Tips for pro
bono OR projects
The Third Sector Special Interest Group met in October to hear about the
experiences of a pro bono O.R. project from both the volunteer providing
analytical support and the social enterprise he worked with. Ian Seath of
Improvement Skills consulting and Amanda Briden of Participle both offered
lessons learned from their pro bono O.R. project, providing some useful tips
for those offering and receiving pro bono O.R. support.
Three top tips from Ian were:
·
Give the same commitment to pro bono
projects as you would to your day job.
Ian says: “I believe it’s important not to treat these projects as “free
consulting” and something to be fitted into a busy schedule if there’s
time. These are “proper” assignments and
need to be managed in the same way you would any other client engagement. Sticking to deadlines agreed with the client
are particularly important, otherwise you might send the signal that you are
just “fitting it in” around other projects.”
·
Don’t overload the pro bono work with
excessive project management.
Ian says: “In my experience, some of the organisations I’ve worked with have
been relatively “immature” in their management thinking and therefore a light
touch approach to project management is called for. More informal approaches and regular
communication about progress tend to work better than the use of project
templates and formality.”
·
Be clear about the nature of the
volunteering role.
Ian says: “It’s really important to have a discussion early on about the type
of role the client expects you to play.
Do they want you as a “pair of hands”, an “expert”, or do they want to
work collaboratively and work out joint solutions? That discussion can help avoid any
misunderstandings or mis-matched expectations.”
Ian also
reflected that pro bono O.R. brought benefits to the analyst providing support
as well as to the organisation being supported: “I really enjoy working with
people who both need and want help, and who are very appreciative of the sort
of support they wouldn’t normally be able, or prepared, to pay for. The diversity of the Third Sector also makes
it fascinating and offers an incredibly broad range of opportunities to work
with interesting people on worthwhile projects.”
Ian’s
presentation is now available on the Third Sector SIG pages of the OR Society
website.
Three top tips from Amanda were:
·
Work with the right volunteer.
Amanda asks herself: “Will this person be flexible? Can they handle changes to the scope of the
work and moving deadlines? Are they
willing to travel to meet you? Do they
want to participate in your service to better understand the work that they are
helping move forward? Are they motivated
to produce a final product and document the key decisions that were made to
reach it?”
·
Provide the right incentives.
Before they start, Amanda likes to ask volunteers: “What do you want to get out
of the experience?” She makes an effort
to deliver on this in order to ensure that the experience is not only valuable
to the organisation, but also to those offering pro bono support.
·
Build in lead time.
Amanda says that in the future, she’ll coordinate earlier and more consistently
with internal and external stakeholders so that their inputs and feedback can
be captured in a timely fashion. She would
like to minimise the amount of time volunteers are put ‘on hold’ waiting for key
decisions to be made.
Note:
Participle is a social enterprise
based in London which works with and for the public to create new types of
public services that make a real difference in everyday lives - designing,
developing and taking to scale innovative solutions to social challenges.
Improvement Skills is a
consulting firm which encourages its employees to offer one day a month as pro
bono support to third sector organisations.
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