Step
9 Implement |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Once the decision is made, take
action.
|
|
|
|
Purpose
|
|
- To solve the problem
- To continue the support and
consent
- To maintain flexibility
|
|
|
|
Why?
|
Keep your eyes on the long-term solution
so the day-to-day tribulations don't get you down.
|
|
|
|
This is the bottom line for Reclamation's
existence--to accomplish its mission by solving serious problems.
Without this step, every effort so far has been wasted.
Implementation is the crucible for proving Reclamation's
effectiveness. An agency or organization has only one way to
prove that it will follow through on promises and commitments--to
actually do it. When a program is successfully implemented and
promises are lived up to, then Reclamation gains the credibility
it needs to effectively solve other problems. When promises
are broken, the lack of action is seen as a reason why people
can't trust government. |
|
|
|
How?
|
Ideally, all the implementors
have been involved in earlier steps. If not, start getting
them up-to-date yesterday. |
|
|
|
This is the most challenging part of the decision
process.
The responsible implementor should become familiar with
the history and the foundation to
identify potential trouble spots and to understand the reasons
behind the actions. No matter how hard participants worked so
far, there are still potential conflicts and emotional charges--you
may still need to develop consent. Three basic parts of implementation
are:
- Getting and keeping the trust and support needed to act
- Preparing the work
- Actually doing the work
|
|
Identify
the Players
|
Actually solving the problem will require
more time, energy, and resources than it took to come
up with the solution. |
|
|
|
Identify who will be
involved and to what extent .
Develop a structure and communication process that is reasonable
and doable. Figure out:
- How much input and what type of input is needed to solve
the problem
- What community involvement and support is needed
Participants are glad the long, hard process is finally
over--but the real work is still ahead. Now, more than ever,
you need to make sure your resources are in place. Check the
following:
- Participants.
- Is the recommended solution supported? Is there effective
communication?
- Decisionmakers
- Have the decisionmakers been involved in the process?
Are they ready and able to act?
- Funding.
- Is funding available? Have you checked out all the possible
sources of funding, partnerships, cooperative ventures, etc.?
- Time.
- Is there still time to solve the problem? Is our timing
in sync with partners' timing?
Without these commitments, you can't take action. Putting
these in place during the action is far more difficult than
getting them in place before you start.
|
|
Gather
Input
|
|
Make sure that all affected publics have had a chance
to comment on the recommended solution as documented by the
team. Categorize these comments so that the implementors can
consider them in their actions. Followup here is useful to pinpoint
any potential unresolved problems.
Ask both active participants and those on the sidelines:
- Did you feel that you had a voice in the process?
- Do you understand the decision process, the boundaries
of the decision, and the objectives of the solution?
Address problems before action is taken. This will build
credibility by demonstrating that you listen to concerns and
strengthens the solution.
|
|
Review
Partners |
|
Partners will change their participation as
the process shifts from evaluating to doing. Partners primarily
concerned with gathering information may lessen their participation.
Partners concerned with actual implementation may be just beginning
to really get involved. Providing them with an accurate history
of what has happened will help everyone understand why you are
solving the problem the way you are, rather than assuming hidden
motives.
|
|
Build
Internal Support |
|
Before, action was needed to kill a project. Now, inaction
will do the same thing. Implementors need to develop consent
and active participation just to
get the process going. You'll need to work with both external
and internal groups--but in different ways.
|
|
|
|
The entire decision process, but especially this phase,
must be built so that it does not demean (and is not perceived
to demean) the implementors. The implementors must be confident
that:
- They will not have to redo their effort or double back
needlessly.
- They are not doomed to be on trial forever.
It is easy to feel that the level of communication and involvement
can drop now that the decision has been made. Also, many implementors
come with a high level of distrust. They have been involved
with or have heard of actions that have failed--and this one
may be seen as a risk.
Ways to help build internal support include:
- Training.
- Determine what the implementation team needs to know
to effectively do their jobs and to communicate with the affected
or interested publics and then set up a training program.
Think about informal contacts too--the person lining the canal
might chat with the jogger passing by. What does that person
need to know to allay the jogger's fears of potential hazards?
-
- Communication.
- In " Step 8 Selection ," the
decisionmaker and responsible implementor communicated with
the implementation team to get everyone up to speed on the
process, the action, and the rationales. Keep communication
lines open so that the team can work together to anticipate
and address problems and changes.
|
|
Build
External Support
|
|
The solution may require a lot of active participation
or a very few key people. Document and publicize how you will
keep the rest of the participants informed. Clearly explain
your process for handling and monitoring unexpected changes.
