the actions that have been prioritised for inclusion in the plan beside/close to the title of the set they were belong to. If an action was identified but not the title of the set, then just bring the action and place it in a new row on its own.
Then start to discuss each in turn to identify when each action should be completed.
This will depend on other work the organisation has planned. The timing of each action might depend on when other actions can be completed too. For example, writing the business plan will come before promoting the business plan.
You may want to add additional actions as they emerge or write in forthcoming dates of meetings and events.
Step 6. Identify responsibility for actions
One the timescale has been agreed use a different coloured post it note to identify which participants is to be responsible for taking each set of actions forward. Sometimes participants will take on a specific action but if possible try to encourage responsibility for sets of actions, i.e. an improvement project.
This phase could be completed alongside step 5 if preferred.
Step 7. Discuss and agree next steps
Once the Gantt chart has been completed and before the group disperse it is important to discuss how the plan will be implemented.
Firstly, who will convert the plan on the wall into an electronic document (see pro forma below).
Secondly who will be responsible for it.
Thirdly, how will progress be monitored and communicated.
Experiences
Participative Gantt charting has been used with several organisations to help to develop a performance improvement action plan which sets out the improvement actions identified using the C3Perform self-assessment tool. This case study describes the experience of two organisations, Hartcliffe Health Environment Action Group (HHEAG) and the Health Advocacy Partnership (HAP).
HHEAG is a local community development organisation that has been active in Hartcliffe, one of the more deprived areas of Bristol, since 1990. It is managed by local people, for local people. It is incorporated as a company limited by guarantee. Activities include;
- a community cooking project, which focuses on improving health of local people, particularly pregnant women and young mothers and people with a diet related illness
- supporting a food co-operative, increasing access to healthy and local food at an affordable price
- food growing projects, providing opportunities for residents to grow their own fruit and vegetables
- a community market garden
- community walks and visits – runs a programme of regular walks to promote physical activity
HHEAG engaged in the C3 programme as part of a strategic planning process that seeks to secure the financial sustainability of the organisation. They identified that the C3Perform self-assessment process would help give some shape to the strategic plan.
HAP provides support services to Patient and Public Involvement Forums and is funded by the Commission for Patient and Public involvement in Health (CPPIH a body set up by the British government’s Department of Health). Every primary care trust (organisations that runs NHS services for a specific local area) must by law operate in consultation with a Patient and Public Involvement Forum (PPIF). HAP provides support to a number of different PPIF’s in the South West of England. Support provided includes information and advice to forum members and the public, developing networks between interested voluntary and health related organisations, providing training and development to forums, providing accessible premises for forum activity.
HAP engaged with C3 to help them prepare for a new future that involves the loss of funding for the Patient Public Involvement Forums in their current form. The C3 work using C3Perform helped HAP to plan the process for developing a business plan which would help them secure alternative funding streams. HAP hopes that the use of a performance improvement tool will help them to demonstrate their ability to deliver high quality services.
However the two organisations’ processes were quite different. In particular, the HAP process was much more time intensive taking six hours over two 3-hour sessions. The HHEAG process took under three hours.
The key determinants on time come down to the level of detail entered into in the self-assessment stage. HAP had engaged in an in-depth discussion using C3Perform so there was consequently more ideas for improvement to discuss. The HHEAG plan was much simpler. The reason that it took so much longer to complete with HAP was also due to the fact that HAP wanted their action plan to set out how the organisation would make the transition from a situation of delivering on objectives for a single funder, to one of delivering a range of products and services for/to a range of funders and customers. Planning the next few months was a very important exercise for HAP and so many other actions were added in at the action planning stage that had not come up in the self assessment that needed to be completed in order to fulfil the improvement actions.
Experience has shown that frequently participants will use the action planning to discuss their performance in more depth and will identify more improvements on top of those idenitified in the self assessment process.
Learning
It takes longer than the prioritisation exercises listed in this section, but it has the benefit of leaving the group with a much more comprehensive and achievable action plan.
Gannt charts are very timescale focused. This might not be appropriate for all organisations.
It is a fairly crude representation – Actions need to be explained using just a few words – it means that they don’t always explain themselves fully.
Possible improvements
Double prioritising of the set title and the actions is confusing – consider cutting this.
Consider two sessions, one for clarifying actions, the second for organising into a schedule and allocating responsibility
Transferability
The principles of participative action planning using a Gantt chart are very transferable. The minimum requirement for this process is a set of actions/suggestions or ideas to discuss and plan.
For further information: Please contact Stuart Griffin through the C3 Partnership