If the story that follows has any resonance for you, if you recognize something of your organization, if you often share the anguish and frustration of these characters, then this is the book for you.
Project Kark Rash
Matt Mefford, a project manager at Nat Retail Brands Limited (NRB) and responsible for the new Training Center operational launch, again looked anxiously at his watch. In less than an hour, he would have to face Malcolm Shots, the CEO, and he had no idea what he was going to tell him.
They had launched on time, but it was a seriously cut back launch and certainly did not have the wow factor the CEO had wanted. The first delegate survey was terrible. Also, he looked again at the project finance report telling him he was 10 percent over budget. He knew the Marketing Director had already blamed pressure from his project for the delay in delivering the quarterly marketing reports. And, two of the project team went onto sick leave the day after opening, leaving the operation under massive pressure from Day One.
He also suspected one of his project team, who happened to know Malcolm socially from the golf club, had been bad mouthing him for acting like a dictator.
He just could not understand what had gone wrong. He had followed the company’s project management method to the letter, but the damned project team members just kept coming up with excuses and he just could not get them to pull their fingers out and get on with it.
Matt
Matt Mefford began his career in an IT department as a Business Analyst and later become a Project Manager gaining his PRINCE2 accreditation. He had run increasingly larger projects, initially in IT and later across other business areas and sectors. He was regarded as an experienced PM with a strong track record.
The New Training Center
Employing 250 at the head office and 15,000 operational staff, NRB was a national retailer with 300 sites around the country. Historically, staff were trained locally in the regions, but it was thought more effective to bring it all together into a single training center known as the STC. Large savings in external accommodation costs were expected, as well as establishing a center of excellence to act as a showcase for the company.
The Facilities team proceeded with the project of organizing the physical build of the training center and hotel. This ran to schedule thanks to the hard work of the Facilities team and their selection of an excellent prime contractor.
First Steps
At a routine monthly planning meeting, the CEO noticed the STC launch was due in six months, “Sally, what plans do you have to open this new facility?” he asked the operations director. “We’ve got six months to sort the internal fit out, the business processes, recruit the team and so on.”
“I’ll get onto it,” responded Sally.
“OK, Sally, this is a prestige launch. I don’t need to remind you it’s critical we have a smooth opening.”
Setting up the Project
Sally Opsdee had been running the Operations Division for five years, knew the business well, and had plenty of experience making successful changes within her division.
The next day, Sally met with Bob Bild, the Facilities Director. Sally and Bob had a good working relationship and often collaborated on projects. “I need a PM to get us over the line on this one. I’ve heard Matt gets things done.”
“When it comes to delivery, he doesn’t take any prisoners,” agreed Bob. “And he covers my back on audit, compliance and so on.” Satisfied, Sally pressed on, “I want to email out today, so we can crack on. I’ll obviously go to their managers first, but what do you think of these other people for the team? I’m thinking Linda, Jim, Mo, Rashid, Sid and Jo?”
“Yes, that’s all the ‘go to’ people. They’re the experts,” Bob added, “You might want to check they’re free.”
“No problem,” replied Sally. “I’m sure they can fit it in, great group of people.”
A couple of days later, Sally met with Matt. “This is a great chance to show your prowess as a deliverer. I’ve put together a brief outlining what we expect on opening.” Smiling she handed over a loose, half-page brief. “We really want to wow the delegates and set an example for how things should be done.”
Matt was a bit uncomfortable with the low level of detail, but this was his first project with Sally, and he did not want to come across as difficult. So, he let it go.
Planning the Project
Matt quickly organized an all-day workshop for the team to flesh out Sally’s limited brief. Enthusiasm for the new training center was high, and everyone turned up, keen to make an input.
“Thanks everyone for your attendance today,” opened Matt. He then covered the background to the project and the brief. “We need your help today to turn that outline brief into a project plan and flush out risks, assumptions and dependencies.”
Matt expertly guided the project team through a product-based planning session creating the product breakdown structure, covering all the deliverables. From this, the group was able to assess dependencies, identify assumptions, and document their risks and some high-level mitigation.
