Leading Critical Change

Are current issues symptoms of wider ills? A struggling project could be an opportunity to bring different ways of working into the organisation.

In normal circumstances it is tough to get buy-in for behaviour changes but within a troubled project all participants are usually very open to new approaches. If the project is rescued these approaches get credibility and the people involved gain experience and confidence and have developed new skills.

I get these benefits from every project I do. So do my clients.

It seems to be human nature to only take responsibility for those things that we can actually influence. Consider items designated as ‘dependencies or ‘interdependencies’ or ‘risks’. In many cases, because their resolution can be beyond the remit of project managers they are put on a ‘if this happens it’s not our fault as we told you so’ list at the back of reporting packs.

If in addition management have a ‘throw it over the wall and let them get on with it’ attitude then we have the conditions for a black hole – of ownership. On the one side the project team abdicating responsibility to a list, and on the other management not being close enough to the detail to understand what it will really take to deliver. A sure route to the abyss.

When I get involved in a project. I go straight for the stuff nobody wants and pick it up and carry it to the people who I know can deal with it. Moving these items from the periphery back to the centre of the management process brings focus on the real barriers to progress and has a huge impact. Being an independent, with experience and usually reporting to the MD helps me to bring the right people together to have the right conversations.

Being a tenacious SOB also helps.

Why do companies treat internal and external projects differently? External projects all have formal contracts stating what is expected – detailing the what, how, who, when, how much and how it will be managed – and requiring sign off, if large, by the senior sponsor, the FD and the MD.

It is common to find large projects with no formal contracting at all with their internal customers; even though ‘external bits’ have been contracted. Also the internal customer has not participated in external contracting even though the impact on them and level of commitment required may be huge.

This matters for projects requiring significant business change – like system acquisitions – where the participation of internal customers is essential for successful delivery and return on investment. Prior agreement to a sufficient level of detail is required to avoid investment mistakes and to secure commitment.

Formal signature of a ‘Change Contract’ focuses minds and surfaces issues early so they can be addressed prior to signature of external contracts.

Of course – you will have to sign my contract before I can help you ….

In over twenty five years of managing projects I have never seen a manager or stakeholder EVER read a task level project plan. That is not bad thing. A task level plan is not for communication – it’s for planning. Understanding the tasks required to achieve each milestone and deliverable is a valuable exercise which helps the team make commitments. But when the plan is finished – how to communicate to the wider organisation?

The first thing to understand is that the underlying tasks are NOT interesting to management or stakeholders. It is the milestones and deliverables ONLY that need to be displayed on the communicated version of the plan – together with their owners and the committed dates. That is all. When managing projects – the review of every task is a mind numbing and demoralising exercise for all involved. Review at the milestone level – allows owners to quickly recommit to dates – with drill down to task level only when firm commitments are not forthcoming or change.

Not listing all tasks on plans greatly simplifies things. Very often the complete plan can be shown graphically and on one page. Dates and owners can be shown against each component – and a traffic light (red, amber, green) ‘confidence level’ put against each date. This gives management the transparency they want. And it provides a simple but effective tool to manage commitment and highlight issues with, and an easy to understand picture to allow stakeholders to understand how things are going to happen.

The workload of Project Rescue is enormous – so the appeal of killing three birds with one stone is clear. But remember – to do this you need to be, like me, be a Professor of Powerpoint! Not everyone is. That is why I get paid the big bucks !

A compelling story is the only thing that maintains alignment and commitment of the whole business to a particular programme. If it is missing, not understood, or just not exciting or important enough – then the future of that programme is at risk. Also for my clients, this story is my identity in the business, and if it is not important and does not deliver real return to the business, then someone will rightly question why are they paying me?

In one of my largest projects, Tesco, there was a 1 page business plan. The project was a no brainer with a huge payback (in my opinion – especially for infrastructure projects – these are the only projects you should attempt).

We succeeded because every time there were conflicting priorities – out came the story. It didn’t take much ‘waving around’ of my annualised £18m savings and firm deadlines to move even the most senior people towards taking the right decisions.

A good story is invaluable.