Expect the Unexpected

There cannot be any doubt: Nobody wants to be in a project that is in trouble and may even be doomed to fail. And yet, oftentimes there is not much you can do to avoid it.

The project leadership pyramid and its principles serve as an excellent guideline for project success. Alas, they are no guarantees. So many things can go wrong along the way. You as project leader cannot control everything. If there is one thing that is certain it is that there is a great amount of uncertainty in virtually every project.

Let’s face it. You may be better off expecting the unexpected. What counts is that you realize early enough that your project is in trouble or that there are dark clouds on the horizon. The earlier you recognize it, the better the chances that you can get your project back on track. I am assuming that this is what you want.

And, there is good news. Just as the project leadership pyramid helped you set up and execute your project, you can apply the same principles to realign your proj-ect or rescue another projproj-ect. Let’s look at how to proceed.

First, as project leader you need to know where your project stands. In the last chapter we talked about the significance and value of status meetings. They come in

different forms: informal stand-ups, regular team meetings, lessons learned work-shops, and project reviews, be they internal or external. The project pyramid assess-ment guidelines outlined in the previous chapter can help you determine fairly clearly where your project stands at the moment and in which direction it is going.

This is the first step to get your project back on track. The real problem would be if you as project leader did not conduct regular reviews. Note that it may not even be necessary to conduct formal status meetings. The minimum you must do is go through the questionnaire by yourself. Again, you as project leader have to know where your project stands.

If the outcome of this analysis is that your project is indeed no longer aligned with its vision, collaboration rules, performance principles/values, learning culture, and quality standards, there is no reason to despair. You cannot control every factor responsible for project success. Trouble at one point may be inevitable due to inter-nal or exterinter-nal influences. However, this is no excuse for inaction. The previous chapters listed a number of challenges to the project leadership pyramid principles during project execution. Table 12.1 presents some of these internal and external influences. The section in the chapter where each topic was discussed is provided in parentheses.

No matter how great the challenge, as project leader there is always something you can do. Every challenge also poses an opportunity to excel — for you as the project leader, for individual team members, or for the team as a whole. And not every challenge causes the entire project to be in trouble.

Let’s define what we mean by dealing with a project in trouble. There are at least two scenarios. First, your project is no longer aligned to one or more principles of the project leadership pyramid. The good news is that the assessment showed there is a good chance that it can be realigned and brought back on track. The second scenario is not as positive. Your project is beyond repair. There is not much that you or anybody else can do to get the project back on track. The project is doomed to fail. As we will see later in this chapter, such projects are not always automatically terminated.

A project in trouble is not necessarily a bad thing though. At least there is no automatism. Take for example a project where the team atmosphere is poisoned.

After an initial good start, the team has split into various factions. There is no teamwork. Instead, antagonism and distrust are widespread, isolated and insular work practices dominate, and deliverables are late and/or of poor quality. This is truly a horror scenario. But it could also be simply a sign that your team is in its storming phase. If you have not conducted a team norming yet, do not wait any longer. Now is the time to do so. If you have already done so, review the results of the team norming and adjust them to master the present situation. A team norm-ing, or the evaluation and adjustment of the initial one, can help align the team, get it back on track and help develop a performing team. Although the crisis was highly stressful, mastering it together as a team brought all team members closer together. The team now forms a unit and performs on a high level. Team synergy

effects take place, performance levels are at a peak, information sharing is daily business, and the quality of the regular deliverables has improved significantly and meets all requirements.

In this example, the troubled project was actually turned around into a per-forming project. Without the obvious team crisis the necessary alignment activities may have never been conducted. The project could have failed.

The key to this turnaround was a thorough assessment of the present situation.

It is absolutely crucial that you know where your project and your team stand and in which direction you are moving. Furthermore, you need to be able to decide if you can solve the situation by yourself or if you need help from the outside. If you think you can do it by yourself or with the help of your team, project realignment table 12.1 Internal and external Influences on project success

Internal Influences

Project Leadership

Pyramid Principles External Influences - Superficial,

not-thought-through vision (11.7.1.3)

Vision - No leverage or control to build vision (11.7.1.1)

- Lack of (team or individual) commitment for ongoing results (11.7.5.2)

- Poor quality (11.7.5.3)

Results - No interim results possible (11.7.5.1)

- Lack of (stakeholder) commitment for ongoing results (11.7.5.2)

measures are in order. If, on the other hand, you cannot do it by yourself and some-body else comes in to help, project rescue missions are necessary.

Let’s turn to the first scenario, where project realignment is a viable approach.

We look at two examples. In the first example in Section 12.2 the project is behind schedule and over budget. You gather the stakeholders and align the project objec-tives and stakeholders’ expectations. The second example in Section 12.3 outlines how you can involve your team in realigning your project.

12.2 realigning project objectives and