Do not assume that you have already contacted every interested
or affected public . People have lives that have nothing to do with your action,
and they may have been more interested in fixing supper than
in an action that was a distant possibility. Also, regulators
and others may refuse to get involved until this point as they
feel it is not their job. This step probably brings the most
new players --and they'll probably
be the most upset as they confront an actual action (e.g., local
law enforcement at a construction site, timekeepers with new
forms). You will have a much better position if you go to these
groups first. Meet with these publics to find out their concerns.
Scoping and participation maps can
help do this.
Tracking.
- Implementation brings along its own issues, which can
be very different than those identified during earlier steps.
Set up a procedure to identify these new issues. You might
install a hotline, ask followup questions, etc. Issue tables
can help track these new concerns.
-
- Training.
- Most participants do not set up water management programs
or build projects for a living. Thus, they need to know the
technical terms and the broader applications. Often, it will
seem as though you are speaking ancient Sanskrit rather than
plain English! Use analogies, simplified explanations, physical
models, or other ways to get your point across. Efforts made
here will allow participants to provide meaningful input and
serve as informed watchdogs.
-
- Communication.
- At this point, too much communication will drown out
vital information and promote resentment and suspicion. (This
is the fifth report I've gotten this month, and I don't understand
any of it. Are you deliberately trying to confuse me?!?) But
too little information will entice affected publics to go
out of their way to sniff out "cover ups!" (e.g., talk about
crash dummies can continue for over 50 years). Maintain a
balance by checking back with participants regularly.
|
|
Communicate
|
People may never look at the material,
but they want to know it is there. |
|
|
|
Structure your communication to be sensitive
to the community's needs, especially those who feel less empowered
to gain access to information.
Make materials readily available at an easily accessible
location in an understandable, friendly format. You might keep
a log, update a report weekly, ask implementors to videotape
the progress, etc. You could hire a recorder to document the
process. Putting information in a data base accessible by Internet
might be appropriate.
Briefly summarize what is being done and tell participants
who to contact and where to go for more information. Don't rely
on just one source here--make it a goal to reach every potentially
affected or interested person with your message at least three
times. You may want to use newspapers, newsletters, radio, TV,
Internet, WWW, billboards, tourist offices, utility stuffers,
etc. Before you advertise, test the system. Dial the number
or go to the location as if you knew nothing about the program.
Was it easy to find? Were people available to help you if you
had a question? The more accessible the information, the more
support the solution will have.
|
|
Prepare
|
Saying that the noise level will be
an average of 10 decibels higher during the day means
nothing. Having a plane fly low over your head at 2 in
the morning is a different matter. |
|
|
You can't keep fussing around with your armor forever.
Sometimes you just have to make the estimate and go with
it. |
|
|
|
Carefully plan out the action with both internal
implementors and external participants. Many problems can be
avoided simply by thinking through what it will take to get
the actions done. If you haven't yet thought about how the solution
will work, be prepared to do a LOT of backtracking!
Keep the psychological balance between all parties, agencies,
and participants in mind. The more you understand the timing,
requirements, priorities, and interrelationships of reaching
the solution, the better you will be able to:
- Develop the roles of the external
participants .
- When participants understand what needs to happen, they
can identify their roles more effectively. This will help
make their participation more meaningful.
-
- Communicate the plan to the implementors
.
- This will help them understand how their expertise can
be used to better orchestrate their actions.
-
- Integrate changes into the process.
- If you know the plan well, you can modify it to accommodate
changes efficiently. You can also show clearly how and why
things changed so managers, the team, and affected publics
understand.
To plan out the details of an action, first break it down
into manageable elements. List and categorize these elements.
Categories will vary by activity, so put some thought into tailoring
the categories to fit your needs. In a construction activity,
they will probably be physical actions (e.g., dig the channels,
put up erosion control measures, place turnouts). In an administrative
action, they may be more institutional (create, test, and publicize
the process).
Once you have the categories, meet with technical experts
and implementors to list the elements under those categories.
If everyone agrees that an action should take place, but no
one person is responsible for making it happen, then it probably
won't happen. Plan actions by determining who will do what.
To schedule the work, you first need to know all of the
details of the action. As this is what will actually be done,
you need an on-the-ground level of detail. For example:
- Construction.
- I need five bulldozers and their operators for 40 workdays
to build the series of dikes at Hollow Ridge.
-
- Administrative.
- I need three editorial assistants for 1 week to prepare
the national mailing list, finalize the report, and stuff
envelopes.
While this will be much more specific than anything done
so far, most of the information should already be generated.
Break the plan into the level of detail
that you need. This may be as detailed as an hourly account
of actions needed for a hazardous waste cleanup or as general
as an annual account of activities needed to check that a form
is being filled out correctly.
Determine who will do each element. Then get with that person
and determine:
- What exactly you are going to do
- How long it will take
- What resources you will need
- Where you will do the task
- How you will get the resources to the task
- What are the constraints (e.g., transport, time, resource
availability)
Ask:
- Do you have access to everything you will need?
