The Curious Case of Schoolboy Sponsors

Underneath the inherent innocence of this compound phrase – Schoolboy Sponsors – lies a matter of great importance reduced to insignificance. Who doesn’t want a sponsor who is curious, energetic, and competitive like a schoolboy? But along with such traits come inattentiveness, indecisiveness, and inexperience –traits that can create havoc in a corporate setup especially when you are running multi-million-dollar projects. How they ended up becoming a project sponsor, with such naiveness, is a topic for another day! Another article maybe…

So, who are these Schoolboy Sponsors? There are many bad ways to choose a project sponsor – a choice made only due to their position in the organization or sometimes due to the utter disregard of the organization about the relevance of a sponsor or most of the time when there is no alternative. All of these are perfect examples of Schoolboy Sponsors.

The other reason that I call them Schoolboy Sponsors is: You’d recall when you were in school, there were these programs wherein you could be the editor of the newspaper of your city for one day or maybe become a fireman for a day. Imagine you were this editor or fireman for a day, and you enter the newsroom (or the fire-station) – at no point do you challenge the reason why you are in that position. All you, as a schoolboy, care about is doing the role to the best of your ability. Frankly, in their intent (and dedication), these Schoolboy Sponsors are exactly like that little boy in the newsroom (or the fire-station).

And the only difference between a schoolboy editor and a real-world project sponsor is the degree of freedom the schoolboys have – they are pretty much quarantined in terms of the effect that they have on that newspaper. But in the case of Schoolboy Sponsors, there are no such guardrails. And when such sponsors start naively believing that they are in that position because of their ability to be great sponsors, that's when things start going south. The graph below shows the startling correlations between sponsors’ effectiveness and the project meeting its objectives.

So, with the definition of Schoolboy Sponsors firmly established, let me articulate what this article is about. This article is about:

1.???? How do Schoolboy Sponsors screw-up projects?

2.???? How to identify the Schoolboy Sponsors, before it is too late?

3.???? How not to be a Schoolboy Sponsor?

?

1.??? How do Schoolboy Sponsors screw-up projects?

One of the most important values that a sponsor brings to on table, through his or her wisdom of delivering complex projects, is an innate ability to smell (or bet on) the right problem statement. Central to this is to understand the fact that instead of looking at the effect one needs to analyze the cause. What is causing the problem? A lot of times, you don't have a lot of data to arrive at the right root cause of the problem. There's no silver bullet to figure out what the root cause of the problem is. Beyond a point, it is the sheer intuitiveness marinated by vast experience that forms the bedrock for a sponsor to correctly identify a problem statement.

Now our Schoolboy Sponsors have a problem at hand – their inexperience. One way to overcome this problem is to ‘listen’. Deep Listening. Listen to as many people as possible and arrive at a broad idea about the problem statement. The solution, though, comes with its own set of problems – the sponsors have an onerous job of sieving out the good inputs from the bad to determine the correct problem statement. How do you distinguish between overzealous team members – who use lung power, positional strength, and situational strength in the project and want to contribute to the project vs team members who mean well but don’t have organizational backing, articulateness, and deep understanding of the processes. Not listening to the former could end up being a nuisance and listening to the latter could end up draining your intellect. Where do you draw the line? How do you neutralize the first type of project team members and accentuate the second type? Here’s where the Schoolboy Sponsors screw-up! They pick the wrong horse and end up jeopardizing the project.

The situation is exacerbated when such sponsors consistently pick the wrong horse!

• Picks up Project / Program Management faculty over Change Management.
• Stymied by Governance and Committees over being the champion of Adopt (as against Adapt).
• Obsessed with cutover plans versus operational readiness or first 90-day plan post-go-live.
• Focused on budgets and change request approval versus prioritization of delivery that matters.
• Stickler for vacuous deadlines as against having the boldness to make tough decisions.

?

2.??? How to identify Schoolboy Sponsors?

