As a leader and manager, there are few times as trying on one’s…patience and personal confidence as when a project designed to improve operations is well planned, coordinated, and apparently implemented…and fails. When one has taken a problem area, identified a solution, yet finds the institution in the same exact undesirable situation again and again. I recently had this happen, and it has left me questioning everything from my core abilities to, at times, my sanity, it seemed.
I think that everyone hopes that, with a new year (in this case a new academic year), a new page will be turned, old problems will subside, and we will be faced only with new challenges.
I am certain that the 4-5 people that will read this are already laughing cynically at that statement. We all wish this. We never seem to get it. And it’s not always that the problems are the same ones – sometimes it’s just the nature of the problem. Sadly, sometimes it is literally the exact same problem as a year ago, with the exact same cause, and the exact same limitations in why we cannot find a better solution. Budget constraints mean we can’t implement a new solution. Staff issues (office politics?) stand in the way of change. There simply isn’t a better way to get something done, within the nature of the current environment.
But occasionally there is an opportunity. And hopefully that comes about because of good planning, strategic thinking, and months and months of wise decision-making, well-considered pros and cons, and decisive leadership (exaggeration added). We do the right things over the summer (or even just “since the last time that process broke”). We analyze the issues, suggest changes, get bids, and put in place a “fix.” We use best practices. We use proper project planning. And things still go awry.
These can be the times that are the most trying. There are few things that can wear down someone involved in a project, from planner to implementer (and sometimes those are the same person…), than going through all the “right” steps only to have things unravel just like before. To see an elegant fix turn out to be just another sub-optimal solution with as many problems as before. We all have our stories. Perhaps one day we can all share them.
My next post, coming shortly, discusses the trials of trying to be a good communicator during such situations. That’s part of good management and leadership, too. Being present, visible, and taking responsibility. But sometimes that means putting one’s self in the line of a lot of fire and flak just to keep a face to the organization, and that is certainly wearying, too.