How to protect yourself from a failing project
Picture the following - you were invited into the company's top priority project as a stakeholder. Everyone in the C-suite came to the kick-off meeting and told you how the company's fortune relied on this project. You were working side-by-side the future executives, and finding favour in them. Then two months in, the project was dis-integrating in front of your eyes.
Instead of a journey rich in personal development opportunities, your personal reputation was close to being destroyed through association with the project. You had to dedicate all your working hours to this project, and became the source of delay for the other projects you were also supporting. You had put all your efforts in, yet the project was still going in circle. It seemed like a bad dream without an escape route.
If this sounds familiar to you and wonder what you should do, then read on. The Industry Box team will go through the early signs a stakeholder should look out for, followed by what's happening behind the scene, and finally how to protect your work life while continuing to support the project team.
A deteriorating connection between the stakeholders and the project is usually a sign of project failure
The stakeholder group is the first line of support for the project team to lean on in time of need. During good times, the project team has ample capacity to nurture the stakeholder group and groom for contribution.
When trouble outgrows the project team and engulfs it, the team diverts stakeholder nurturing time towards immediate actions on the trouble to "act fast". Stakeholders' connection with the project deteriorates from the start of this dis-integration. You can detect a few subtle changes:
You toggle between information feast and famine
No one likes bad news, especially in delivering them. The project team will naturally want to delay bad news in the hope of finding a miracle cure, or until they cannot wait further.
You on the receiving end will start to hear information-poor updates not announced in the same confident tone for weeks on end, followed by a bolt of bad news that leave everyone astounded.
You are not sure how to contribute to the project
When the project team turns towards actions for efficiency, they miss out on planning out how a piece of work should be distributed between the core team and the stakeholder group. They sometimes make decisions on areas where stakeholder oversight is expected. At other times, they let out proposals prematurely, expecting the stakeholders to fill the design gaps.
You are put in a difficult position. Are you expected to rubber-stamp on the design, or reject it and demand re-work? Should you go beyond your remit to plug those gaps, or put on a strict stance and ask them to "do it properly"?
Going that extra mile means you become responsible for areas you shouldn't be, whereas taking a strong position creates stakeholder-project team tension and risks being blamed for obstructing progress.
You go through never-ending discussions
All the decisions made in a failing project are about minimising loss, as the "landing between a rock and a hard place" saying goes. Whichever decision comes out, there will only be "deeply losing" and "slightly winning" groups.
Whoever is in the "deeply losing" group will want an alternative decision, while the "slightly winning" group cannot muster strong rationale to defend. What's next? The decision is re-opened in the hope that new insights come in to point towards a mutually beneficial option.
You have just gone through one round of heated discussion to arrive at a decision, and have burned a few bridges. Now it's all over again...
Protecting yourself in a failing project means keeping two arms' length from the project to move out of the "immediate action" mindset
If the above tale-telling signs flare up in one of your projects, you are about to get into trouble. The easiest way to protect yourself is to exit the project, which you are not considering. You are going to stay in the project, help it get through the tough time and return it to glory. All this without losing sight of your own wellbeing nor other projects' needs.
We suggest the "keeping two arms' length" method, as in driving. It's about taming the urge to start work, make comments and assign judgements as soon as the project unfolds. That's the main cause of crashing and burning in a failing project.
A failing project has more-than-enough complexity for the project team to work through. Half-baked contribution from stakeholders will add to the complexity for the project team and create confusion among the stakeholders.
By staying two arms' lengths from the project, you create an "action buffer" that allows thinking, observation, harmonisation and reflection to take place. All before the next course of action is due. Better actions, more simplicity, less argument, and everyone focuses on the big picture.
In practice, keeping two arms' lengths works out like the following:
When project team narrates the complex situation, expect it to get more accurate and detailed over time
The project team takes a fine balance between keeping the stakeholders connected to the project versus waiting for the full situation to clear up and give a definitive picture. The former is much preferred - the team can practise the narration and see gaps for themselves, while the stakeholder group has more time to get prepared.
Give the team the time it needs. When they narrate the situation for the first time, don't judge and plan work on that basis. Let the situation sink in, and let the team continue to explore and come back with the second and third narration. When the narrations stabilise, that's when the project team has a good grip of the situation. You can now start playing your active stakeholder role.
When you feel the need to contribute, start by raising open questions that point out gaps in the narration
At normal times, stakeholders would receive the design brief with the contribution request and start working. In a failing project, the project team will have neither the latest brief nor a clear request. The top priority is to identify both.
Play your part in the identification process. Utilise your expertise to sniff out unexplored areas or emerging risks, and alert the project team do the discovery. When both the brief and the request are formulated, the entire project team and stakeholder group would be good to move forward for some solid action.
When you work with other stakeholders, watch out for conflict points and act on them
A good project is like assembling a jigsaw puzzle, takes effort but there is a clear picture to work towards. A failing project is like assembling ceramic fragments in an archaeological site, you have no idea what it should look like and different people could have wildly different views. Conflicts arise from this acute difference.
If the conflicts are brushed aside, they will put stakeholders on divergent courses that create factions. Never-ending discussions ensue. As conflicts arise, categorise them and decide which are minor (not worth arguing over), which ones could be validated through more facts, and which ones need assumptions to be made and reviewed at a later time.
When you are not pre-occupied with actions, reflect on the project's status quo
Failing projects expend a lot of energy trying to return to its status-quo, often by hollowing out the design (looks the same from outside but messy and unstructured inside) and forcing the same team to work harder. The question is - is the status quo worth chasing, and if not, what's the new status quo that's sensible to the project and acceptable to the company?
When you are no longer chasing after actions or handling factional arguments, you have opened up free, quiet time to explore the project from alternative angles. You can put on your lateral thinking cap or go through competitors' case studies. You can re-assemble the narrative or take surrounding materials into consideration. You can engage in the same project, contribute through a greater variety of activities, and create more value than just opting for action after action.
Bottomline: It only takes a few stakeholders to create enough space for the failing project to manoeuvre out of failure
When you act on the "keep two arms' lengths" advice, you are protecting yourself from meaningless busy work that harm your wellbeing and the progress of other projects you are supporting.
When a small number of stakeholders and project team members act on this advice, the default emphasis on "immediate actions" will loosen, and suddenly there is space for the project team and stakeholder group to get the narrative right, re-build connection with the project and reflect together on the status quo.
All it takes is for you to make a start, and let other stakeholders and project team members to see the difference.
About Industry Box:
Industry Box is dedicated to introducing streamlined & frictionless stakeholder management, as we believe this to be a hidden productivity blackhole for most companies and managers.
Apart from raising awareness about this issue and promoting industry best practice, we have also designed a digital tool with all the best practices built in, so that managers & leaders can introduce and benefit from best-in-class stakeholder management without the learning curve.