Lessons from the demonstration Management Improvement Program

The Management Improvement Program, a process based on Organizational Development principles and methods, was applied to an irrigated agricultural system in Arizona, USA. The MIP seeks to improve management and performance of the agricultural system through structured diagnosis, planning, and implementation activities with the participation of system stakeholders. An equally important objective of the demonstration project was to identify strengths and shortcomings of the MIP methodology and to generate recommendations for managing its future applications. The data used to analyze the demonstration project's management were obtained through formal interviews and informal conversations with individual participants, program review and feedback sessions, and records of meetings and individual communications. Lessons about the project's management are categorized in six areas: the initial exploration phase, initial planning, participant on-boarding, formation of the process management team, development of the local control group, and evaluation of the project. A key aspect of conducting a change process such as the MIP for improving the performance of agricultural systems, is that issues affecting the system may be difficult to identify early in the process or may require longer-term solutions, extending beyond the life of the formal process. Because of this uncertainty, a detailed action plan, the role of participants, and measures for evaluating progress or impact are also likely to be uncertain early in the project. Nevertheless, it is critical that the application, including these elements, be defined as concisely as possible, especially relative to scope and funding, while still allowing the flexibility to address a potentially wider range of issues. Given the nature of the MIP, those responsible for its management need to be technically proficient, experienced with team management techniques, sensitive to the local political environment of natural resource management, and when necessary, willing to challenge stakeholders' initial understandings of issues.