|
Hurdles
|
Ways to jump over
them
|
| Loss of funding
|
Determine if the project
warrants further support. If not, revisit the problem;
if so, explain the situation. If the project is actively
supported, participants can ask Congress
for funding and seek other funding sources. |
| Uncertain directions
for the study |
Propose a direction
and purpose for the study.
Ask participants to revise it.
Get management (e.g., Regional Director, Commissioner,
Secretary, Congress) agreement on the modified proposal.
Make sure the authority
and mission allow for proposed
directions. |
| Multiple agencies
with conflicting policies and priorities
|
Communicate.
Make sure everyone understands other issues and perspectives.
Reach agreements on basic objectives and ground
rules.
See if politics and priorities
can change. |
| Unfocused
management or leadership
|
Request clarification
from leadership by drafting a statement of goals
and actions for leaders to revise. |
| Different groups
at different stages of understanding
|
Communicate with each group
to assess the level of awareness and understanding.
Spend time to educate all groups and promote group
interaction so that most are at the same level. |
| Parties entering
in at different stages in the study |
Be prepared to bring each
group or individual up to speed as they become involved.
Keep a basic information packet (including your action
plan) current and provide it to everyone involved.
|
| Conflicting or
uncertain priorities
|
Write out what you see as
the priorities and ask management/leadership/other partners
to clarify these priorities. |
| Uncertain motivation,
competing for team members time and attention.
|
Set a schedule
for completion of tasks and confirm it with all participants.
Determine program's overall priority with decisionmakers
Work with supervisors to schedule resources
Determine what can be done on a catch-as-castch-csan
basis (and regularly remind team members of these secondary
tasks) |
| Loss of morale
or purpose among participants
|
Employ team building
techniques.
Clarify objectives.
Celebrate successes so far.
Break the tasks down into doable parts. Use innovation
(bring donuts, informal appreciative awards, "round
tuits ," etc.) |
| Nonparticipation |
Communicate--figure out
why people are not participating.
Briefly explain where we are, where we are going,
and why.
Request participation. Replace nonparticipants
if possible.
Communicate with the supervisors of internal nonparticipants
to ascertain the difficulty.
Clarify consequences of nonparticipation for both
core team members and
external players.
Make it clear that the process will continue.
|
| Locked into a
solution before analysis
|
Go back and clearly establish
the need and purpose for the process
(e.g., is the action really to build a dam or to provide
a water supply?) |
| Unrealistic objectives
|
Redefine objectives to be meaningful
and realistic within the problem's
context.
Go to the decisionmakers, team members, and other
participants to confirm the modified objectives |
| More than one
vision of the objective
|
Unify the participants around one or
more objectives.
Clearly communicate what each participant sees as
the objective.
Review the authority and
context. Remember that you can't
address every need. |
| Unrealistic constraints
|
Propose changing the constraints
(e.g., propose changing regulations or laws).
Explain why constraints are unrealistic and benefits
that may arise from lifting constraints or compromising
to work around constraints.
Get "buy in" from participants. |
| Unavailable resources
|
Request resources from decisionmakers--explain
why you need them.
Obtain resources through leadership/management or
by adding other groups.
Think about partnerships
or groups addressing similar issues. |
| Conflicting definitions
of terms |
Create a glossary of terms
for all participants. Use interactive meetings
to revise and agree on these definitions.
Question assumptions. For example, "natural resources"
, "aesthetics", and "water quality " mean very different
things to different groups--yet
each group assumes the other means the same thing they
do. |
Hurdles
Priority