During our first short-term joint staff training event, in Pocuvadlo, Slovakia, youth workers and volunteers from PT, HU, SK and CZ, developed competences in online collaborative tools and how to integrate them in their youth work. Namely, participants discussed between a series of tools (Microsoft Teams, Planner, Google Docs, One Drive, Google Drive, to mention a few) and how would be the best way to incorporate them efficiently in their youth work. Together they established a common approach on working procedures, quality assurance and management that can be set in the work of the NGOs.

We started by some team building activities. Even though most of us have worked together in the past, we took this chance to also exchange good practices and methods between each other. For that we counted with the great assistance of the instructors from STAGEMAN who led us in a series of outdoors team building activities.

We then dived deeper into the topic learning more about online collaborative environments like Office 365 or G-suite and discussing among each other how this could be helpful and bring efficiency to implementation of Erasmus+ Projects and their international collaboration contexts. Members from OS introduced the participants to tools like Microsoft Teams for online communication, Microsoft Planner for Project Management and task assignment/tracking, Microsoft Forms and systems like Google Drive, One Drive, Sharepoint or Google Docs for file sharing and collaborative writing. We were all introduced and explored the possibilities within the Erasmus+ Programme digital platforms to collaborate online, namely Webforms and Mobility Tool and how its access can be shared to allow for a better collaboration when project writing and implementation.

With these tools we are believers that only good things can come. By making our work more efficient we have the possibility of generating more impact on our communities and target groups. Excited we were with these new possibilities, we finished by discussing how we could set up working procedures and standards in our NGOs and its operations as well as improve our communication. We planned some of the follow-up activities, namely how we will organize the filming of tutorials during the next few months before the implementation of both M2 and C2 or what activities to implement in our communities.

Our second short-term joint staff training event took place in Praia da Areia Branca in Portugal. For a week youth workers from PT, HU, SK and CZ, worked in developing their efficiency in project management and the use of online collaborative tools in youth work. We focused on how we can improve our work with a more systematic approach. Using tools like Microsoft Visio and Microsoft Project we learned how to design systems and processes that can help raising the efficiency of our youth work.

In a first stage we focused on team building using non-formal methods to introduce new participants and getting the right energy to start working. Our partners from SK were in charge of facilitating some of these funny moments.

In a second stage we learned how most of our work can be divided into systems. Having this systematic approach we can better assess which of our processes are efficient, we can identify bottlenecks in those processes and gradually and continuously improve them. During a very fun exercise called “Paper Plane Factory”, divided in teams, we had to produce a number of planes with different characteristics in a short period of time. In every round teams were given more information, time to assess what failed and the chance to change their systems.

Many paper planes later we all managed to understand not only the importance of good systems but also what are the core aspects of system and process design.

We then set out to explore different tools that can help in system design, process design, but also in planning and monitoring projects. Our partners from Hungary taught the rest of us how to use Microsoft Visio to visually design a process. The ability to deconstruct a process, to see all the tasks and links between that compose them helps us realize where there is potential for failure, allowing us to organize and improve the system. We then learned how we can use tools like Microsoft Project or similar Gantt chart tools to increase the quality in our planning. The ability to deconstruct a project in a work breakdown structure, to calculate resource allocation and to measure dependencies, among others can improve not only our planning but also the level in which we can track progress, a major advantage when it comes to evaluation and reporting.

A very productive week where we had the chance to build our partnerships, to strengthen our work as a team in a remote network environment. By setting quality standards and equipping all organizations with the same tools, we can all be on the same page, allowing our work to be more organized and more professional.

A Cool Collaboration is formed, ready to tackle the challenges of a certainly challenging future.