- Do you have the necessary priorities?
With this information, you can draw graphs to visualize
the duration and interdependencies of tasks. Check this with
all of the implementors. Draw on their knowledge and expertise
to guarantee that the process is effective and doable. This
will also help identify potential conflicts and gauge how much
the system can handle at its weakest point.
|
|
Implementing
in Stages
|
If you know how to cook, you can substitute
ingredients. If you can't cook, you have to follow the
recipe exactly--and pray that nothing will go wrong.
|
|
|
|
You may not have funding, room, or facilities
to do the task at one time. Rather than trying to do everything
at once, it is often more useful to break the implementation
into groups of tasks to more efficiently use resources and accommodate
funding. This is called staging, tiering, or
phased implementation. When developing these phases, consider:
- Physical, funding, and resource constraints
- Relationships among tasks (what needs to be done first)
- Availability of information
- Gatekeepers and key points in the implementation decision
process
- Necessary permits
Check with participants about the phases before you schedule
them to ensure nothing is missing. Schedule
After you know what needs to be done, you can figure out
when to do it. Develop your action plan
.
Now that you have the individual pieces in place, you can
put them together by determining where each activity fits in
the overall scheme:
- What can you do simultaneously?
- What depends on other actions? Why?
- What can be done independently of other actions?
Don't forget about external constraints
, such as permits, timing of activities, and availability of
resources. Knowing what the risks are ahead of time can add
some flexibility.
Think about contingencies: legal (who might sue and why),
political, biological, climatic, social, physical, etc. What
would happen if the action did not take place in the fiscal
year budgeted? What changes are likely to occur, and what allowances
can we make for them? The schedule needs to account for technical
and social factors. Merge the two by first putting together
a technical schedule with implementors, then determining when
reviews and comments are needed with key participants.
Meet with both implementors and key participants to hammer
out conflicts. Then look at the action in relationship to other
actions. This will help set both internal and external priorities.
If you have a high priority, you may be able to twist the tails
that need to be twisted. If it is a lower priority, you may
need to figure out ways to squeeze it in on the edges of other
actions. What are the priorities within Reclamation? For other
participants? How does this solution fit in? Estimate
Now that you know the actions needed and the timeframe,
you can refine the estimates of the resources needed to complete
the work (e.g., time, funds, materials, and staff). These estimates
will help participants and decisionmakers understand the extent
of the work involved and provide a basis for changing the scope
of the work to fit the available resources. Timing and dates
of completion may also be affected. A word of caution, however.
Don't fall in love with these numbers! Preliminary financial
estimates are usually based on physical or organizational requirements
(it will take so many gauges to monitor this streamflow, so
many mailings for this education effort, etc.). These estimates,
however, do not consider the functional costs, the cost of elements
needed for the solution to function properly. This is like estimating
the costs of a three bedroom home by square feet, without including
costs for functional items such as a stairway, driveway, or
porch. Unfortunately, people will grab onto the lower costs
of the preliminary estimate and will be reluctant when costs
rise. As you go along, explain and document the cost changes
and the need for the functional costs (e.g., if you don't have
a stairway, you can't reach the upper story).
You will need to refine estimates of impacts as well. This
will help provide affected publics and participants a better
view of what the impacts will actually be. Keeping them informed
will help build your credibility and support when you need to
make changes. Again, however, keep in mind that these are merely
estimates. It is much better to be straightforward about high
impacts and then show what changes you can make in the plan
to avoid or lessen those impacts than to provide a low estimate
and have to weasel word around when the impacts are higher than
your estimate. Permits, for example, may have certain threshold
limits for air or water quality. If preliminary estimates come
above those limits and you can rearrange or redesign to assure
that the solution will come under those limits, show and document
all the changes you plan to make. Clearly show the rationale
for these changes or you will be accused of playing fast and
loose with the numbers.
|
|
Get
Agreement |
|
Now that you have a detailed plan, schedule,
and estimate, go to the decisionmakers and participants to make
sure that this is what they want. You may need to rework some
elements--but again, the more you know about the interrelationships
and requirements of the actions, the more flexible your plan
can be.
Decide how much you can do and at what level. How much is
the issue worth? Actual working details may be different than
expectations built up earlier in the process. (I said you could
put a sidewalk in, but I didn't think you'd cut down my tree
to do it!)
|
|
Do
It
|
|
Doing the work in a carefully thought out
way will amply repay the efforts made to plan it, but doing
it haphazardly will destroy those efforts. While you are doing
the work, keep track of what has actually happened and map that
against the original schedule and plan. Conscientiously create
an "as-built" schedule by marking off what happened when and
noting changes.
|
|
Work With
Changes
|
|
Changes will crop up throughout
the process. The way you handle those changes will make the
difference between a cost-effective, timely solution and wasted
effort. To incorporate these changes:
- Identify changes early.
