Ethiopian TVET System

Level IV TTLM for Plan and Organize Work

Worabe polytechnic college

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT SERVICE

Level Iv

Learning Guide #3
Unit of Competence: plan and organize work
Module Title: How to Plan & Organize Work Activities
LG Code: ICT DBA4 M01 LO1-04
TTLM Code: ICT DBA4 TTLM4 0315

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Ethiopian TVET System
Level IV TTLM for Plan and Organize Work

LO1. Setting objectives

How to Plan & Organize at Work

Papers everywhere, empty coffee cups, memos coming in, and nothing going
out, a typical day at work for most people. Lack of organization is to blame
for this common situation. Planning and organization are essential skills in
the workplace. In today's busy world, effective time management is key in
reaching your full potential. Follow these simple steps to better plan and
organize your work, and watch your productivity level rise.

Instructions
1. You can begin to organize your work space after you have cleaned off your
desk. Create an in/out box. Keep only current projects on your desk;
everything else should be filed away. If your desk is still cluttered, you
may want to consider purchasing a small shelf to keep nearby.
2. Organize your files. First, you need to create a filing system. Next,
categorize and organize the files, getting rid of anything that you no longer
need.
3. Organize your computer files. It is easy to forget about old or unfinished
files on computers and they can slow your system down. Delete any
unused files and create a more efficient folder system.
4. Create a to-do list. You can use a computer program such as Microsoft
Outlook, or a paper agenda depending on your preference. Try to plan
tasks according to priority and complexity. Complete the most important
tasks first. Keep a notebook with you when you are away from your desk
to jot down new tasks. Add them to your list when you return to your
desk.
5. Deal with paperwork as you receive it. File it, delegate it, or act on it
immediately to avoid piles of paper accumulating on your desk.
 Setting goals will help you get more accomplished. By breaking long-term
goals into shorter-term goals, projects seem less overpowering and easier to
complete. Try a reward system for completing goals. When you complete five
tasks, take a coffee break or surf the web and take an e-break.

How To Plan and Organize the Work of a Team

A team's work can only be as good as the weakest link in the chain. That's why
in any activity, good planning and adequate participation by each member is
needed to make sure that you succeed. In an imperfect world, nothing is bound
to be perfect, but with good planning and teamwork, a group can achieve great
feats.

Here are a few tips in planning and organizing your team's activities.
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Level IV TTLM for Plan and Organize Work

 Select a good leader. A leader doesn't have to know everything and do

everything. The most important characteristic of a leader is knowing the
strengths and weaknesses of each member of a team, and using the
strengths to the advantage of the group.
 List tasks and milestones. Before starting an activity, be sure you
plan the details. This includes each small task, and bigger milestones.
List these down, and make sure each person has a list of the tasks that
the group has to do. The leader should be able to have a good big-picture
perspective, so he knows if he needs to assign certain specific tasks to
any particular person.
 Assign specific tasks. Once the tasks have been identified, the leader
should be able to delegate these according to the abilities and skills of
each member. The tasks may not necessarily be distributed equally, but
rather equitably, with each person doing what he can best do.
 Keep communicating. Another big responsibility of the leader is
knowing what is happening and where, at any given time. He should be
able to talk to everyone, or at least point persons from each sub-group, if
the group is a big one. Each member should also communicate to others,
especially when in need of assistance in one particular task.
 Use collaborative applications. This is especially useful if you are
forming a group of mostly online people. You can use collaborative
software like wikis, online spreadsheets, online task lists and instant
messaging applications to collaborate online. Offline collaboration tools
include project planners, task lists and assignment lists. The common
denominator here is that you are able to use whatever resources you have
available in order to communicate properly, and get things done.
 Set targets, and set these ahead of the deadline. Give allowance for
adjustments, delays, and other unforeseeable events that might lead to
problems in the course of the activity. It's a good idea to plan completion
of an activity at least 20% ahead of schedule, so you have a good
allowance to work with, in case an individual or sub-group is unable to
deliver results within their deadline.
 Have a backup plan. We don't live in a perfect place, after all. So
something is bound to go awry whether or not you let it. And so it's a
good idea to have a backup plan, in case something goes wrong. Have
alternative means and methodologies to arrive at your goal.
A big part of planning and organization is communication. A group also has to
be ready for any occurrence, whether expected or unexpected. Therefore you
should have a definite plan of action, but also be prepared to deviate from this,
when needed, but still arriving at the same end result.

