We were only 3 minutes into the meeting but it was already starting to unravel. Passions were running high, voices raised, and it was going to get worse. There was nothing I could do but sit back and watch it unfold on the screen in front of me. Watching through my fingers, like you would a scene in a horror film – you know what’s coming, you don’t want to watch, but you can’t look away either.
There are times on projects where you see disaster looming on the horizon. You may be the only one that does. Sometimes you can avert it, sometimes you can’t. And sometimes you need a painful moment as a catalyst for change required to get everyone back on course. This was going to be one of those.
The Landmine Meeting
There was nothing special about the invite in the diary to suggest it was going to end the way it did. We’d been working on a project for the best part of a year, but to a large extent the two main areas had been working independently until a couple of months ago.
In this phase, collaboration was essential for progress – and it had been ok (ish). Enough to see some advances made, but not enough to give us confidence that we were headed for success.
This session was to bring the senior managers of the areas together to agree how to organise for the next few months towards the common goal. Simple and straightforward. It began harmlessly enough but soon turned into a blame game. Sides were chosen, walls went up, people took shots at each other. Some fair, some a little on the cheap side. After the meeting ended, the back and forth continued in the meeting chat for the next hour. Tit for Tat.
The issue for the project, was that the senior stakeholders were not aligned. Sure, they had proclaimed their alignment many times over the last year, but it was clear to anyone listening closely that there were nuances in the words used. Small differences in how they framed their commitments that pointed to a gap between them. During the earlier phase of the project this was a risk, but hadn’t presented huge problems. Now though we were all feeling the pain of the misalignment.
Those at the top had been increasing the pressure on the project to deliver. They were expecting results, soon – and people were starting to feel the strain. During this session it came to a head as difficult conversations could no longer be avoided.
The Limitations of Foresight
This blowup wasn’t entirely unexpected. The misalignment between these senior stakeholders had been obvious for months. It was surprising that it hadn’t happened sooner, but people had been avoiding the underlying issue that drove this misalignment for some time.
So, if you could see it building, and it needed to be addressed why didn’t you do something about it before it blew up?
Knowing something is about to happen, and being able to do something about it are two entirely different things.
Good project managers are acutely sensitive to issues which have the potential to impact the project’s progress. As such there will often be times when you see a problem coming down the tracks that others don’t see. Your job is to identify, assess, and act.
At times, you can act directly to address the issue.
There are other times when this action means bringing the problem to someone better placed to tackle it. But these escalations don’t always result in the action you hoped.
There can be a myriad of reasons: maybe they don’t see it as you do, underestimate the risk, or have other priorities. You can sometimes work around the inertia within your role’s limits. However, at times, you may have no choice but to let things take their course. Numerous external factors can impact your project, and they’re not always in your control.
In this case, the misalignment was rooted in unresolved aspects of an organisational restructure and the politics and power struggles that followed. Clear to see, but impossible to resolve from within the project itself. On the ground we had sought to drive alignment and cohesion at the operational level as much as possible. But that could only take us so far whilst the more structural issues remained.
Pain as a Catalyst for Change
It wasn’t a bad thing at all that this ‘blow up’ happened. It could definitely have been less painful if tackled earlier, but sometimes pain is needed for progress.
For all its flaws, this session ripped the bandaid off a problem that had been ignored for too long. And as painful as it might have been for some, with the wound now exposed, it could now be fixed.
Sometimes change is smooth and sometimes it’s painful.
Everyone learns differently. Some by watching, some by doing. Some people can learn from other peoples mistakes, and sometimes people need to make their own.
Some people need a nudge for action, and some need a kick. And some need a situation to blow up to focus their attention.
Building from the Rubble
When this does happen – and it will – resist the urge to jump in too quickly. If it’s got to the point where senior stakeholders are blowing up at each other you need to let the pressure drop before you can start to make meaningful progress.
There will come a moment, perhaps not immediately after the flare-up, when rationality will start to take over. That’s your window. Step in then, guiding the conversation towards the next steps, leveraging the clarity that comes with cooled heads.
Avoid a “I told you so” attitude at all costs. Instead, take solace in the accuracy of your intuition and use it as a springboard to propel the project forward.
Sometimes, the path to genuine progress and alignment requires traversing through the rough terrains of conflict and chaos. As a project manager, recognising and allowing these necessary explosions, while being ready to guide the subsequent reconstruction, is where you can truly shine.