How to Succeed as a Task Manager: Responsibility, Kindness, and Communication
The journey at Omdena had been one of its kind. From starting as a Junior ML Engineer to becoming a Lead ML engineer over the span of two months has been something which has resulted in the positive development of my character both professionally and personally.
Omdena has provided us a platform where we had the chance to leap beyond the horizon. What I thought was the limit of abilities turned out to be the initial point of my knowledge. The ability to showcase patience, compassion and a sense of responsibility towards my fellow contributors was something we had always heard in the moral messages, however, when implemented in practical scenarios these qualities can mold the situations in the overall development of the ecosystem in which a person is working.
What is Omdena?
Omdena is an organization that is upholding the virtues of AI for Social Good. Omdena is a social enterprise and a collaborative platform to build innovative, ethical, and efficient AI solutions to real-world problems. Omdena helps various AI engineers and data scientists to meet organizations that introduce them to problems that require an overall change and improvisations.
The value of their collaborative projects is that organizations get access to up to 50 AI engineers and data scientists. This helps an organization to get a head start into AI, solve a real-world problem, overcome data challenges, and build deployable solutions within a short time frame of a couple of months.
My background before joining Omdena
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. However, this first step is the most important of them all. A common dream amongst all students is to build a future where they can make an impact with the knowledge they have amassed in the technical line, and I a third-year Btech student pursuing Computer Engineering was no different. Being of a lazy disposition I always thought that making machines do my work would help me discover my laziness even further., therefore I started discovering the fields of AI and ML. But something that started out of mere curiosity and boredom soon turned out to be a field of great interest and before I knew it, I had become a budding AI enthusiast. The deeper I went the more I released the intricacies of the field and the dynamics of it, as a result, the technical nuances of this field became more and more charming.
In order to further discover my newly acquired knowledge and enthusiasm, I started looking on LinkedIn regarding various job opportunities related to data science. People often hesitate to try new things and take risks until and unless they are fully prepared and what I am going to say next might seem a little far-fetched. However, I believe that one should always have confidence in their own skills, this has always been my driving force and also the reason why I finally became active on LinkedIn after two years of my college. Through various searches related to AI I ended up studying AI for social good and upon further research came across Omdena. This belief of mine not only made a huge impact made me a better engineer but also changed me as a person and a leader.
The Project Hierarchy
The complete project is supervised by a Project Manager who stays in constant touch with the client about the progress of the team and also caters to the specific requirements of the client. Since Omdena has an open system where everyone has the freedom to initiate a sub-task for the complete project, it can help in the overall benefit of the final results. These subtasks are under the supervision of a Task Manager who works towards establishing a path to success and also act as a communication bridge between the subtask and the project manager.
Omdena begins……
“Trust the System”
This phrase summarizes my whole experience in my first project with Omdena. Every experience has its shares of ups and downs this forms the basis of learnings that has an impact on our lives on atomic levels. The project began on 20th August 2020 with Save The Children hosting an orientation for all the collaborators at 14 UTC (which eventually became our weekly team meeting time as well). In the orientation, we were briefed about the problem of online child abuse materials and how the organizations around the world needed state-of-the-art AI solutions to actually stop the problem and along with it understand the various analytical insights and details about the issue at the global platform.
The first impression is the most important, maybe this was the reason why the first day was chaotic since every collaborator was trying to make an impact by creating tasks that they believed could benefit the overall project. I was no different, however, my previous background knowledge in application development and active experiences from various Hackathon turned out to be useful and I was able to form a task which comprised of analyzing victim chats to make an external tool that could analyze an ongoing chat and warn the user if it was appropriate to move ahead with the conversations. After a week's anticipation, the task was joined by various collaborators and soon we had our first meet where we met each other talked about the problem statement we had given ourselves and how to move about it. It was also decided that since the Idea had been initiated by me, I should be given the chance to being the Task Manager and that was how I became the Task Manager of an exceptional group of fellow collaborators who eventually came up with an impactful prototype.
The Responsibility
Being a task manager gets its charm from the level of difficulty and sense of responsibility that it poses on oneself. It doesn’t mean that you are the leader but an adhesive that keeps the complete structure intact. Throughout my experience, I suffered fair quantities of setbacks and disappointments but coming back from them to deliver well beyond your expectations is something marvelous and quite satisfactory.
I started this project as a student who had no past experience in managing a technical group. Coming out of your comfort zone is tough in the beginning, chaotic in the middle, and awesome in the end…because in the end, it shows you a whole new world. My initial stage was undoubtedly tough for I felt lost and pressured, various questions arising in my mind. ‘Why did I take the responsibility?’ ‘Will I be capable enough to handle it?’ ‘Everyone has too much knowledge!!!’ ‘Am I contributing enough????’. But the moment you let these questions overcome your self-belief is the day you lose the battle without even trying.
Constant Interaction and Learning holds the key to success
So instead of losing my self-confidence, I started gaining knowledge and interacting with everyone at a personal level so that I can lead them effectively. This formed the basis of my attitude towards the complete project and laid out the establishment of an environment where I was capable of catering to everyone’s needs. To gain the knowledge I started revising basic NLP techniques and also started having conversations with my senior collaborators. This is necessary not because you have to be adept in the field to lead the group but actually it is required to understand everyone’s approach and decide which one is better. The ones who themselves will be weak in concepts will not be able to differentiate right from wrong at the time of decisions which eventually set the path towards our final goal. In my group, I had people who had been working in NLP for quite a few years and after discussing with them about various techniques my tool kit expanded. This helped me realize what were the exact things I had to search on Google to obtain the right answers, at the same time avoid the commonly made mistakes while coding. As a Task Manager it is important to understand that even though we have to manage the team and be on our toes every minute, it should not be the deciding factor of the threshold of your current knowledge. Omdena has given us a chance to actually learn and implement using a real-life project and it will be stupidity on our part to let go of such an opportunity. At every moment staying confident and passionate to learn will make us humble and down to earth and such an attitude is key to collaboration and thus it’s the best strategy to follow and implement.