How to Plan & Organize Work Activities

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Level IV TTLM for Plan and Organize Work

 How to Plan Daily Work Activities for Leadership

 How to Create a Work Plan
 Five Levels of Organization Activities
 How to Organize Project Work
 What Does a Corporate Work Plan Look Like?
 Tips to Organize & Plan a Training Seminar

Planning and organization makes efficient use of your time at the office by
keeping you focused from beginning to completion of a project. A comprehensive
plan for work activities and projects ensures you tackle all necessary steps for
success. Organizational tools allow you to track the planning progress for the
activity. An organizational plan also facilitates collaboration and information
sharing with other team members who play a role in the completion of the
activities. Change your organizational method allows you to create the most
effective planning system for your office.

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Level IV TTLM for Plan and Organize Work

LO2. Planning and Scheduling work activities

What is the Importance of Planning and Scheduling?
 Establish Roles and Responsibilities
 Minimize Cost
 Focus on Objectives
 Achieve Goals
 Establish Roles and Responsibilities: Ensures that each part of the
organization will know when, how and what to contribute toward
maintaining the whole highway system.
 Minimize Cost: Consistent and efficient operations minimizes delay and
maximizes utilization and availability of resources.
 Focus on Objectives: Allows for prioritization, and direction which will
increase incentive to achieve targets
 Achieve Directed Goals: Once you’ve accomplished all of the above,
your results should reach the goals set in the Long Range Surface
Improvement and Bridge Maintenance Program, business plan, and
annual work plan.

Overview
Flow Chart: Identify the various steps involved
Responsibilities: Who does what steps
Policies and Procedures: Locations of fiscal and general maintenance guidelines
Tools: Identify the specific resources and programs available to make the
process easier
Best Practices: Provide useful strategies of enforcing the plan

Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Flowchart

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Level IV TTLM for Plan and Organize Work

Definition of a Mission
A mission is a statement of the reason or reasons for the existence of the
organization, the ultimate purpose the organization serves in society, and the
boundaries within which it operates.
A mission is one of the four key building blocks of an organizational plan. The
other three are vision, goals, and strategy. A mission sets direction and defines
the boundaries, both of which are critical to the organization's effectiveness and
success.

Definition of a Vision
If the mission describes your reason for being, then the vision describes what
you want to become or how you want to be. It is the “dream ” toward which you
are moving. You hear star baseball players talk about as children seeing
themselves on the pitcher’s mound or at the plate in the World Series or football
players envisioning playing quarterback in the Super Bowl. Those are visions.

Definition of Values
Values include beliefs and attitudes that guide behavior and relationships with
others. They are often unspoken as well as difficult to universally define. For
example, one value a team might choose is “respect. ” You can look up the
definition in the dictionary, but the key question is how the team demonstrates
respect for other members of the team and for those outside the team with
whom they deal.

LO3. Implement work plans

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Level IV TTLM for Plan and Organize Work

To implement your work plan Try it Free! The following steps

Step 1
Identify the scope and goals of the planning process related to each work
activity. Determine what you need to accomplish for the success of the activity
or project. Identify the employees who will play a role in the task if it is a team
project.
Step 2
Break down the major tasks for the activity into smaller steps that you need to
take for completion, essentially creating a to-do list for the project. If other
employees are working on the tasks with you, assign each person a role and
specific responsibilities to divide the workload.
Step 3
Establish the timeline for completing the work activity. Assign each individual
task that goes into the activity a completion date to make sure everything is
completed in a timely manner. Give yourself enough time to complete all
associated tasks before the deadline passes.
Step 4
Write each due date for the project tasks on your calendar, or set up reminders
that pop up on your computer screen as the deadlines approach.
Step 5
Identify potential problems or barriers you may face for the work activities.
Create an action plan to avoid those issues to keep the project on track.
Step 6
Utilize an online project management program for major work activities that are
critical to the company's success. These programs are particularly effective for
complicated projects or activities that involve many team members. The
progress is tracked and all employees can stay updated through the program.
Step 7
Schedule planning meetings when active participation and feedback is needed
from others working on the project. Keep the meetings focused and productive
to use the time efficiently.
Step 8
Send out regular updates and communication to all other employees who are
working on the project. This allows all team members to stay informed and
update their to-do lists and timelines as necessary.

