Implementing your project
Monitoring: turning problems into opportunities
When things do not go according to plan, it can be hard to know what to do next. There are two main kinds of problem - the practical and the inter-personal. If you are holding an outdoor event on the day of a thunderstorm, or the venue forgets to provide kosher food for Jewish participants, or your email system fails so you do not get a crucial message, there may be little you can do. Many practical problems will have a solution, but where it is too late, too expensive or too difficult to sort out, you may have to make your apologies and modify your plans as best you can.
The more interesting and often more challenging problems relate to the 'interpersonal' sphere. These are problems to do with people - their feelings, needs, expectations etc. The problem may be that a particular community is suspicious of the police, that an agency is not co-operating as expected or that the project team is at loggerheads. Solutions to these difficulties may be less apparent and harder to execute. However, their great advantage is that the problems which arise and the process of dealing with them may prove to be an invaluable learning opportunity. Indeed, often these challenges provide insights which would otherwise remained hidden.
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