The group is departing in 2 days! It is crazy to think that we are at the halfway mark in the semester and the hard work is starting to pay off. Our group is working with a nonprofit organization called Nature Seekers. Their mission is to conserve the beaches of Matura and create a more sustainable environment by working with the community to protect wildlife and the environment.
Nature Seekers is an extremely important organization to the local community. In Matura during the 1980-90s there was a major problem with poaching leatherback sea turtles. Originally, Nature Seekers aimed to combat this by educating poachers on the harmful effect of poaching through seminars and programs, but now their mission has expanded beyond that. They now have volunteer opportunities for visitors, turtle watching/tagging, kayaking, and more excursions. Their mission brought the community together to benefit the people, animals, and environment of Matura.
From the few virtual communications we had with Nature Seekers staff, they are very friendly and eager to work with us. They have worked with Pitt for many years, and they always have a great project for students to work on during this program.
Our project is focused on finding a free or low-cost booking system for them to implement that is easy to manage all reservations and transactions. As of right now, there is no direct way to book reservations or excursions through the website. This can cause some confusion, as potential clients might not know if their booking is confirmed, as there is no confirmation email after payment. As of right now, bookings are completed through phone calls with Nature Seekers.
We are also going to propose website improvements, so potential clients can navigate through their offerings and book easily, which in turn, would boost customer engagement. For example, there is a section of the website dedicated to tracking tagged turtles. This is not consistently updated, but would be a great way for potential or returning clients to stay engaged with them. Also, we are going to encourage them to add more photos to the website pages, as well as featuring their donation section.
While I am unfortunately unable to participate in the in-country portion of the program, our group does have a set of great goals! After compiling a list of about 12 potential booking systems, we plan to present what we think are the best 3-5 options to them in-country in hopes to gauge if we are heading in the right direction for the final presentation. Secondly, we want to discuss the website with them, and things we noticed that could be improved for easier usability. Third, the group wants to be involved and help in any way we can, whether that is volunteering or behind the scenes work. The in-country portion of this program will help us to solidify our scope and deliverables based on their specific needs and what we observe.
Some cultural norms that I would expect to be a challenge for the group would be communication style and time management. In Trinidad, the pace of work is much slower, but there is an emphasis on forming and maintaining personal relationships with everyone. I would imagine there would be more time dedicated to getting to know everyone through an offered excursion before we start to propose potential deliverables. The difference in communication styles is not so much a challenge in my opinion, but rather an adjustment to our standards. Time management is also something that I think would be challenging. One thing brought up in class a lot was island time, and how things do not feel as urgent as they typically would in the United States. The business culture in America, in my opinion, is very transactional and fast, with little to no room for genuine relationships, unless it is a guaranteed long lasting partnership. I am interested to see how it differs in Trinidad, especially since the time we are there is not only dedicated to working on the project, rather the majority is for experiencing what Nature Seekers has to offer.
During class time, we primarily focus on discussions around various readings in preparation for the in-country visit. I have enjoyed all of them thus far, but the ones that impacted me the most up until this point in class are “Ethics in Project Management” by Craig Brown, “Top Project Team Challenges,” and “Top 10 Characteristics of an Effective Project Team” by Tricia Gross. These readings are very similar, with the main principle being how someone is an effective team member while creating a good work environment. During the class discussions, there was a lot of back and forth about what it means to be a good communicator in group settings in order to maximize their skills. These discussions were great for preparing how we want and/or need to communicate with our client before, during, and after the in country visit.
Not only was communication brought up a lot, but group expectations, standards, and values. Personally, respect and communication are my top values, as my best relationships thrive off this. It was interesting to see what my group members and other groups had to say during these discussions, as it determines how the group will function together.
I think these three articles were the best ones to prepare us for this course. Coming into the class, I only knew two people, which can be intimidating, especially when expected to complete a semester-long project. While the content in the articles was valuable, I think the “unspoken” exercise talking with the whole class about what is important to someone while working in teams, what they need or expect from their fellow members, and what challenges they foresee during this programs was a great way to bring our group together.
While I am already having a bad case of FOMO for this trip, I am really looking forward to seeing what the group comes back with, and I cannot wait to start putting together our presentation!