Start a project

Starting your project

Problems and answers

There’s a bit of a circle here in that the more you know, the better the answer you can think up, the more you see where there’s more you need to find out, and so you end up knowing more… Eventually you end up with something you feel you can take to other people.

• Have an answer. You could say ‘have an idea’, but using the word ‘answer’ concentrates your thoughts on fixing something.

• Is your answer needed? What in your community does it fix? How does it help the big picture? Is there something that isn’t being done that should be, and your answer will do it? Is there a harm being done (a ‘footprint’) that your answer would stop? Ask around. Do other people in the community wish what you’re proposing would happen?

• Do your research. Know your community. What works there as a way of getting things done? What’s realistic? What’s the local take on what the key issues are? Who historically has tried getting things done? Could you talk to them, learn from them? Is someone already trying to put your answer or something like it into action? Could you team up? Would you do it better?

Getting some friends involved

Nobody makes a project happen on their own. The first people you bring in are the key people, the ones who believe in your project and will put in the slog to make it better than you could’ve alone, and get it to being a proper proposal.

• You’re the leader of this. You thought it up, you’ve got the picture in your head of where it’s going. You might not stay the leader, you might not like being a leader, but for now you’re it, and you’ll have to act like one.

• Find people who see the same problems and opportunities that you do. Pick people you know you can rely on in a crunch, people with useful skills you don’t yourself have. Go outside the comfort zone of the people you know well – be inclusive, ask people you know in the community that’d be very interested in seeing you be a success. Put a Help Request out through our CAN. It’ll be really helpful later if you have a wide variety of people from the community involved.

• See what you have the ability to do. Be honest and realistic, looking at the people you’ve got, what have you the skills and talents to do well? Are there skills you need to find to add to your team? Start figuring out who’ll be responsible for what.

• Make your project a thing that everybody owns. Other people’s ideas add to the mix and make it stronger. This needs to be a passion for all of you.

Doodling a rough plan

It’s time to start roughing out the basics of a plan.

• What’s the benefit? Who’s going to benefit from your project – in what ways? What targets are you setting? How will you know you’re on course for them? Will the benefits be spread fairly and broadly through the community? Will they make a contribution to overcoming the climate, nature and sustainability crises? Is your project value for money? Could you have a bigger impact doing something else?

• How are you getting the community behind you? Communication – how, when, what? Promotion – to who and why, can you get the media involved? What are you going to say to who? Sell the project.

• Things do go wrong. What are the things that have to go right? What are the things that will slow you down? Where are the blockages and uncertainty? What’s the paperwork? Which things do you need to keep under your own control?

• Timeline. When do you start? When do you finish? What are the important milestones?

• Stuff. People, places, things, money, goodwill, backing – what do you have? What do you need, and how are you going to get it? (Help Request anyone?) Are you going to need to do fund-raising and such like?

Making your plan something others will support

You’ve got to get this thing off the drawing board now. Make your project plan something that’ll get others joining in once you get going – look out for any convincers that you can include:

• What other projects and goals will your project help happen? Is it influential?

• You’re flexible, and can adapt to any opportunities that come along.

• You’re collaborative, with lots of different people involved.

• It’s easy for your project to go big if it’s more successful than you imagined.

• You’ve kept things simple, there’s very little to go wrong.

• You’ve got some quick wins, so the results start coming in early on.