The last post observed that every objective has multiple dimensions or elements. Before moving (as promised) to consider how we could deal with this, it is worth considering that while the main element or ‘what’ is likely to remain constant (although not always, see example below) the other elements, the ‘what else’ can change as a result of external events and other projects being carried out or planned. In addition to the problem of ‘staying on track’, we also face the challenge that some aspects of importance to decisionmakers may be deliberately hidden from us.
Consider the following
Staying on track
A section of road in the council was subject to major flooding with heavy rainfall and repairing the damage threw the road budget into the red. It was suggested that creating a wetlands would enable the water to be drained away removing the repair problems and would also provide an attractive tourist feature and provide a number of other benefits. The council got more and more enthusiatic. However, in the process of considering all the ‘extra’ benefits, they completely lost sight of the original purpose of reducing the costly damage that the regular flooding of the road presented. They decided they would go ahead with the wetlands – but not in the originally suggested location where it would ameliorate the flooding damage, but somewhere else!
Discovering what is really important.
The Police department insisted that they needed to own their own regional housing. There was a ready supply of rental housing in all areas so it was hard to understand why this was important to them. They argued that with their own housing. it could serve as a de-facto second police station. Why was this important? They didn’t want to say. It turned out that police officers are difficult to manage and the ability to send an unruly officer out to a remote regional location at a minute’s notice was a valuable and key deterrent to bad behaviour – but not something that the department was keen to admit to.
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