Helping with Adventurer Party Management - Chapter 395

“It seems like there’s a lot of work involved in the investigation. How do you plan to handle it?”

“We’ve assigned one person to each task. We’re dividing the workload accordingly, so the burden on any one individual should be light.”

“Is there a chance that the workload might still end up unevenly distributed?”

“We’re tracking the total number of workdays to ensure that no one is overburdened.”

I see. Just from this answer, it’s clear that Claudio and the other new officials are getting the hang of this system.

“So there shouldn’t be any imbalance in the tasks themselves. But have you checked for bias in the timeline?”

“What do you mean?”

“It looks like you’re calculating each person’s total workload over the entire period—but have you checked if, on any specific day, one person might be overloaded? For example, on the seventh day of your investigation plan, it looks like you’d need three Rodolphes to get everything done. Try arranging the tasks on the board by day, and look at them vertically. That way, you can see if the work is being concentrated too heavily on a specific person at any given time.”

“Arrange the tasks by day and examine them vertically… I see, that’s another way to use it. I hadn’t thought of that. This method really goes deep.”

“To take it a step further, that approach will also be useful when estimating the number of laborers needed during the actual development phase. Since the village’s labor force is limited, you’ll need to total the tasks being done in parallel on any given day and make sure they don’t exceed the daily labor capacity.”

“You’re right. We’ll revisit the calculations and factor in the daily labor cap during development planning.”

While Claudio was responding to my feedback, Paperino was jotting everything down.

“Is there anything else you’d like to point out?”

“No, nothing in particular. I think it’s a well-structured plan, especially given the short preparation time.”

The new officials looked pleased with my response.

“Then, may I continue?”

“Ah, next is the management section.”

“I’ll take that,” said Paperino, stepping forward.

As expected of a clergyman, he seemed comfortable speaking in front of others and handling discussions. 

Unlike the more excitable Claudio, Paperino began calmly, providing some background context first.

“What I’m going to explain now is the management system for the territory. To be honest, this isn’t something that’s typically required for development, so it was a little confusing for us at first. The specific items in the management plan include: identifying management categories, evaluating farmland productivity, establishing communication systems, setting up transportation methods, creating a system for compiling territorial management reports, and preparing reports for investors. In short, we’ll determine what needs to be managed, provide year-round forecasts for crop yields, build communication and transport infrastructure from the ground up, and generate reports on territory status and special briefings for investors.”

“Isn’t that a lot to manage? Won’t creating all those reports become a burden for whoever’s in charge?”

He was the one who suggested increasing the number of management items, so I wasn’t worried about him backing out of the responsibility. But it’s true that managing too many things can be unworkable in practice.

“To be honest, I’m struggling to narrow them down. I’d appreciate another opportunity to go over the list.”

I liked that Paperino could admit when he was unsure and wasn’t afraid to ask for help.

People with less ability often try to expand the workload or add management items for the sake of appearing competent. That kind of mindset only leads to inefficiency.

To avoid that, it’s important to keep the scope of management lean.

Deciding what to manage—and what not to manage—requires practical experience and a solid understanding of how the management structure fits together logically.

“You’re right. Let’s discuss this again later. Please go on for now.”

The plans and presentations from the new officials were remarkably thorough.

I found myself wondering what Father Nicolo would think if he were watching all this unfold.