Follow Up on Team Building Activities

Hey there,

Follow up on the team building activities.

We had a trip to a nearby province. It was properly arranged to have fun and get together. The idea was to know each other a little personally and also have fun. The finance team collected the money from each participant for the trip and assigned a trip coordinator. The coordinator made the plan.

We started our trip early in the morning. We reached a village near a river, called Daronta, and ate our lunch there. This place is famous for its fish so we all ordered fish. Later, we went to main city. We found a good play ground and started playing cricket and soccer. We were playing until evening. In the evening we went to a swimming pool and enjoyed swimming. Afterwards, it was time for dinner. We went to a local restaurant which was also built across a river. The restaurant was famous for a dish, called Karai, which is close to fried lamb. After the dinner, we had tea- a very typical Afghan drink. The point is that we drunk a lot of tea, almost three glasses each, and chit-chat during drinking. It was amazing. All the project team was there and everyone was laughing and cracking jokes. We stayed for the night there and the next day we went to see some of the famous places in the city. We came around 9:00 PM.

Today, we watched the photos of the trip on a projector. We all sat together during lunch and shared some of the memories. It was really great.

I can feel how effective is these type of team building activities. The personnel are working nicely with each other and can ask for help without hesitance. I am sure there will be increase in their productivity as well. 

Regards,

Javid

A Little More About Finance

Hi!

A little more about finance!

It is now end of the financial year here. Our project director was quite happy yesterday. He informed everyone that they were able to spend the amount of money that they intended to spend for this year. They gave their final reports to Ministry of Agriculture and Finance Ministry. There is no money left with the project.

The point is that our budgeting system is very traditional. Recently, we introduced program based budgeting but still we widely use traditional budgeting. In traditional budgeting, the budget of this year is made based on the expenses of last year so if once could spend its entire budget this year, will get the same amount of money or probably more for next year. That’s why our project director was happy because he could demand more money as he had already spent what is there in the project.

I still have that question in mind if really have to think about budgets in that nature.  I believe efficiency and goal achievement should be a concern but not spending money.    

Regards,

Javid

More Finance!

Hey!

Talking about finance, there are some very small but important lessons. The project that I am working in is part of a government organization. Therefore, it has to obey all government rules and regulations. Interestingly, finance rules and regulations are very tricky and strict. One has to be very careful with the wording of its documents and make sure not to spend money on items which are not allowed to buy. The interesting point here is that some items are not allowed to be bought under specific terms. These terms reflect luxury items and we cannot buy luxury items in government budgets. For example, we cannot buy couch under the name of “couch or sofa”. This reflects a luxury item. However, we can buy the same thing under the name of furniture but put the specification in a way that reflects couch. The point is that we should not mention couch or sofa.

Internship is really enriching experience.    

Regards,

Javid

Small But Important Point

Hello Once Again!

I have learned something very small but important today so I thought I should share it with everyone. As an internee I get the chance to work in various departments in the project. I have been working with Finance Department lately. There is an important point that I learned about quotations.

Whenever the office wants to buy something that costs over 100$, there should be three quotations taken from the market. The system is that we should choose the lowest price that offers the same quality. I understood this part from my studies. However, I saw some quotations being rejected by the Controls Office. So, I asked the finance officer about the reason and he said, “All these quotations should have been taken by a committee of three people. Three people should sign on these quotations but there is only one signature so these are rejected”. This was new but very important. We do not learn this during our studies. We should work to learn them, shouldn’t we?  

Regards,

Javid

Team Building Activities

Hello All!

During my internship experience, I have also seen some effective team building activities. I said in my previous post that the project director is very good in his communication. Meanwhile, he has strong team building competencies. He is trying to have a coherent team and he does it successfully.

Recently, he introduced two team building and socializing activities. First one was cooking. The project team decided that once in every week two employees will cook for the entire project team. Actually the idea came from the project director and everyone agreed. Now on Mondays, two employees cook for all the staff. It really creates a very friendly environment. Second activity is of picnic. A staff proposed that project team should go on picnics every month so they have the chance to know each other beyond official boundaries. The project director agreed but decided to have the picnic every three months. The team is going on its first picnic this weekend. We are hopeful that it will create more trust and confidence amongst the team members.

Regards,

Javid

Is Communication Vital?

Hello!

Is communication really important?

We always read and hear about communications. It is always said that communication is very important for project managers and directors. In our country there is a saying, “The wound given by a sword will heal but the wound given by a tongue will never”.  What the saying really emphasis is that you have to be careful about what you say because if you say one wrong word, you may regret it all your life.

I have watched my project director during my internship. His communication skills are excellent. I am witness of his success in problem solving and informing different stakeholders on time. There is another sister project to this project in the same organization but the project manager does not have good communication. They are poured with problems. The project director of that project is a very nice guy but his communication skills are very poor. He gets into trouble very often.

The important aspect of the communication is that it is partly science and partly arts. You can learn some of the basics and that makes it science. But there are so many parts that you need to practice to master them and that makes it an art. The art section of communication, probably that important and difficult one, can be only learnt when you are in real life scenarios.

Regards,

Javid