Things Don't Always Go To Plan...

As most of you will know, things sometimes have to be changed so that they can become better.

I got to experience this when it was decided that the education campaign I'm currently helping to develop had to undergo major changes.

Luckily, it wasn't because I had been doing everything wrong (phew). The education campaign I'm working on is to try and increase the registration numbers of off-road vehicles, and it was originally decided that we would be targeting the people who ride and own them. After discussions with the communications team and careful consideration, we decided that this wasn't going to be very effective, and that it's outside the scope of responsibilities for the government department I'm interning with. Instead, the campaign's main focus will be encouraging local governments to enforce the regulations that are under their control and encourage members of their communities to engage in safe riding practices.

This meant that the campaign that I had spent about six weeks working on had to be almost completely changed. Changing the key stakeholders meant that the objectives, key messages, communication tactics and the implementation timeline all had to be changed - which is essentially the entire thing.

Surprisingly, I didn't find myself disheartened or annoyed about this. Instead I took it as an opportunity to learn that things won't always work straight away, and to not get to attached to an idea, because it may not work out. Looking back, I'm happy it happened, because I was able to get more experience out of it.

 Zoe