Building Programmatic Capabilities to Fight Gun Violence

Embracing the Iron Triangle

Not long after we purchased our home my wife and I did what so many young couples did at that time, we started a large renovation project. Looking back, I remember the courage it took for me to confront the builder – a grizzled man with so many homes under his belt and many more to go - to tell him that I would be the general contractor on the project.

Surprisingly, his response was short and discreet. He said, “Sure.” I walked away from what I thought would surely be a confrontation with a bit of a bounce in my step thinking that I had somehow mastered the game. Of course, to my chagrin I would soon find that it was a game that had not started.

In less than two months my house was framed and sheathed. The builder and his team loaded up his equipment, policed the area for garbage and then jumped into their truck ready to leave. Before departing, the builder sauntered over to me, shook my hand and said, “Good luck, you are going to need it!”

Looking back, it was like something out of a movie, where the foil highlights a flaw in the protagonist’s plan. Yet, at the time, all I was focused on was saving money and thought somehow I would come out ahead and build the house of our dreams.

Here was my challenge. In keeping up with the Joneses, we wanted all the best accoutrements, but we did not have the money to do so. We quickly found that if we leveraged our friends who had the skillsets in all the trades needed to renovate our house, we could achieve our goals. Nonetheless, what we did not know at the time was that it would come with a price.

When my house was finally completed, it had all the modern conveniences. The HVAC, plumbing, and electrical systems were all modernized, and the finish work has stood the test of time.

Walking through my home today, I am reminded of a lesson that still rings true twenty years later and is critically important for all to understand when embarking on any large project.

The Triple Constraints

In project management circles the Triple Constraint theory - a graphical aid often referred to as the Iron Triangle - assists project managers with being able to illustrate the success of a project while managing time and costs.

The theory says that all projects need to be performed and delivered under three constraints: “quality/performance,” “cost,” and “time.” By illustrating these constraints in each corner of a triangle, one can see how one side of the triangle cannot be modified without affecting the others.

These constraints are tied to one another but from a competing perspective. In other words, a tight “time” constraint to complete a project will mean increased “costs” if one wants to maintain high “quality.” Conversely, a tight budget will mean increases in “time” if one wants to maintain high “quality.” This is what happened to me with my house renovation project. We wanted to maintain high “quality” with a limited budget, so it took two years to complete the project because of our finite budget.

Of course, the old adage “you get what you pay for” can be another representation of this constraint theory. If you want something done fast, but cheap, the “quality” will surely suffer according to the theory.

Programmatic Success Should Not Rely on Chance

Over the past 25 plus years I have had the opportunity to travel the globe as a law enforcement practitioner, educator, trainer, evaluator, and sales consultant. I have experienced extremely successful law enforcement and public safety programs that serve as a model for other agencies. I have also spent time with agencies that require significant attention in terms of technological and policy upgrades to meet expectations. Of equal importance is that I have had the opportunity to review a multitude of grant applications over the years aimed at garnering monies to support public safety projects that run the gamut. Today, I am a bit greyer in the beard from my time as the “GC” on my home project. Now I can clearly see that the triple constraints that I previously paid no mind to are actually the underpinnings and drivers of successful public safety projects.

Last year, I wrote about a  National Institute of Justice (NIJ) funded  study on the development of New Jersey’s crime gun intelligence capacity in my blog post entitled Improving our Crime Gun Intelligence Capabilities.

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to view the Justice Clearinghouse webinar, entitled Reducing Gun Violence Through Integrated Forensic Evidence Collection, Analysis, and Sharing. The webinar underscored how the right leadership, a host of change agents, and a culture of innovation converged to produce something extremely exceptional for others to model around the nation.

Yet, it dawned on me that the success of New Jersey’s crime gun violence reduction project similar to my house renovation project, benefited from a fair amount of serendipity. How else can you explain the “perfect storm” that occurred?

Was it was providence that brought together a collaborative state police organization, with the foremost expert in reducing gun crime in the nation who would provide counsel to the burgeoning effort, and a program manager from the Northern New Jersey Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI), who supported the evolving technology needs of the effort that technologists were willing to take a chance on with research and development since the cause was true?

Despite the success, from the prism of the Triple Constraint theory, it is no wonder that New Jersey’s premier gun violence reduction capability took 15 years to fully actualize. Similar to most public safety agencies their budget was tight and to a degree even nonexistent to build those pioneering capabilities that in retrospect now appear to be fundamental. 

Remember, the Iron Triangle tells us that a tight budget means increases in “time” if one wants a high “quality” product. Better said, if what is ultimately sought by a committed public safety agency is value, and their resources (people, funding, and technology) are sparse or even unrefined then the project will certainly take a long time to fully mature. Sometimes 15 years!

Why Make Public Safety Wait 15 Years?

A primary objective of the NIJ 15-year study was to analyze the steps or phases involved with New Jersey achieving its model capability in order to provide a roadmap for other agencies interested in replicating those highlighted processes and competencies. To that end, the study achieved success, since the timeline and prospective roadmap to achievement were outlined in great detail for any reader to absorb.

Yet, like so many other case studies what may be lost in this story out of the abundance of appreciation for what was achieved is the human dimension required to lead such a large change effort.  

In a recent RF Factor post, George Belsky described that:

“Execution, then is where art and process meet reality, where the metal meets the meat. We can gather intelligence, debate courses of action, conduct analysis, and plan. In the end, though, we must “do.” Execute.”

With the Triple Constraint theory in mind, it is clear that execution cannot squarely rely on providence. However, if prepared and committed to execute then any good luck thrown your way can present greater opportunities to leverage.

A Call to Action

There should be no doubt that New Jersey’s premier crime gun intelligence capacities were advanced by multiple leaders and change agents over the years who continued to hand off their successes to one another.  Over time what has emerged is something special, remarkable, and extraordinary, and certainly worth emulating.

Yet, it was those “behind the scenes” mentors that guided the New Jersey team over the years to navigate the inevitable obstacles that inevitably presented themselves when challenging the status quo.

Agencies looking to ramp up their violent crime reduction capabilities either from their own initiative or because they are answering a grant are no different than those homeowners looking to start a renovation project to upgrade their homes with limited budgets.

Instead of going at it alone, it would be worthwhile for agencies to seek out those experts in the relevant fields that can translate how best to navigate the inevitable obstacles related to the involved people, processes, and technologies.

Any investment here can assuage the challenges presented by the Triple Constraint theory while positioning agencies to take advantage of those unforeseen opportunities that will indeed materialize.

Afternote

My home project took two long years to complete primarily because we chose to go it alone on a limited budget. My wife and I now laugh when we think back to when we had no kitchen for over a year, and our trek to the bathroom required us to walk over a plank covering an open expanse exposing the floor below. It wouldn’t be so funny today. Neither would a public safety project that takes 15 years.