LO4. Monitor work activities

Monitoring at work
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Level IV TTLM for Plan and Organize Work

What is workplace monitoring?

Employers have the right to monitor your activities in many situations at
work. Monitoring in the workplace includes:-
 recording on EARTh cameras
 opening mail or e-mail
 use of automated software to check e-mail
 checking phone logs or recording of phone calls
 checking logs of websites visited
 videoing outside the workplace
 getting information from credit reference agencies
 Collecting information through 'point of sale' terminals, such as
supermarket checkouts, to check the performance of individual operators.
All of these forms of monitoring are covered by data protection law. Data
protection law doesn't prevent monitoring in the workplace. However, it does
set down rules about the circumstances and the way in which monitoring
should be carried out.
Before deciding whether to introduce monitoring, your employer should:
 be clear about the reasons for monitoring staff and the benefits that
this will bring
 Identify any negative effects the monitoring may have on staff. This is
called an impact assessment
 consider whether there are any, less intrusive, alternatives to
monitoring
 Work out whether the monitoring is justified, taking into account all of
the above.
Except in extremely limited circumstances, employers must take reasonable
steps to let staff know that monitoring is happening, what is being monitored
and why it is necessary.
Employers who can justify monitoring once they have carried out a proper
impact assessment will usually not need the consent of individual members
of staff.
Monitoring electronic communications at work
Your employer can legally monitor your use of the phone, internet, e-mail or
fax in the workplace if:
 the monitoring relates to the business
 the equipment being monitored is provided partly or wholly for work
 your employer has made all reasonable efforts to inform you that your
communications will be monitored.
You should bear in mind that these circumstances cover almost every
situation where your employer might want to monitor your electronic
communications, except where the monitoring is for purely private or
spiteful reasons.
As long as your employer sticks to these rules, they don't need to get your
consent before they monitor your electronic communications, but only if it is
for one of the following reasons:
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Level IV TTLM for Plan and Organize Work

 to establish facts which are relevant to the business, to check that

procedures are being followed, or to check standards, for example,
listening in to phone-calls to assess the quality of your work
 to prevent or detect crime
 to check for unauthorized use of telecommunications systems, such as
whether you are using the internet or email for personal use
 to make sure electronic systems are operating effectively, for example,
to prevent computer viruses entering the system
 to check whether a communication you have received, such as an
email or phone-call is relevant to the business. In this case, your
employer can open up your emails or listen to voice-mails but is not
allowed to record your calls
 to check calls to confidential help lines. In this case, your employer
can listen in, but is not allowed to record these calls
 in the interests of national security.
Secret monitoring
Some employers monitor their workers without informing them that this is
happening, for example, by use of hidden cameras or audio devices. This is
very rarely legal. Guidance under data protection law says that secret
monitoring should not be allowed in private areas at work, such as staff
toilets, unless there is serious crime involved, such as drug dealing.
Employer’s policy on monitoring
Ideally, an employer should have a code of conduct or policy that covers
workplace monitoring. If a code or policy has been agreed, it will usually
form part of your contract of employment. This means that where an
employer is allowed to monitor your activities, these activities could be the
subject of disciplinary action if you are using workplace equipment in ways
that are not permitted in your contract of employment. Acas has produced a
short guide on internet and e-mail policies.
What to do if you are unhappy with monitoring at work
If you think that your employer has been monitoring you in a way which is
not allowed, you will need expert advice.
You may be able to:
 talk to your employer about the monitoring and try to persuade them
to stop. If you're still working for your employer, you will need to think
about whether raising this issue will put your job at risk
 take out a grievance against your employer
 check your contract of employment, staff handbook or anywhere else
where your employer might have a policy about monitoring to see what
it says
 ask your trade union to help you, if you are a member.
LO5. Review and evaluate work plans and
activities
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Level IV TTLM for Plan and Organize Work

BASIC PRINCIPLES

What is monitoring and evaluation?