- The earlier you know about a change, the more options
you have for dealing with it.
-
- Define changes.
- Get the decisionmaker to pin down the change. What does
it consist of? What does it directly affect? In what way?
-
- Determine the cost.
- Figure out how you can deal with the change in the most
effective, least expensive manner. Considering the costs of
the change with the person who wants it will help determine
its importance . Participants who
want the change might do or fund the work themselves.
-
- Determine the delay.
- Figure out how you can incorporate the change with the
least delay to the schedule. Can you do another task first?
Then determine how much delay there will be--and demonstrate
why.
-
- Sketch out the ripple effect.
- Use the defined interrelationships among tasks to determine
what kind of indirect effects the change will have.
-
- Document the effects.
- Show what the change is, how you will address it (and
why) and what effects the change will have on the cost and
the schedule.
Share the rationales for the changes and delays with decisionmakers
as early as you can. Then determine when to share the changes
with the other implementors and participants. This will prove
that you are indeed solving the problem in a fair and reasonable
manner and trying to avoid cost overruns and delays. Keep in
mind that it is easier to convince someone about the need for
a 2-month delay three different times than a 6-month delay for
six different reasons.
|
|
Check
for Problems |
|
Implementation is never smooth sailing, and you'll need
to keep checking to see if there are any problems. Do a
reality check to examine the process. Get with implementors,
participants, management, and affected publics to ask:
- How well are we doing?
- Are our goals realistic?
- What is working well?
- What isn't working? How can we fix that?
Areas to check include:
- Personal conflicts.
- Are there any unresolved conflicts or issues? How well
does the implementation team work together and with other
participants? Is there an open, supportive, flexible environment?
If not, discuss these issues at the earliest point so they
don't get out of hand.
-
- Gates.
- Often, permits and approvals from other agencies are
needed. What permits do you need? From whom? Consider Federal,
State, and local permitting and other authorizing bodies.
Think about how these gatekeepers operate.
|
|
|
|
Tools
|
|
Tools here are more often physical or organizational
as you put the solution in place. However, keep looking at the
decision process and the context to ensure you are on the right
track. |
|
Decision
Analysis
|
|
Often, solutions will be "mini-versions" of
the decision process--you can go back
through the steps to focus on a problem area. This will help
clarify issues, identify changes, and focus the solutions. It
will also build support for and show the rationale behind these
on-the-ground changes.
|
|
Scoping |
|
Scoping is a vital part of implementation
as well as the rest of the decision process. Continue to meet
with groups and find out about others who are affected by or
interested in the actions. This will:
|
|
Participation Map
|
|
Participants' involvement
and roles change. Use a participation
map to keep track of changing roles during each phase of the
implementation.
|
|
Issue
Tables |
|
Use the issue tables generated in Step
8 to continue to keep track of the progress.
Sample Issue Table
Issue
|
Resolution/ decision
|
Implementation
plan |
Implementation
notes |
Followup
|
Briefly discuss
the issue |
What you decided
to do about it |
Who will do what
|
Who did what,
what happened |
Was this satisfactory?
What changes needed to be made? |
Sedimentation |
Put in erosion control measures
|
Contractors will compact side slopes
|
Contractors compacted
sides, added riprap for further control. |
|
Chemicals in the workplace |
Measure levels of chemicals |
Contractors will institute measures
x and y |
State lab monitored for QA/QC standards
|
|
Safety |
Safety training and drills |
Each office will develop training and
schedule drills |
Training was provided to safety officers.
Drills worked well. |
|
|
|
Generalized
Standards |
|
Have design standards for a wide range of features. This:
- Demonstrates global expectations
- Creates an atmosphere where all the pieces work together
- Keeps track of various actions
- Develops cohesive, coherent solutions (e.g., record keeping
procedures, architecture)
- Promotes understanding
|
|
The Right Person for the Right Job
|
|
If the team and the responsible implementor are not working
effectively, then the problem won't be solved. You may need
to replace them.
|
|
|
|
Look Forward
|
You cannot please everyone all the time.
The most you can do is explain what you are doing and
why. |
|
|
|
Solving the problem does not stop with doing
an action. Throughout the life of the program, you will need
to monitor and adapt. To do this, document activities so that
others can readily understand what has been done---and what
needs to be done. Documenting the
implementation will:
- Help gather support
- Build a paper trail to resolve future issues
- Help avoid or eliminate rumors and misinformation
|
|
|
|
Go On
|
|
Executive
Summary and Process Tours:
Select <-----> Monitor
and Adapt |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|