In
this third blog entry, I’d like to spend a short bit of time to discuss two
topics. First, I’d like to share some
feedback on my Final Project from my TA and what my next steps are to
strengthen my final project. Second, I’m
going to elaborate on the decision making processes and business and finance
aspects of my organization to better illustrate how these systems impact the
success of my project.
After
presenting my project plan to my TA, I received some very valuable feedback on
how to best proceed for the remainder of this class and moving forward. I’d like to share a few of the most helpful
points here that will help me to strengthen my project moving forward and may
also be of use to you if ever you decide to become an agent of change within
your own organization. First, start with
your co-workers and middle management to gauge interest. This will allow you to understand if the
general population of your organization is amenable to your project. These front line individuals will also be
able to provide you with valuable information and feedback that may assist you
later on in the approval stages with upper management. Second, creating the business case for the
project is essential. Understanding the
feasibility of the project will be invaluable when pitching your project to the
decision makers. If you don’t have a
firm grasp on why the project makes sense financially, neither will the
decision makers. Finally, make sure to
have a Plan B. Sometimes, despite our
best efforts and intentions, our plans may fail. Having a scaled back version of your original
plan or an alternate plan in place will allow you to continue on in your
efforts to drive change within your organization.
The
decision making process in my organization unfortunately is a bit of a
complicated one. However, that doesn’t
mean a change project shouldn’t be attempted.
One just needs to understand which key decisions have to be made by the
organization for the change project to be a success and how to best approach
them. For my project of installing a
green roof, the major decisions will revolve around the feasibility of the
project, the upfront and ongoing costs, the payback period, and the amount of
resources that will be needed to complete the project. For a project with the scope and size of
mine, this is a project that will need to be made at the level of the president
of the company. This fact in itself
means that gaining access to the president to gain approval will require gaining
the support of many other company leaders below that level as well. Once my project process plan and initial
feasibility is complete, I plan to enlist champions for my project by first
pitching the ideas to the middle management first. Once I have them on board, I hope to have
them help me pitch the plan “up the line”.
On
the business and finance side of things, the project continues to grow larger
and more complicated. Upfront costs,
ongoing maintenance costs, the need for local green roof experts, and the need
for significant maintenance time efforts from my organization is growing
significantly the more I learn what is involved with a green roof. While the costs continue to rise, I’m also
finding out more about the return on investment that my organization can reap
from the undertaking of the project.
Additionally, a large part of my project pitch to my upper management
will revolve around the non financial benefits that we will receive as part of
the green roof installation. Ultimately,
I hope to show how this project will be able to make sense both from a
financial standpoint as well as an environmental one.
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