Managing Sammaan

It has been nearly 4 months since I took over as project manager of Sammaan. The timing of this threw me head first into the hardware tendering process and this milestone has dominated a majority of my time until now, as we prepare for the release of the final pending tenders: the 60 community toilets in Bhubaneswar. This milestone should be achieved by the end of February if all goes as it is currently planned.

When I was initially approached with the opportunity to take on the project management responsibilities, my primary concern was simply getting up to speed as quickly as possible with the technical aspects of the project. My background is in communications, and I still head up managing such on Sammaan, so my exposure to engineering, architecture, waste management, and the like has been severely limited, if not completely nonexistent in my professional life. That said, and this is one of the true bright spots of having a multi-stakeholder engagement, we have field experts heading up the work on these streams, limiting my role to managing their efforts in respect to the broader project timelines.

It is in this timeline management that the greatest learnings, and frustrations, have occurred, at least for me personally. I am one of the only foreigners working on Project Sammaan, and am the only such person on the “hardware” side of the initiative. (That is to say, the design and infrastructure side of Sammaan “software” entails the post-construction research and operations activities). This is my first foray in living and working in India, having spent most of my career to this point in various capacities throughout the United States. As such, I’ve had to adapt a bit to the Indian context while also applying some of the professional approaches that served me well in America.

One of the primary hurdles that we’ve had to overcome as a team has been adhering to project timelines. As has been written about at length in this blog, the project has faced considerable, and unexpected, challenges along the way, most notably those surrounding sewerage and waste management. These issues had the ripple effect of impeding progress on other workstreams, which was frustrating for partners and led to the team facing some difficult questions regarding how best to move forward.

My previous professional experiences had one unifying quality to them: a clear understanding of what needed to be done, when, and by whom. In taking over the project manager responsibilities, it became immediately clear that this level of transparency was somewhat lacking. This is understandable to a certain degree given the number of stakeholders, their corresponding workstreams, and the length of time that this project will take to complete. That said, it was apparent that the team needed to operate with a better understanding of the interdependencies that exist between most activities; we could ill afford to continue with project partners operating in a vacuum, unaware of the implications that delays in one activity had on others, and the project as a whole.

To address this, the team decided that what was most needed was two-fold:

1. To have a project manager spending most of their time in Bhubaneswar working closely with the field partners and local municipal corporations while also representing the interests of the stakeholders based in Delhi, and beyond

2. To develop a better approach to managing, and communicating, the project’s timelines that would provide greater transparency and accountability while also ensuring all partners understood the impact their work had on the project as a whole.

Accomplishing the first point has led to me spending upwards of three weeks a month based in Bhubaneswar and the rest of the time in Delhi, Bangalore, or wherever is most needed for the good of the project. Achieving the second point has required a great deal of micromanaging at the onset, but doing so has begun to bear fruit despite the growing pains experienced along the way. My experience in America’s corporate culture has led to a far more confrontational approach than is typical here, leading to some uncomfortable exchanges. That said, and to the team’s credit, everyone collectively acknowledged that the status quo was ineffective and change was needed; people have been responsive to my approach, which I’ve learned to temper a bit with more “carrot” and less “stick”.

What has also been an exceptional experience, personally, has been the interactions with our government partners. I have experience in advertising sales and marketing and am often struck by the parallels between that experience and my current work. Both are predicated on the need to develop personal relationships and familiarity, and doing so with our government partners has led to some incredible conversations and has really heightened my time here in India, personally and professionally. It is by no means an easy context to work in, and doing so successfully has been richly rewarding.

Various project partners have commented that they feel a greater sense of team spirit now that there is a bridge between those working in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack and those working further afield. This increased sense of camaraderie has seen progress made more quickly than what we experienced before and, subsequently, has improved the overall mood amongst the partners. It’s been very meaningful to me to be a part of this transition, especially since the increased pace in which the project progresses means the communities that need these facilities the most will receive them that much sooner.