Welcome back fellow Goal-Getter! My name is Brianna and I am a project management consultant, and I’ve been protesting all my life. The demonstrations were always low-risk, but my contingency response strategy skills were abysmal. “Ms. Daley! Brianna didn’t say the pledge of allegiance,” said a fellow third-grade student. That was my first protest. Over the previous weekend, I had talked to a friend who said saying the pledge of allegiance is like praying to the flag. I was always very serious when it came to religion back in those days. So, I took a week (or two) off. In no time, and for the rest of my public education, I said the pledge of allegiance just because it is what the majority of Americans do. By the way, that was not my last protest in public schools.
I’m going to be brutally honest. I HATE politics… all of it. My loathing for politics is so deep that I’m just going to make my point. When I think of politics, I think of a whole lot of people that have positions on certain issues. Some are just better at using their voice; or in Colin Kaepernick’s case, not using their voice, but rather their social authority. There is a lot of work to be done in the “Grand ‘Ol USA”, however, if you are one of the people that believes in protest, you may want to get cozy and consider executing risk assessment analysis and creating contingency response strategies to increase the probability of public safety!
Project management is an unspoken methodology we use everyday. As I watched many protests over the summer on various social media platforms, I deduced that the most worrisome component of a project management plan for a protest is RISK. Have you ever noticed that risk is always in red? Some protestors may want to stop and let that sink in while planning their contingency response strategies. My candor that allows me to sit back and observe what I would do differently as a a project manager when I read about a protest, or when I’m watching the highlights of a protest via social media. The suspense I feel is gut wrenching, until I reach the part (sometimes) where no one was hurt.
Goal-Getter Consideration Recommendation: Contingency Response Strategy
Start with an agenda. This may seem like common sense, however, people are more willing to participate in gatherings of any sort when they can see exactly which activities are included in the demonstration. They need to know what they are going to be doing. Format the agenda like a schedule and make sure that all participants that have shown interest before the event have that information.
“The suspense is terrible! I hope it lasts!”, said Gene Wilder in Willy Wonka. Risk, either threat or opportunity, is suspenseful, and it is the protest/project team that can make it last. The most important thing to remember is to make the opportunities last longer than the threats.
One would hope that if you are a protest leader or participant, you start to look at increasing suspense as increase to either a threat or opportunity. According to PMI (2013), an opportunity is “a risk that would have a positive effect on one or more project objectives” (548). PMI (2013), also states that a threat is “a risk that would have a negative effect on one or more project objectives” (564). When threats arise during a march or political challenge of any kind it is important to have a mitigate it as quickly and effectively as possible.
YOU MUST HAVE CONTINGENCY RESPONSE STRATEGIES. Organizations that know a protest is spearheaded in their direction create a contingency response strategy; protest leaders should have one too! The United States Department of justice has created a document of their own about how to plan a safe protest here, and you guessed it, it contains a recommendation to complete a contingency response plan.
Seven great contingency response strategy components are:
- Gather leaders for the event and provide the event agenda/schedule (if applicable, I hope for the sake of the leader that this is not a one-man-band)
- Assess the risk of the event in general (cost, time, complexity)
- Make a list of all the things that could go wrong (threats)
- Make a response plan to each threat
- Make a list of all the successes that could arise (opportunities)
- Make a response plan to each opportunity
- Communicate the plan to participants and maintain the plan during the event
There is opportunity during protest, you and your team must work together to embrace it. Opportunities should always thrive over threats. You may want to share this out to your activist friends.
Goal-Getter Lessons Learned
If I were a protester I would immediately draft a business case or go straight into the project charter with an event that would already prove to be on the lower end of risk. Yes, I’d want people to stand with me, then, go home to their families afterward feeling accomplished and safe. Passive protesting would be my avenue – it’s sometimes quiet and very effective. This is the one area where passive aggression is preferred. My top three low-peril strategies to pick from would be: silent protests, boycotting, or bulk communications (nothing rude or disrespectful, rather something that says you disapprove). Leave a comment and tell me your protest stories, opinions, and how a contingency response strategy makes the difference.
Sources:
http://www.2abd.com/wp-content/uploads/protest.jpg
ESPN: http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/17534211/colin-kaepernick-san-francisco-49ers-again-kneels-national-anthem
United States Department of Justice: https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/crs/legacy/2012/12/17/safe-marches-dem.pdf
Wilder, Gene, actor. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. 1971 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., 1970.
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