Although the term “monitoring and evaluation” tends to get run together as if it
is only one thing, monitoring and evaluation are, in fact, two distinct sets of
organizational activities, related but not identical.

Monitoring is the systematic collection and analysis of information as a project

progresses. It is aimed at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of a project
or organization. It is based on targets set and activities planned during the
planning phases of work. It helps to keep the work on track, and can let
management know when things are going wrong. If done properly, it is an
invaluable tool for good management, and it provides a useful base for
evaluation. It enables you to determine whether the resources you have
available are sufficient and are being well used, whether the capacity you have
is sufficient and appropriate, and whether you are doing what you planned to
do.

Evaluation is the comparison of actual project impacts against the agreed

strategic plans. It looks at what you set out to do, at what you have
accomplished, and how you accomplished it. It can be formative (taking place
during the life of a project or organization, with the intention of improving the
strategy or way of functioning of the project or organization). It can also be
summative (drawing learning from a completed project or an organization that
is no longer functioning).
What monitoring and evaluation have in common is that they are geared
towards learning from what you are doing and how you are doing it, by focusing
on:

 Efficiency
 Effectiveness
 Impact

Efficiency tells you that the input into the work is appropriate in terms of the
output. This could be input in terms of money, time, staff, equipment and so
on. When you run a project and are concerned about going to scale, then it is
very important to get the efficiency element right.

Effectiveness is a measure of the extent to which a development program or

project achieves the specific objectives it set. If, for example, we set out to
improve the qualifications of all the high school teachers in a particular area,
did we succeed?

Impact tells you whether or not what you did made a difference to the problem
situation you were trying to address. In other words, was your strategy useful?
Did ensuring that teachers were better qualified improve the pass rate in the
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final year of school? Before you decide to get bigger, or to replicate the project
elsewhere, you need to be sure that what you are doing makes sense in terms of
the impact you want to achieve.

From this it should be clear that monitoring and evaluation are best done when
there has been proper planning against which to assess progress and
achievements. There are three toolkits in this set that deal with planning – the
overview of planning, strategic planning and action planning.

In this section we look in more detail at why do monitoring and evaluation?

and at more about monitoring and evaluation and what they involve. This
includes a discussion of different approaches to monitoring and evaluation and
of what to think about when you use an external evaluator.

WHY DO MONITORING AND EVALUATION?

Monitoring and evaluation enable you to check the “bottom line ” of development
work: Not “are we making a profit?” but “are we making a difference? ” Through
monitoring and evaluation, you can:

 Review progress;
 Identify problems in planning and/or implementation;
 Make adjustments so that you are more likely to “make a difference ”.

In many organizations, “monitoring and evaluation ” is something that that is

seen as a donor requirement rather than a management tool. Donors are
certainly entitled to know whether their money is being properly spent, and
whether it is being well spent. But the primary (most important) use of
monitoring and evaluation should be for the organization or project itself to see
how it is doing against objectives, whether it is having an impact, whether it is
working efficiently, and to learn how to do it better.

Plans are essential but they are not set in concrete (totally fixed). If they are not
working, or if the circumstances change, then plans need to change too.
Monitoring and evaluation are both tools which help a project or organization
know when plans are not working, and when circumstances have changed.
They give management the information it needs to make decisions about the
project or organization, about changes that are necessary in strategy or plans.
Through this, the constants remain the pillars of the strategic framework: the
problem analysis, the vision, and the values of the project or organization.
Everything else is negotiable. Getting something wrong is not a crime. Failing
to learn from past mistakes because you are not monitoring and evaluating, is.

