Don't Expect Success- Prepare for it!

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 Do you have trouble getting projects and supplies funded through your administration and school board? No worries! Join me as I walk you through the steps of preparing a proposal to gain funding.

Presentation Slides

Key Concepts

1-Self-Assessment with Success-O-Meter

Let's start our time together with some reflection. It can be painful to reflect, but in this safe environment, it's important that we take a moment. 

What reaction do you most often get when you ask for funding?

2-Identify Problems to Solve

How do you identify problems to solve in your district? What process do you follow?

Here's one way to identify problems before they derail you....

Solve the Wicked Problem(s)

In any environment, there are various ways of accomplishing goals and objectives and of receiving funding for needed projects. 

In some locations, a conversation that moves participants towards action suffices, while in others, the value is placed on a formal presentation or proposal. But often, there's a problem where opinions differ among stakeholders...a problem that is difficult to define, to figure out who is responsible for, that more research is needed.

This is where you may have to step back to establish mutual purpose and mutual respect.

Question: What's a Wicked Problem You Have? Solution?

Done? Record It:

Share your discussion and "Aha moments"

3-Align Solutions to Organizational Needs

“Our kiddoes are stuck in a portable building with no Internet,” challenged a kindly, experienced principal, smiling her demand, “and I’m not sure why. 

Can you help me, please?”


Students lack access to equitable learning environment and instructional materials.

Ever have a problem that no one wants to pay for? How do you get funding for it? You remind yourself that you are the messenger. You don't care where the funding comes from, only that a serious, organizational need is met. 

It's not for you, it's for the staff, the students who are suffering.

How Do You Resolve This?

“I'd been waiting for months to get a digital projector for my lab. When it finally came, there was a problem. 

The technicians mounted it the way they had done at other campuses...about two feet away from the screen."


What problems do you see with the placement of this projector? And the technician's story?

4-Avoiding Implementation Failure

What happens when the football coach watches his team have a losing season despite his best efforts? He moves on. In the old days, worse things happened, right?

Seven Tips to Avoid Implementation Failure

5-Action Steps to Success

Use One-Page Executive Summaries

“When the power poles in the computer labs were put in, the maintenance department failed to connect the power.”

“Wait,” you asked in surprise, “Are you saying that all these power poles do not have power in them? Are you just daisy chaining the power from one outlet?”

“Yes,” replied the media specialist. “That is exactly what we have had to do. As you can guess, we can’t put as many computers in this room as we would like. And I’m worried about overloading power. Isn’t this unsafe or something? I’ve told my principal, but she doesn’t have the money to get it done and it should have been done when they built the school several years ago.”

Why is this necessary?

High School campus labs lack electrical connections needed to “complete” the labs. Inadequately wired rooms have consequences on performance of equipment and reliability.

What happens if we don’t implement?

High school campus labs will continue to face electrical issues caused by poles that were never wired for electrical. Furthermore, new equipment will sit unused in the labs.

Potential summary of costs are as follows (estimated since quotes are not yet available):

How will we measure success?

All labs will be at 100% utilization and have functional network and electrical connections.

When will this happen?

This is scheduled for the next budget year.


Use Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are a set of quantifiable measures that compare performance to organizational outcomes. 

It can be as simple as a list of current projects:


Jerry Allen, CTO, uses several tools to power the District’s digital dashboard. He combines Google Sites, Sheets, Domo, and Pingdom.

The first three yield a wide variety of viewable data. The last, Pingdom, provides insight into the status (e.g. offline or up/down) of web-based services.

Source: SlidesGo

Try a Kanban Board

A kanban board helps you visualize work, limit work-in-progress, and maximize efficiency (or flow). Kanban boards use cards, columns, and continuous improvement (source).

Give it a Go with a

Trello or CryptPad 

Kanban board (other alternatives)

6-Capture and Share: Examples of Success

Collect testimonials in video/audio format of successful deliverables:

Table Talk: Scenarios To Practice On

Table Talk Conversations

Here are some scenarios to try the Action Steps out on, if you don't have one of your own. 

These might also be fun to try as "table talk" games you can use in your own district to get people chatting.

Explore scenarios in this slide deck -->

Don't Expect Success - Prepare for It!

7-Resources

This video shows how to create a Gantt Chart in Google Sheets, and how to customize it. 

Gantt Chart Template: https://goo.gl/yoaAMW 

Trevor Fox's Blog: https://goo.gl/OxJDGc 

Table of contents below: 

00:00 - Introduction 

00:40 - Labeling 

02:57 - Dropdown for status 

04:00 - Creating the bar chart 

09:16 - Changing colors of tasks 

13:39 - Burndown bar 

14:54 - Overall project timeline 

19:26 - Adding and deleting tasks 

20:55 - Conclusion 

InfoGraphics for Project and Knowledge Management

Get copy of Infographic: Google Slides

8-Dice Debrief Activity

Instructions