Schoolboy sponsors are very difficult to track down and identify. Before you conclusively lay hands on them, the project is either ‘somehow delivered’ or ‘beleaguered with no recourse’ – in both situations, the focus shifts to the ‘collective effort of the group’, rather than the clinical isolation of the single largest contributor. A good way of making it count is to document the learnings in a ‘post-project lessons learnt document’ – but it is usually organizationally infeasible and culturally prohibitive to make such callouts! ?

Some behaviours, like the following, are straightforward. If you find them, you must take the necessary action:

• Tries to take over control of your project.
• Fails to take risks seriously.
• Indulges in some form of corrupt practice.

But then there is this other side of the coin too. The apparent behaviours need to be thoroughly validated, before taking any action. Sometimes, the fault may not lie entirely with the sponsors too. So, the following five broad areas that come to my mind:

Attribute#1: I am a micro-manager and I’d count the sesame seeds on each burger bun, just to make sure they all feel equally important. ?

… but one needs to determine if is it a trust issue vs a control issue.

?

Attribute #2: I have no idea what success looks like, but I will surely hold you responsible when I do not get it.

… but you need to determine if it is about unclear expectations leading to scope creep vs meeting expectations leads to revised ambitions.

Attribute #3: I am the emperor of Speaking off-messages, and I am convinced that there are merits of using potato chips as intergalactic currency.

… but one needs to determine if this comes from a position of ignorance or malice.

?

Attribute #4: I need you to analyse, collect data, analyse more and search for more data on all the ten scenarios before I can make a decision or maybe not.

… but one needs to determine if the person is unable to reach a decision vs unwilling to make a decision.

?

Attribute #5: You are free to frame your agenda, as long as they are mine.

… but one needs to determine if the person who forces a change of agenda is coming from an angle of glory-seeking power play or responsibility shedding safety-net.

?

3.??? How not to be Schoolboy Sponsors?

Well, let me straighten up the double negative first. The real point of this section is to articulate ‘how to be a good sponsor’.

In many organizations, the real purpose of a sponsor often gets diluted, and obfuscated by the anointment of a very senior or high-ranking person who ‘signs the check’. The role of a sponsor is far more than this – a sponsor is that one person or a set of people who are crystal clear on the value that the project brings to his or her organization and from this point alone they derive their position and power. Now because they know the value, they naturally inherit the power to condemn mistakes and the power to condone honest ones. And that's what makes a good sponsor.?

What the sponsor needs to be:

#1 Someone with Authority, Credibility, and Capacity

#2 Someone who understands the subject matter, the organization, and its environment.

What the sponsor needs to do:

#1 Get the problem and the solution right:

• Clearly understand the problem to be solved.
• Ensure the solution fixes the problem.
• Know the big issues and what is needed to resolve them.

#2 Get the team right:

• Build the right team to solve the problem.
• Hold the team accountable for results.
• Be the advocate, coach, influencer, and battering ram.

#3 Take tough decisions:

• Know where “good enough” is; find the balance between over-engineering vs over-simplifying.
• Ensure the project finishes strong.
• Know when to pull the plug.

Additional Reading and References:

?

https://rindle.com/blog/10-project-management-challenges-and-how-to-overcome-them-effectively

https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/top-ten-attributes-great-project-sponsor-7422

https://www.projectmanagement.com/blog-post/12918/a-true-story-of-a-bad-sponsor#_=_

https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/sponsor-face-organizational-change-11131#:~:text=%E2%80%9CA%20sponsor%20provides%20resources%20required,management%20level%20across%20the%20organization.

https://www.prosci.com/blog/primary-sponsors-role-and-importance

https://www.prosci.com/blog/sponsor-checklist-for-change-management

https://www.myvirtualchangemanager.com/blog/the-role-of-a-change-sponsor

https://onlinepmcourses.com/rogue-project-sponsor/

https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/3-signs-that-you-are-a-bad-project-sponsor/

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/essential-role-project-sponsor-comprehensive-guide-wellingtone/