What to do when your project seems jinxed

It's been a while since we've had a project that's jinxed. I don't mean an actual supernatural jinx, though some projects feel that way: just one bad thing after another. As a manager, what do you do about it?

There are several reasons a project might suffer a series of unfortunate events.?

1. Synchronicity. Sometimes 'bad luck' is just how statistics work. That’s okay. The real problem is when it triggers any of the following issues.
2. A bad fit. Sometimes, you’re forced to work with the wrong people or on the wrong project. Perhaps your collaborators keep letting you down. Or your sales team has promised something your team doesn’t do. As you keep going, only bad things happen.
3. Infection. Sometimes, one person's negative energy infects others on the project. As that negativity spreads, it leads to a lack of care and attention across the team, and a shortage of empathy for collaborators.
4. Neglect. Sometimes, a project loses its champion, and no one steps in to carry the flag.
5. Abandonment. On any project, each person has their abandonment point: the moment in their personal timeline when they just can't care any more. In a well-managed environment, projects finish or people move on before they reach their abandonment points, but sometimes they're unavoidable.

As project leads, it's our job to spot these problems early and to act decisively to fix them. Once the jinx is set, it won't go away without big, bold changes. It certainly won't go away by accident, or by just working a little harder.

When I look back over twenty-five years managing publishing and software projects, here are things I wish I'd done, and some I'm glad I did.

Trust the early-warning signs

When you’re landed with a project that’s a bad fit for your team, or a project that has fundamental problems, you might not want to notice that at first. You might wish away your niggles – that sense that things just aren’t quite right. Our normal emotional reaction to a new project is excited optimism, so, by comparison, early-warning niggles are a major red flag.

If you’re not in an authority role, it can be hard or impossible to pause the project, but if it keeps going, you know you’ll be fielding one disaster after another.

If no one’s going to hit the brakes, then go faster: quicken the pace of delivery. If you can deliver documents and designs to clients really early, they’ll be able to see what is actually feasible within the project constraints. And that will help to raise the appropriate alarms. Often, bad-fit projects keep going because the initial discovery phase was skipped or abbreviated, so you need to use early deliverables as a proxy for that discovery work.

Seize control

If an external partner keeps messing things up, and you can’t not work with them, you have to seize control of as much of the project as possible. Sometimes, doing their job costs you more than you budgeted for, but often their mistakes will cost you even more than that in time.

Problematic external partners can be hard to lose if your client absolutely requires their participation. It's like group-work at school, when your teacher teamed you up with the kid you couldn't stand. If you have no choice but to work with the partner, and can't do anything to change the way they act, you may have to lean into an 'us-and-them' mentality, so that your team draws positive comradery from the challenge of enduring a common struggle for a greater purpose.

Meanwhile, make sure you’ve documented areas of responsibility, and mutual dependencies, for you and the partners. Then help the client enforce that accountability, setting a good example yourselves. For example, track the delivery of work in an online document that everyone can see.

Still, if the partner is messing things up for you, they’re probably messing things up for your client, too, and you don’t even know about it. If an overabundance of tact keeps you from raising this with your client, be bold and raise it. Just remember, if you start to rant about the problem together, avoid the temptation to get loud and mean. That can be fun at the time, but leaves you feeling icky and diminished. You want to stay above the negative energy the partner’s performance has introduced.

Excise negativity early and firmly

If a team member groans and sighs every time the project comes up, call that out immediately. It's important to be empathetic with them, of course. It's also important that the team understands how unfair that negativity is on everyone else. It makes the project lead's job much harder, now that they have to walk on eggshells. It makes newcomers anxious. And it leaves everyone looking for reasons to hate the project.

At the same time, make sure you understand why they feel so negative. You may have to deal with an interpersonal conflict you weren't aware of, perhaps with a toxic client or external partner.

As we all know, toxic clients should be let go. They are not worth the money. That can be very tricky to do, and can take time and patience. If you do need to fire a toxic client, tell your team you're doing that, and keep them informed about the plan and the process. If your team knows you have their back, that in itself can lighten the negativity.

Move people on

If someone has hit their abandonment point, they might not even know it. But they'll be mightily relieved when you point it out and acknowledge that it happens to everyone at some stage. Then get them off the project as swiftly as possible, and bring in someone fresh.

Inspire a new champion

Every project needs a champion: the person who cares for every aspect of it, and makes sure everything happens properly. To be a champion, they have to feel a real sense of ownership over the project. The best project leads have a personality that lends itself to this: when they take something on, they see its performance as an expression of their own value (for better or for worse). To inspire someone to be a project's champion, you have to know them well enough to know what appeals to them: the project's social impact, its art, the financial reward, or the glory, and so on. And then you have to trust them with the project, and celebrate their progress.

If you get this wrong, they'll hit their abandonment point almost instantly. In which case, see above: move people on.

Take out the sunk-cost trash

Sometimes, you got garbage in, and you're getting garbage out. Now you're trying to fix that or work around it. I once commissioned software from a contractor and, while their code kind of worked, it was unmaintainable rubbish. It took me far longer than it should have to throw it out and start again, because admitting that I’d let that happen was embarrassing. But I'm glad I did.

It can feel so expensive and wasteful to throw out the work you've already done. And it’s hard to compare what that sunk-cost trash cost you to what keeping it around is going to cost you. If there's any feasible way to start from scratch, do it.

Let it go

Sometimes, you're the problem. You're the negative one, or you’ve reached your abandonment point. That's okay. If it’s your project to kill, kill it. And if you can step away and leave it to others, even if they might not pull it off, step away.

There is so much else you could be doing with your time. Even if you have to start again, somewhere else, from scratch, you're better off. You get to live that old saying: 'If only I could do it again with what I know now!'

In short: don't underestimate how boldly you must act when the jinx sets in. The bolder you are, the more likely you’ll get a big, clear outcome, or learn a big, clear lesson – and those are the best kind.

Thanks to Laura Meredith, Director of Operations at Electric Book Works, for her invaluable input on this article.