Afterward, the team was chatting over a cup of tea.
“I was impressed by Matt’s approach,” offered Linda. “Starting from what we need for go live, then planning backwards. The rest was a bit dull, but I see why we needed to do it.”
Jim was less comfortable, “Do you realize how much work this will be. Sally’s email didn’t make that clear. Another project done as homework.”
Rashid had worked with Matt before. “And Matt will make sure the project gets delivered so don’t expect an easy ride.”
“I think we’ve seen that already—two-hour weekly review meetings plus one-hour one-to-ones have already gone into my diary. I hope he realizes I’ve got a full-time job already,” Jo’s eyes turned skyward.
“Yes,” said Mo, “and they run through with no gaps for month end.”
Unaware of the tentative concern in the team, Matt was happy with his day’s work. He could now build a plan, assign resources, and provide people with their task lists.
Matt also wanted to make sure he had sign off from the business stakeholders so, once completed, he e-mailed a detailed plan and RAID log. The instruction was to review and sign off by the end of the week. Matt said he would assume sign off if he had not heard back by then.
He had his sponsor and weekly meetings with her, his team, his plan, and signoff, so he could crack on!
Running the Project
Six weeks later and Matt was starting to become anxious. He was with Sally in their weekly meeting. “I thought everyone had agreed the plan, but they’re always late on tasks, never complete their reports on time and miss loads of meetings.”
Sally was concerned. “This doesn’t sound like a ‘green’ project, Matt. I don’t want to scare the senior guys, but we do need to get on top of this.”
Sally leaned forward in her chair, “Well, Matt, it’s your job to sort it out. This project is just as important as anything else in the business right now. I’ll back you up.”
Emboldened by Sally, Matt became more assertive. He insisted on attendance at all meetings with the threat of escalation to line managers. Attendance improved, but Matt started to notice a certain coldness
and abruptness in conversions with the team, and tasks were still not getting done.
Matt decided he needed to have it out with the team. The plan review in the next meeting was conducted more rigorously and the team responded in kind. “I appreciate this is important but it’s not in my objectives.” “These meetings clash with the month end process.” “I do have a day job, you know.”
However, to his relief, the team did respond, and the project started to draw back to plan.
Back on Track, Sort Of
At the 12-week meeting with Sally, Matt was able to report the plan was nearly back on track. Unfortunately, Sally had to tell him she had had a series of complaints from the operational managers that the normal working of departments was being badly affected by the project.
Matt was starting to feel the pressure. “I’m between a rock and a hard place, I can’t win.” He pushed more pressure on the project team to deliver their project tasks. Further resentment built up among some of the team members. Given there are only so many hours in the day, some chose to prioritize the project, some chose to prioritize their business-as- usual activity, and some worked extra hours to do both.
On the run-up to opening, Matt proposed, and Sally very reluctantly agreed to delay some non-essential items till after opening. The project was behind schedule, and the opening day could not be moved. The complaints from the operational managers continued about how much time was being devoted to the project. And, two of the team had complained to HR about their workload and their concerns were being ignored.
Matt and the team had enough of a relationship to get the project across the line. It was not pretty, which frustrated Matt. It seemed less of a concern to the project team who were used to operational emergencies. However, the project had left a trail of minor chaos behind it. No one in the business was happy; there was a significant follow-on task list, and two of the project team members were signed off with stress.
Opening Day
Opening day arrived and the facility was in good shape. However, the arrival process for delegates was shambolic, and some of the internal fit-out had not been thought through. The Delegate Experience Survey was the worst ever recorded on an NRB training course. The budget was overspent by 10 percent. The project manager and the project team were an unhappy bunch and the operations director was disappointed. All their reputations had been affected, and it was a very tired group of people.
Meeting the CEO
Standing outside the CEO’s office, Matt paused before knocking on the door. It was a cold day, but he felt a bead of sweat run down the back of his neck. He was not looking forward to this meeting.
What was the key issue that Matt faced but never actually recognized? What did he get right, and where could he have done better?