Activity 1-2: Managing My Life

Purpose:Participants will identify the essential dimensions of the management process. They will recognize the management tasks they perform at home and in Head Start.

Materials:

Handout 2: The Dimensions of Management
Handout 3: Performing Management Activities at Home and at Work

Introduce Activity



1. Explain to the participants that everyone uses management skills at work and at home. In this activity, they will identify the management tasks that they perform.
   
   Ask For Examples
   
   

2. Ask the participants to think of what they do to manage their daily tasks and responsibilities at home and at work. Some examples include:
   

   • Writing to do lists
     
   • Scheduling and attending meetings
     
   • Following up on assignments and projects
     
   • Balancing a checkbook
     
   • Asking friends to help with projects
     

   
   Explain Management Dimensions
   
   
3. Refer to the Background Information and review Handout 2: The Dimensions of Management. Emphasize the following points:
   
   
   • Plan. Set goals, determine objectives, and develop strategies to attain those objectives.
     
     
   • Organize. Divide work into specific tasks and responsibilities. Create organizational structures and processes that support a team approach. Schedule work distribution. Develop flow charts.
     
     
   • Influence. Direct, motivate, lead, delegate, and collaborate with staff, parents and other agencies. Recruit, train, and develop staff and parents.
     
     
   • Evaluate. Set standards and checkpoints for work or tasks. Measure and evaluate for planning purposes. Develop self- assessments and quality improvement plans. Review budget records and produce reports.
   
   
   Give Examples of Managing at Home
   
   
4. Distribute Handout 3: Performing Management Activities at Home and at Work. Ask the participants to think about a personal goal that they have achieved and the steps they followed.
   
   Referring to the handout, explain how to complete the exercise. Suggested example:
   
   At the beginning of the school year, a Head Start parent arranged after-school care for her school-age child for two hours each day. The management tasks she performed to do this are in Handout 3.
   
   Ask participants to list on the handout the planning, organizing, influencing, and evaluating tasks that they have performed to achieve their personal goals.
   
   Give Examples of Managing at Work
   
   
5. Discuss with participants the activities that they perform to accomplish their responsibilities at work. Responses can include:
   
   
   • Getting to work on time
     
   • Organizing workloads
     
   • Participating in team meetings
     
   • Setting priorities
     
   
   Help the participants categorize their daily activities into the four management dimensions—planning, organizing, influencing, and evaluating.
   
   Discuss Challenges
   
   
6. Examine with participants the challenges that they encounter at home and at work for each management dimension.
   
   Examples of challenges can include:
   
   
   • Planning: lack of time
     
     
   • Organizing: lack of needed resources
     
     
   • Influencing: lack of support, lack of trust in another person's ability to complete tasks
     
     
   • Evaluating: lack of measurement tools, lack of documentation Ask for examples of how participants handle these challenges.
     
   
   Summarize
   
   
7. Summarize this exercise by emphasizing that everyone applies the dimensions of management at home and at work. Everyone strives daily to effectively use management skills to reach his or her goals.

Activity 1-3 | Activity 1-1 | Module 1| Index