Reflections on the Big Day

The adrenaline builds as you lead up to the Big Day. Is everything in place, will it all go well, will anyone drop out at the last moment, what is everyone wearing, will all hell break loose? You’ve spent months or years planning it all out. The seating plan, the invite hierarchy, the order of speeches on the day, the catering. Mostly though you are just really hoping that it all works for many years to come.

You could be forgiven for thinking I am talking about a wedding. I’m talking about a project launch. The day you switch it all on and hope that everyone’s hard work is enough. The awards, the accolades and the acclaim will come later, maybe. For today you just want the whole thing to work, operate like it should and like it did in testing. For it is a known thing that the reveal of any project to the public is the day it is most likely to develop the fault that has lurked in the shadows throughout the trial run or test phases. Waiting to spring itself into being, unleash the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse and grind your shiny new bauble project to a halt making you all look fools in front of your assembled audience of dignitaries and press.

It doesn’t always go down like that. What project people know is that it might. We know that all the contingency planning in the world might not get you out of it quick enough to avoid the embarrassment or the headlines. So why do people in projects put themselves through such heartache time and again. After all at the end of a project everyone is exhausted. The team have often started to demobilise before the end, resources are always constrained by that point and people have been working on their exponential effort and energy for far too long.

The reality is that if you love projects then your project launch is your opening night. The potential that something could go wrong only adds to the electric atmosphere backstage. You want a flawless performance and you have a back up plan for many of the things that would go wrong anyway. We are project people, solving problems is our thing.

What I love most about a project launch is the camaraderie. The ‘we are in this together’ mentality. Like you all made a great big beautiful shiny bauble together. Everyone sees the bauble on the launch day but only you, the project team know the blood, sweat and tears it took to get it spherical and shiny for all to admire. The shared pride in creation of a project is immense. If you like to be part of a community (or maybe a mob!) it’s incredible because you all know that not one of you could have achieved it alone.

I miss that in working from home. I write this as I wait for a project to launch later today. It is a digital project so even in normal times it wouldn’t be opened with a ribbon cut, a fireworks display or by smashing Dom Pérignon on its bow. It would be a small gathering and a trade press event.

But we the project team would have gathered. We would huddle and fuss and contingency plan and almost celebrate before stopping ourselves unless we tempted fate. We would feel the safety of the tribe in the prelaunch lead up. As soon as it’s over and the comms team gave us the ‘that went well’ nod we would heave a collective sigh of relief and celebrate.

I tend to work on public projects so champagne and oysters are less likely than tea and biscuits. It matters not as everyone by now is giddy on the success. Laughing about the challenges, sharing stories of the difficult times along the way, congratulating each other and knowing that we all share a massive sense of relief and yet also some grief that it is all over bar the snagging!

So today instead we will send each other well done emails and maybe tell our friends or families that thing we worked on for a year is launching. We might call each other and say we hope to work together again.

The project has worked well being developed in a virtual working environment and the launch of a digital project is by necessity virtual. It’s that backstage gathering that I miss. ?

As we emerge back towards more normal times, I look forward to future project launches in person as no teams or zoom call can beat the comfort of the crowd as you keep your eyes peeled for the horsemen.