By Susan Kuebler

The road to hell, as they say, is paved with good intentions.

We’ve all been there, at some point, in our lives.  People, businesses, and even governments have faced it.  With the best intentions in the world, a policy, a program, even a family rule designed to make life better, backfires right in your face. Project managers use risk analysis to try to foresee every possible scenario where the project can go wrong.  But often, even that is not enough.

Because there is a law.  A law that none of us can ignore.  The law of unintended consequences.

Take, for example, the No Child Left Behind legislation passed during Bush 43’s administration.  Passed with the best of intentions to ensure that all children received a quality education through increased federal spending, increased standardized testing, and more stringent qualifications for teachers, it left behind instead a legacy of bureaucratic…