Failure is not an option - speaking at the PMI Conference

I was delighted to be a speaker at the Houston PMI Conference this year.

Unlike the other presenters at the conference, most of whom are adept and well-honed speakers, I’m not very dynamic: no Tony Robbins, for sure.

?It was a one-time presentation, which I didn’t prepare or practice a lot for. But I got through. Most of the audience of roughly 50 were attentive, engaging, and supportive: surprising for the last session in the afternoon of the last day.

My topic was how to manage a derailed project. I highlighted two projects that technically didn’t fail but didn’t go as planned:

1. The Rockies Express Pipeline, the largest pipeline project ever built that ran $1.8Billion over budget, recovered by a rate increase.
2. The Boston Big-Dig, a massive tunnel project with a $2.6Billion budget that ran 10 years over schedule and will likely cost in excess of $20Billion. We’re all paying the note on this one.

First, I covered why these projects don’t fail, but still run off their tracks. This is more than likely because there isn’t enough risk analysis performed during the planning stage. A lot of known-unknown and unknown-unknown simply wasn’t realized or addressed.

When a project reaches that point of no return, or has a heavy contractual consequence if it doesn’t get done, it’s time to reevaluate how you’re doing things.

Optimism is just not a reliable strategy.

Blame game.

I used to get annoyed with a bunch of why questions rather than focusing on the solution. But asking why: how you got to where you’re at now, is important. What’s been happening up to this point hasn’t worked to keep the train on its tracks.

And if there is a fix, you should wonder why you haven’t been doing this in the first place.

You need to know how you got here before you can move forward.

New Game

The first thing to do is to elevate the level of urgency to get back the project on track; to recover the schedule or the budget (or just to stop the bleeding).

There needs to be a new execution plan – a very detailed plan – that addresses every issue on the table and anything in your sight. Then meet like crazy till there’s nothing left to meet on: as often as needed to maintain moment and drive home the plan.

Execution

Actively manage the budget and schedule. Scrutinize everything: every budget and every schedule item, every day. Break things down to the smallest increment possible, and don’t let them out of your sight till it’s done. Wake up, check the schedule, then go to the bathroom. No coffee till you’ve printed a cost report.

Hold people and vendors accountable at all levels, especially vendors and subs: and their vendors and subs. Nothing is too small to keep track of. Make a spread sheet and schedule for everything. ?

Turn a light on all items that may have some risk. The only thing left should truly be the unknown-unknown: the stuff you don’t know you don’t know. But hopefully someone on your lessons-learned team does know.

Finally, there’s a project that is truly too great to fail. This, of course, is you.

Burnout is not to be dismissed or taken lightly. It’s a symptom of a serious condition called depression, a condition that will kill you as likely as heart disease.

PM’s are not immune to the stress and anguish a demanding project can have. The moment you struggle to get up in the morning, is the moment you need to check your own self.

When your passion turns into anxiety, it’s time to get some help.