Preaching to the Choir: A Cautionary Tale of a Failed Project

     “Find out if anyone else is likely to support your work.” and “Obtain a project champion or sponsor.” (Greer, 2010, p. 10)

     If I had read Greer’s advice two years ago, I might have a happier story to tell you today!  In failing to do these two things, I unknowingly killed a project that meant a lot to me.

     In May of 2009, members of my professional learning community were struggling with our students’ “end of the year” behavior.  Our students (about 600 nine and ten-year olds) were in vacation mode, even though we had several more weeks of school to go.  My team, comprised of the “special area” staff (Music, Art, P.E., Technology, Spanish, Nurse, Counselor, and Child Study Team) agreed that there was a general break-down of behaviors in the cafeteria, on the playground, while waiting for the bus, and while in the hallways.  In general, students were not behaving as well outside their classroom walls as they were inside them.  In brainstorming and sharing our observations, the team concluded that part of the problem was that different teachers had different expectations, and different reactions to behavior issues (including no reaction).  We thought it would help if the entire staff was on the same page regarding expectations for behavior in the “public” areas of the school.  Agreeing on the problem, and with the support of our principal (also a member of our team), we set about the creation of a behavior plan, to be put in place upon our return to school in September.  The team spent the next month on this project, which included defining the expected behaviors and the consequences for inappropriate behaviors.  We developed a “behavior chart”, which would also serve as a weekly report to parents.  Every student would go home each Friday with a snapshot of their behaviors for the whole week, to be signed by their parents.  This would allow staff and parents to see and address emerging problems.  We thought that behavior problems might decrease just because kids knew there would be a report at the end of the week. The team felt that the positive reports would have as big an impact as the negative ones: what kid doesn’t want to start the weekend by giving mom and dad a good report from school?   With the approval of our principal, we put our plan into effect, starting with an introduction at “Back to School” night in September, where I, as project leader, assured parents that they would be seeing this behavior chart every Friday. 

     As noted earlier, my team was comprised of special area teachers, but not homeroom teachers.  Part of the plan called for homeroom teachers to distribute the chart each Friday, and collect it every Monday.  We did not anticipate that this would place a burden on the homeroom teachers, but a few felt very strongly that they could not take on any more paperwork.  Some said they didn’t want to waste paper, so they only sent the form home with students who had misbehaved.  Some felt that they should not be held responsible for their students’ behaviors outside of their own classrooms. Portny et al. (2008) identify failure to involve all key project stakeholders as a reason projects fail. Greer (2010) offers this caution: “If you don’t involve all stakeholders in an active and engaged fashion from the beginning, you are likely to suffer the consequences of rework when they finally figure out what you and your project team are up to…. and they then take action to leave their mark on it!” (p. 10). My team’s failure to invite all stakeholders early on resulted in months spent on a failed project.

     Portny et al. (2008) also cite inconsistent upper-management support as a reason for project failure: “The project manager may be relatively low in the hierarchical chain of command and still have a high level of responsibility for completing a project successfully.  Responsibility without the authority of rank or position is so common in project management that it is the rule, not the exception.”(p. 9). My principal seemed supportive of our team’s efforts, but she distanced herself from the process whenever the full staff was involved.  Twice when the plan was presented to the full faculty, she asked me to take over, and left the room.  Though I was the project leader, I had no authority to insist that the staff implement our plan as intended.  They felt free to change the procedures or ignore them completely. Without the public support of management, the plan could not be enforced.

     Because we missed a few important steps in this project, I’m sorry to say it failed.  I wish it hadn’t.  I still think it would have been a great way to let kids and parents know that everyone in the school had high expectations for good behavior at our school. 

References

Greer M 2010 project minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects!Greer, M. (2010). The project minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/courses/56611/CRS-CW-4894953/educ_6145_readings/pm-minimalist-ver-3-laureate.pdf

 Portny, S., Mantel, S., Meredith, J., Shafer, S., Sutton, M., & Kramer, B. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John E. Wiley & Sons, Inc.