The effect of monitoring and evaluation can be seen in the following cycle. Note
that you will monitor and adjust several times before you are ready to evaluate
and re-plan.
Monitoring involves:

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Level IV TTLM for Plan and Organize Work

 Establishing indicators of efficiency, effectiveness and impact;

 Setting up systems to collect information relating to these indicators;
 Collecting and recording the information;
 Analyzing the information;
 Using the information to inform day-to-day management.

Monitoring is an internal function in any project or organization.

Evaluation involves:

 Looking at what the project or organization intended to achieve – what

difference did it want to make? What impact did it want to make?
 Assessing its progress towards what it wanted to achieve, its impact
targets.
 Looking at the strategy of the project or organization. Did it have a
strategy? Was it effective in following its strategy? Did the strategy work?
If not, why not?
 Looking at how it worked. Was there an efficient use of resources? What
were the opportunity costs (see Glossary of Terms) of the way it chose to
work? How sustainable is the way in which the project or organization
works? What are the implications for the various stakeholders in the way
the organization works?

Work plans and implementation are reviewed based on accurate,

relevant and current information and this review is done based on the
outcome of the work and feedback from different stakeholders. The
results of review are provided to concerned parties to be used as the basis
for adjustments/simplifications to be made to policies, process and
activities. Work performance evaluation should be conducted based on
organization rules and regulations and the report of this evaluation
should be documented as per the requirement of the organization. Finally
recommendations based on the result of the evaluation are presented to
appropriate personnel.
Considerations when developing a monitoring and evaluation framework

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Asking questions:
 What are the objectives of the monitoring activities?
 What are the specific questions that need to be asked to gauge the
progress of the intervention?
 What information is needed to see if activities are being implemented in
the way that was planned, and who can provide that information?
 What are the objectives of the evaluation?
 What are the specific questions that need to be answered to gauge the
impact and success of the intervention?
 What information is needed to determine if the expected objectives and
outcomes were accomplished and who can provide that information?
 Determining whether the questions being asked are appropriate ones for
understanding how “successful” the intervention has been with respect
to its expected objectives and outcomes?

Feedback:
People have a right to have their voices heard in judging our response to their
emergency. Asking for the views of the affected population can help us
understand the difference we are making during the course of the response,
and not just at the end of a project, or when the crisis is over (GEG)

Complaint:
A complaint is a grievance made by an individual(s) who believes that a
humanitarian agency has failed to meet a stated commitment. This
commitment can relate to a programme or project plan, beneficiary selection,
an activity schedule, a standard of technical performance, an organisational
value, a legal requirement, or any other point. Less serious complaint may
relate to poor quality or performance, more serious complaint to fraud, abusive
behaviour or sexual exploitation (HAP)

Whilst a complaint in itself is negative (a grievance), making and complaint and

seeking redress can be a positive process.

Challenges, lessons learned and suggestions for good practice

Complaints procedures can be simple, although they need to be carefully
planned and follow certain key principles. A badly designed or managed
complaints procedure can be harmful. Here are 10 discussion points and
suggestions for good practice to help establish a complaints mechanism
- That is appropriate
- That is safe
- That is well understood
- That promotes transparency
- That is timely
- That is effective

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Butajra TVET College By:-Selamu G. ICT Sector Trainer
Ethiopian TVET System
Level IV TTLM for Plan and Organize Work

- That is accessible to all

1. Plan and budget for a complaints mechanism from the beginning of an

emergency
2. Build staff awareness and commitment to a complaints mechanism
3. Design a complaints mechanism made up of a range of ways people can
complain
4. Design a complaints mechanism that can handle extreme cases of
fraud and abuse
5. Be clear about the scope of the complaints mechanism and
communicate this clearly
6. Develop a complaints mechanism procedure document and always
follow the established procedure
7. Clearly communicate the complaints mechanism to all key stakeholders
as part of overall information sharing systems
8. Complete the feedback loop: use the complaints data to improve overall
performance and to provide feedback to communities (two way
communication and feedback)
9. Be clear on roles and responsibilities in managing complaints, and
provide adequate training and support to staff
10. Monitor the complaints mechanism to verify that it is effective

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Butajra TVET College By:-Selamu G. ICT Sector Trainer