Participants use a checklist and outline to select and prioritize actions needed to implement a project.
Purpose
To design an action plan for a project related to education for sustainability.
Group size: 2 to 10 participants.
Time Needed: 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Materials
- Results from Stoplight, Inventory of Support and Resistance, and Commitment Charting exercises.
- Action Plan worksheet [web version] [pdf version]
- Sample Action Plan worksheet.
- Pens or pencils.
Directions
- Write the name of the project in the space provided on the worksheet. Complete a short description of the project. Write the goal of the action plan. To complete the action plan, use the results from the following exercises:
- Stoplight
- Inventory of Support and Resistance
- Commitment Charting
- Complete the Action Plan worksheet. Consider the following
questions and write your answers in the blanks provided on the worksheet:
- What are the main tasks necessary to accomplish this project?
- Are some tasks complex enough to require sub-tasks? If so, what are they?
- Who is responsible for each task?
- How will we manage overall coordination among tasks and sub-tasks?
- What will we use for milestones for each task and for the overall success of the project?
- How will the project coordinator track progress?
- Discuss the following questions to evaluate the action plan. If the answer is "No" for any of the questions, use the exercises Examining Assumptions and Steering Around the Barriers. Then revise the action plan, and repeat completion of the Action Plan worksheet.
- Does the team understand the steps necessary for this project?
- Does the team have the skills needed for this project?
- Does the team have the courage to carry out this project?
- Does the team have the time needed to carry out the action plan for this project?
- Does the team have all the other resources needed to carry through this project effectively?
- Does the team have the political clout to carry out the action plan for this project?
- Does the team have the interest and enthusiasm necessary to carry out the action plan for this project?
- Does this action plan need to go out for wider review? If "No," then begin implementation of the action plan. If "Yes," then discuss and consider the following questions:
- Who is the audience for appraising your initial plan?
- What methods will you use to check with the consituency and stakeholders about the progress on this project?
- What methods will you use to check with the consituency and stakeholders about success on this project?
- What plans do you have for revising the initial plan if feedback indicates a need for change?
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Sources Gateway
Center for Resource Efficiency Ð A Division of the Missouri Botanical
Garden. The 8-Step Action Plan. Hungerford, Harold, and Trudi Volk, John Ramsey, Ralph Literland, and R. Ben Peyton. Solid Thinking About Solid Waste: An Environmental Curriculum for Grades Six to Nine. 1992. Kraft General Foods Environmental Institute. Northfield, Illinois. Institute
for Sustainable Communities (ISC), in cooperation with the Regional
Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC). February
2000. "Introduction: What is a Local Environmental Action Program?"
In: Guide to Implementing Local Environmental Action Programs.
LEAP Ð Local Environmental Action Programs in Central and Eastern
Europe. Report financed by the United States Environmental Protection
Agency, in cooperation with the United States Agency for International
Development. Sustainability
Team of The Nottingham City Council, Roger Hawkins, Brian Parburr,
et al. July 2001. "Changing Our City, Changing Ourselves, or
What we can do to make a cleaner, greener, safer, healthier Nottingham."
In: Changing Our City, Changing Ourselves: Nottingham's Local
Agenda 21 Plan. Nottingham, UK. |
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