Jun

6

‘All Ways Expect The Unexpected’

June 6, 2008 |

It does matter how many projects or programmes you have managed the adage is true. It couldn’t me more true today.

For over 12 months planning had gone into organizing the JISC Innovation Forum 2008. We covered all the risks and planned ahead.Then the unexpected happened. The Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) announced industrial action ‘greylisting’ against the Keele
University where we are hosting the event for over 200 projects in July.

The action makes hosting the event there untenable so into issue management mode and re-plan. The show will go on.

At least it is not as bad as the last time we organized one of these events on the 7/7/05.

Unionists are easier to deal with than terrorists.


Comments

2 Comments so far

  1. ruth drysdale on June 13, 2008 2:56 pm

    I am trying to convince colleagues that even really effective risk management wont stop disasters from happening, you cant go into risk identification paralysis.

    Thinking through potential risks and managing them as thoroughly as you can, is still worth doing because it does lead to better outcomes and outputs ….

    UCU action is still a risk, but at least you have identified it and got contingency plans.

  2. Richard McKenna on July 8, 2008 9:58 pm

    I agreed that risk management is an essential part of the planing process as it helps you develop better and more robust plans.

    Unfortunately we can’t always think of or identify every risk. Such as the UCU taking industrial action. Then it comes down to good issue management :-)

    Fortunately after securing a new venue and ready to move it was all resolved. May be our pressure help but who knows.

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Speak your mind