Escalations in Project Management

Escalations in Project Management

Is escalation Science? Or is it an Art? Is it good? Or is it Bad? Does it help the project? Or does the project manager pay a huge price by ending up with demotivated people? Why are so many people great at it? And why are some people just terrible with this? What makes escalations work? Is it the reprimand? Or something else? 

These questions can be debated endlessly. What really matters is that very few project managers ever make effective use of escalation mechanism. Some overuse it, and some completely avoid escalations fearing conflict.

The truth is that both of these approaches (overuse or avoidance) are harmful for the project.

Lets start with the basic understanding that every project has a well defined escalation mechanism which gives clarity to the project team members about what, when and who to escalate to.

Science vs. Art – Escalation usually follows the defined escalation mechanism and therefore, the approach can be considered scientific, however, Escalations only work at the right time, to the right person, with the right information and just to the right amount. This way, escalation is an ART !

Simply put, escalation is the process of highlighting an issue to a higher authority to ensure awareness and resolution.

If escalation is so simple, why it is so difficult? I believe the difficulty in escalations comes from some (or all) of the below:

1.   Conflicts – escalation has the potential to create conflicts and clashes if taken as a complaint against the person involved

2.   Personal – Unless a healthy environment exists, escalations are taken extremely personally and may result in revengeful counter-attacks

3.   Hesitation – to avoid conflicts, many people hesitate in escalating

4.   Too much empathy – some project managers struggle with escalating issues if they feel all the possible actions are being taken and that escalation will only reflect poorly on the hard work

5.   Loss of control – escalations and the ‘noise’ they create build a perception that the project is going out of control

Is there something called too much escalation?

The simple answer is – YES. Remember the Cry Wolf Story? [i]

So, before escalating, ask yourself :

1.   Have you made a good attempt to find a solution and reached a dead-end?

2.   Will the delay in resolution impact the project deliverables?

3.   Would anyone at a higher authority need to know of the issue? (or – would it be marked trivial?)

If the answer to any one of the questions above is “Yes”, it is time to escalate.

Effective escalation – tips and tricks:

1.   Ensure stakeholders are aware of the escalation process

2.   Create a culture when it is okay to escalate the issues timely to the next level without fear of aggravating the issue (believe me – this is harder than you think)

3.   Provide data points, issues and provide clear and crisp description of the issue. Ensure clarity to facilitate faster resolution

4.   Ensure turn around time for the other party are respected. Unless the issue is too time-sensitive to wait.    

5.   Avoid Cry Wolf

6.   Escalate to the right audience

7.   Take strong measures if nothing works. Halt the project / Initiate additional audits – whatever it takes – to ensure the issue does not spoil the desired outcome

Endnotes:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[i] The often-shared story of a shepherd-boy who falsely cries “wolf-wolf” for getting villagers’ help. Soon the villagers stopped believing him. When the wolf truly came, no one paid attention to his cries, no one came to help him.