PM101-23 Does Your Project Team Take A Moment To Pause, Reflect, and UNITE?

At this point, we have completed all of the work for FEL1 by EPCM. We have our SOW, Schedule, Cost Estimate, Design Basis, PFDs, and Budget. We have our internal forms completed.

Before you schedule a steering committee meeting...STOP. The pause between stimulus and response is worth gold.

BE CAREFUL.. THINGS COULD EASILY TURN UPSIDE DOWN!

At this point, you know enough to present BUT pause. Before you do, have a mandatory review meeting with internal stakeholders and EPCM together to review the products.

Why?

In theory, the SME and key internal stakeholders have been a part of the management meetings and especially technical review meetings. BUT I have seen situations where the internal SMEs disagreed with the final design decisions of the EPCM.

It is better to review together and formulate a path forward than to go forward and fail.

Remember that the SOW is not locked. The design is not locked in stone. You can adjust more easily at this point than later. The cost of making changes now is less. The schedule interruption is less.

What works best at this point is for you, as the project leader, to present the material that has been created by the team to the team. A project engineer, someone different than the leader driving the conversation, takes notes on comments.

Why?

You want consensus at this point. Your team, owner and EPCM, need to be united behind the product as the best solution at this point. With more funding and time, your team will improve and modify it BUT this is the best we have to offer to the business.

The presentation that you as the leader create to explain your funding request stays internal BUT supporting information is fair game for discussion. Hopefully, your EPCM helped with finishing up the forms since they knew the data best.

This meeting at the end of FEL1 phase should have the team united and ready to tackle the next phase. We will ask the business for funding to continue the FEL2 process based on the proposal we have received from the EPCM. We will add a bit of contingency to make sure we can keep the team in place between FEL2 and FEL3 while the business finalizes its funding decision.

All these things help to build internal and external trust. Without this trust, we can not have open disagreements and find the best solution. Without these disagreements, we can not hold each other accountable for the final decision OR the results that we obtain.

SO fight it out before you go out to represent the team's needs to the business. AND celebrate when the funding is approved.

The idea that seemed impossible is now starting to shape and look possible.

The transformation this week I would like for you as the leader to consider is the need for the pause to review, reflect, and unite. Unite behind the work that was created and formulate a strategy for winning the funding battle to move to FEL2.

My four cents...