Blog RSS
 Comments RSS
 Get blog by email
 My bookmarks
 LinkedIn profile
 Facebook profile

 Twitter latest
doing some very dull invoicing and admin stuff. important but uninteresting!

Recent posts

• More interesting stuff on the web
• More interesting stuff on the web this week
• Marketing and public relations students take note
• How the credit crunch affects media consumption
• A brilliant resource for public sector social media
• Conference reflections - local government, social media and mobile internet
• Local government and social media presentation
• Proving identity in social media
• What I learnt about Powerpoint today - presenter’s tips
• Mobile web presentation - Public Sector Forums conference
• Not much interesting stuff on the web this week
• On the road next week - speaking at…
• Role of social media in local government - project report
• This week’s interesting stuff round-up
• Ghost writing, social media and ethics

Tags

Marketing social+media public+relations Public relations Blogging Social media statistics Branding RSS web+development CIPR Podcasting Events News Wordpress chartered+institute+of+public+relations -research-and-analysis General Advertising Web strategy

Archives

• January 2009 (1)
• December 2008 (9)
• November 2008 (13)
• October 2008 (10)
• September 2008 (7)
• August 2008 (13)
• July 2008 (1)
• May 2008 (3)
• April 2008 (5)
• March 2008 (4)
• February 2008 (2)
• January 2008 (13)
• December 2007 (5)
• November 2007 (12)
• October 2007 (2)
• September 2007 (9)
• August 2007 (12)
• July 2007 (11)
• June 2007 (23)
• May 2007 (15)
• April 2007 (24)
• March 2007 (21)
• February 2007 (16)
• January 2007 (26)
• December 2006 (16)
• November 2006 (20)
• October 2006 (26)
• September 2006 (22)
• August 2006 (12)
• July 2006 (13)
• June 2006 (7)
• May 2006 (8)
• April 2006 (3)
• March 2006 (2)
• January 2006 (1)
• December 2005 (1)
• November 2005 (1)
• October 2005 (1)
• November 2004 (1)
• August 2004 (2)
• July 2004 (1)
• February 2004 (1)
• January 2004 (1)
• September 2003 (1)
• January 2003 (1)

Overcoming obstacles on projects at work

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 at 9:47 pm

Hello - welcome to my website.

On my blog I write about marketing, public relations and digital communications. To keep up-to-date with my posts you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or sign-up to receive blog posts by email.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you find my site useful.

Had one of those days today where a four hour website workshop left me thinking…a lot.

The workshop was designed to give all parties to a project to create two new websites an opportunity to contribute to a debate about the purposes of the sites (they’re closely related) and to reach a consensus on key aspects of the projects that have so far eluded us.

We always knew it would be a challenging session and would be unpredictable.

What actually happened was perfectly reasonable at the time - the discussions proceeded in a series of small steps, each in a direction completely different to the one I’d expected - which meant by the end of the workshop the whole conversation and debate about the key issues was in a completely different place to the place where I’d expected (hoped?) things would end.

Initially I’d felt disappointed - we’d gone in with a purpose and not achieved it.

But reflecting now I’m happier - reaching consensus on complex issues isn’t a linear process that can be mapped out - debate and discussions can take things in a different direction that sometimes seems at odds to the direction that I think things should take.

Today we ended up agreeing a number of points that we hadn’t previously agreed. That’s a positive.

I’m still keen to progress the project, so from here we need to isolate the underlying assumptions that we’re making (ie assume x, means that we introduce a risk of y into the project), get everyone happy with them, and then get on with the project.

We aired many of these assumptions today - now that’s happened, they can be identified, documented and then left alone, leaving us to get on with the project.

My lesson for today is that even the most complicated obstacles on projects can be overcome with dialogue, shared end goals and a desire to move forward. It’s just the journey that can sometimes seem a bit painful and unpredictable…

Tags: web+development, work, workshop

Permalink Trackback address Comments RSS feed

Leave your comment

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Your comment

Notify comments via e-mail

Check out my rules for posting comments on my website.

Latest links

Links to interesting information I've spotted recently on the web:

Latest bookmarks

My most recent bookmarks from del.icio.us:

1. 33 Free Tools to Make Your Website Better | FutureNow's GrokDotCom / Marketing Optimization Blog
2. MMA study finds increase in mobile marketing receptiveness
3. If RSS Is Niche Media, Why Use It?
4. New Media Knowledge - Rough Guide to: Social Media and the Law
5. UK Kids and Teens Communicate Nonstop
6. Understanding and Aligning the Value of Social Media | FutureNow's GrokDotCom / Marketing Optimization Blog
7. weaverluke: Twitter.com
8. The week that Britain's culture wars broke out | Media | The Observer
9. Message in-a-Box
10. Welcome to Where I Live | Where I Live
11. Utilising Web 2.0 in local government
12. MySpace and Facebook Fast Becoming the Leading Mobile Social Networks
13. searching for the impact of empowerment report - MORI
14. Demos | Publications | State of Trust
15. Pew Internet: Teens, Video Games and Civics