Hidden charms of diversity
One of the biggest challenges and the most likely one is the diversity of the group in Omdena. My task had collaborators from various regions of the globe having varying skillset from being beginners in NLP to those who had industry level experience and had actually deployed working models. Since we have people from various walks of life it’s always the best approach to actually make them comfortable in their own way. Proper communication if maintained will always come to use at later stages. As a task manager, it becomes an image duty of an individual to be a figure whom everyone can approach freely and without hesitation. This at the same time invokes a sense of responsibility on the Task Manger’s part to give everyone a chance to present their opinion freely without any obstructions. Many times situations can take ugly turns where people might not be comfortable with each other’s approach and aspirations. In such situations, it becomes a duty for the manager to act as a beacon by taking into account every available perspective and goal which doesn’t cater to an individual but actually aligns with what is asked for from the task theme and the client to whom the project belongs. Personal prejudice, overconfidence, and being too proud and adamant to listen will always be the chaos for the group. This is where we have to train our minds to stay calm compose and kind towards everyone. I faced situations where the most hardworking people of my group ended up disagreeing on a fact that might seem nominal but could have an impact from which the complete task couldn’t have overcome. This is when I realized that human emotions need to be respected and also, we need to stay calm. The best weapon one can have is a wide smile and firm yet kind words when it comes to being impartial yet considerate towards everyone in the team. Even if you disagree with someone you have to assure that you allow both sides to vent out their frustration. But at the same time making sure that they don’t confront each other directly to ensure that the situation is under control. This ensures we can get back to a supportive and constructive working environment. The fact that must be kept in mind is that everyone is busy with their professional lives, studies, and even families and thus we must understand the reasons behind everyone’s anguish and try to remain humble. As a Task Manager one should make sure that the fire of support should not burn out for, he/she is the fuel that will keep the fire of Collaboration from getting extinguished.
Communication holds the key….
Communication is a key since it helps in bringing in the viewpoint of other members and also helps in a better outcome which in turn establishes a mutual understanding which is the foundation of any team.
Another important aspect to be highlighted is that every member has the right to choose the aspect of the project they work upon for this is what respect is. It is true that each individual might not be giving their 100% to one task at a time since they participate in meetings just for knowledge and understanding and this individual decision should be respected instead of trying to force work on anyone for the mindset to contribute must come from each individual on their own and such devotions can’t be instilled externally by any Task Manager. However along with the above suggestion, one must also keep in mind that one will always require a set of permanent collaborators who will contribute at all points and time. It is necessary to have this group of people because they are the foundation and thus hold the architecture of your task firmly. These permanent collaborators are the ones who will always be there to handle the worst-case scenario and steer the project in the right direction.
Organizing the task is a priority
The Task Manager has to take responsibility for the task failures and success. One needs to stay active about their progress reports and regularly take updates from every participating member. The regular conductions of meetings, handling and maintaining drives and files on GitHub is an important aspect. It is the duty of the task manager to summarize each and every step on his team and keep updating it on the slack channel so that if some new collaborator is interested in the task it is easy for them to transit into it. This being said, many times the manager has to be answerable for his team and that is where owing up to the responsibility comes in. When a manager presents task reports weekly it is their duty to present it in the best way possible and at the same time keep it simple enough for the project manager and the entire team to get a grasp of it and also answer any doubts that might be arising and here as mentioned above the task of knowing the tech properly comes in. The presentation helps in attracting fellow colleagues to join in your task thus increasing the manpower to carry out the eventual task.
Spread Positivity to the fullest
“Smile and laugh even during the harshest time because it is the best arsenal you have”.
A special emphasis on the word “Smile” since it has the power to snipe through a person’s heart and make them work to their fullest capabilities and skills with a joyful heart. This is important because when anyone hits a rock bottom even a burst of light laughter or a small smile can stir the heart with positivity. We must remember that it is a collaboration with everyone but a cut-throat competition with your own self. Many times the manager will be questioned, lost, and helpless but one must remember it was the responsibility you took and thus try your level best to deliver. The most important thing people tend to forget is that you can’t do it alone and that asking for help doesn’t demean anyone. No one is perfect and everyone has been working hard to deliver.
Many times I didn’t know what was happening, I lost the ways, made mistakes, lost confidence, and also lost the support of the collaborators but still, I tried my best to keep my composure and the smile that I will get done. Luckily, I had help from collaborators who acknowledged this hardworking attitude and helped me deliver in the best way possible. It came down to the edge but we came out as victors. The day we presented our product to the organizations, was the day I with my team accomplished the fruits of the handwork we had put into this complete project.
Signing off……..
Guneet Singh Kohli, Task Manager of Task 4 who worked in the Save the Children Project where we tackled the problem of Online Child Abuse and delivered a chat bot that simulates predatory behaviour and also a line risk analyser that can warn a person if the conversation is going in a direction where it might be unsafe for the child to continue.Thanks for Reading
