In past years, we have often had the pleasure of taking over projects which were deep in the red and to lead them back onto the path of success. The understanding that the project had to be revived and the decision that rigorous changes were necessary were always clear from the get-go. Initiating a turnaround is a measure which goes hand in hand with the public concession that the project is not doing well, that mistakes were made and that budgets were not invested optimally. Often, the initiation of this step leads to a drastic loss of image of the people in charge. How can you see whether your project is about to go under, and you need to act? If the following indications apply to your project, you must pay them attention and deliberate whether the initiation of measures for a turnaround is necessary.
1. Although all warning lights are on “red”, the offices are empty at 5:30 PM
When working on an exciting, innovative, and diverse project, high workloads are often part of the deal. While the lights in the regular offices have already been switched off, the project offices are still buzzing with life. If you’re wondering that the offices are already empty in the early evening hours, although there are still mountains of work to be done, there are multiple unsolved problems and everybody should be on red-alarm-mode, and there are only very few project members present who are all clicking around mindlessly, gazing into open space, then you have a culture problem in your project team. Motivation and dedication, but especially buy-in and personal identification of every project member with the project are fundamental factors for success. But if indifference and a mentality of “working by instructions” dominate the workspace, it is often an indication for lack of empathy of the project management or wrong staffing of key roles.
2. Work that was started does not get finished
If you notice a reduction in progress or tasks blocking each other, that can have various reasons. Designs and concepts whose creation were still celebrated as central milestones at the start of the project fail miserably when it comes to implementation and realisation. Lacking expert and system knowledge, making incorrect assumptions, underestimating complexity and disregarding central details or linked errors will bite back sooner or later, but no later than when it comes to viewing the incompatible results in the cross-functional group. Often it is open decisions which block progress. Lacking decision-making culture, continuous jettison of previously agreed-upon decisions, unclear decision processes or decision-makers who become bottlenecks due to chronic personal overload or from personal profiling, are in the way of finishing tasks.
3. Nobody can make precise statements about the project’s current status
With higher complexity, the risk rises that the project leaders take care of problem-solving more than they keep the overview of the project and lead it strategically and with structure. Standardised methods or central communication and reporting tools like meeting protocols or status reports are put off as unimportant with reference to the key word „agile“, or are filled with extenuations and white lies due to ignorance, wrong information or even on purpose. If the project leaders cannot give you precise statements about the project’s status at any given time, you have lost grasp of the project. If this has happened, then the project scope is also no longer under control and will happily change and grow. High time for you to either offer help to the project leader, or to exchange him for someone else.
4. Stakeholders are disappointed and uninterested due to unfulfilled expectations
Clever management of expectations is one of the central factors of success for any project. As soon as promises that were made aren’t adhered to, stakeholders become disappointed, which is followed by growing disinterest in the project and loss of trust towards the project leaders or the team. Support declines and priorities are shifted. And to make matters worse, unfulfillable expectations stress the team members and thereby deeply paralyse and demotivate them, which then turns into a vicious circle of even worse results, further unfulfilled expectations and finally leads to aversion of the stakeholders from the project.
5. Increase in conflicts between project resources
The project members who are directly involved have the best feeling for a project’s fate and most of them will try to lead the project towards success. However, if too many notices or cries for help by unqualified or overwhelmed superiors are ignored, problems are personified and they start looking for culprits rather than solutions, results are sugar-coated or there is even a conscious effort to hide information, there often is not a lot of pressure necessary to not only break the camel’s back, but to ram it into the ground. Surely you have often heard political situations which lead to conflict, stakeholders with hidden agendas which block project progress and thereby fire up trench wars, or single people who use the project as a stage for personal profiling, don’t accept opinions other than their and can’t subordinate themselves below the project’s success. Angry conflicts paired with a heightened project fluctuation are the visible result and are a clear indication for you that changes are necessary.
Act before it is too late
If you find a combination of any of the above indicators, not acting is not an option. As an alternative to cancelling, initiating a turnaround gives you a dramatic chance for your project’s resurrection.
For abaQon, the challenge of getting derailed projects back on track is the biggest incentive. A tested approach, proven competence and a plan to immediately – and if necessary, subtly – begin, are what distinguishes us. Every project is different, and each turnaround needs specially tailored measures. We will gladly give you more information on the abaQon method for “Project Turnaround Management”. Contact us.
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