The project leader, a seasoned vice president, knew they were behind. The project team knew too. Everyone knew the importance of the project, knew how tough it was, knew they were late and knew something had to be done.
“I don’t see much choice,” the VP said to his advisors. “I think I have to ask the team to work the weekend.”
All the heads were nodding. The head of the outside consulting firm assisting with the project enthusiastically agreed. “I’ll have my team cancel their flights and extend their hotel rooms over the weekend. We’ll all be here in force!”
One advisor demurred. “Do we need everyone to work the weekend? Maybe we need just one or two of our sub-teams to work.”
The consultant wrinkled his nose as if he just smelled something rotten. “Everyone is behind. Every area has fallen short of their milestones.”
The VP asked, “do we even know which teams we’d ask to work? It seems most fair if we ask everyone to work across the entire project team. No, it’ll be ‘all hands-on deck’ this weekend, to get some of this time back.”
Later that day, the message went out to the entire team. Everyone understood, many had seen it coming. Those with family responsibilities and events were excused, but everyone else dutifully showed up and . . . worked. Configuration teams configured. Testing teams tested. Process teams documented the solution. Quality and compliance folk reviewed and approved work documentation. Data teams cleaned and uploaded data. The training group created training materials.
The fallout began a week later.
“Hey did you review that document we worked on last weekend?”
“Did anyone test the code we uploaded during the weekend?”
“Have we used the training material we just went out of our way to create?”
Indeed people worked that weekend, creating tangible output which then . . . just . . . sat . . . there. “I don’t think anyone’s done anything with the work we did last weekend.”
With time, the situation worsened. Even weeks later, much of the work performed that weekend remained “shelved” awaiting “next steps” by another team that had different priorities. The project team was pretty convinced, and peeved, at working a weekend “for no good reason.” The hall talk among sub-teams was blistering.
“Whose idea was this anyway?”
“I gave up time with my family so that I could create work that no one’s looked at weeks later?”
“That’s the last time I’m giving extra to this project. We don’t seem to know what we’re doing.”
The VP’s credibility was effectively trashed. Innocently enough, he made the crucial error of thinking that all project work is of equal priority. He failed to realize that only some of the teams were working on critical tasks – but his project management method failed to guide him in knowing what those were.
Don’t let ignorance of true priorities destroy your credibility. #GPSChallenge
