Nice Group, Nothing Is Getting Done – Help

Dear Exhausted in Publishing

Yes. It really does sound like you are doing the work of many people right now, and that you have come to a crisis point.

As Obi Wan Kenobi would say “Remember your training, Anakin.”

Every good Project Manager knows, and it sounds like you know this: you simply cannot carry out all project tasks when your central role is to manage the project.

You know that you must have oversight of the progress of all tasks and all work streams or sub-projects, and this is not achievable if you are discharging the majority of the work.

You also know about positive, proactive risk management, right? You stated it yourself. Your new Supplier has already highlighted a progress issue and the risk of delays going into what should be a higher not a lower period of intense activity, seems very high for you right now.

So, sit down with your plan, your action log, particularly its volume of In Progress actions, and go back to any resource planning you did at the start of the project, then firmly report on the progress issue given the resource levels in the team, and report on the risk of upcoming project delays.

This is not telling teacher, this is adult, professional, project reporting. You must do this.

I want to give you a couple of extra tips about positioning this report at your Project Board then I will give you some final advice about what may be going on right now for your team.

So, in terms of reporting, go back to your Sponsor but this time with the evidence base and with your proposed solutions. Basically, give your Sponsor the narrative you would like them to support you with at the Board. Ask them to offer some early indication to the Board that this report is coming.

But remain firm. Outline what you have already done to influence and encourage the work from your team, and state clearly that this is now an escalation. It warrants visibility at the level of your project’s governance group. Plain and simple.

Then, if you have members of the team who also attend or see reports and papers for the Board (likely), then you must sit down with the full team, and state that you are at the point where this must go up for action. Do seek to get the team’s view once again on what may help with progress.

But be firm. This cannot be rescued out of the arms of the messenger now. It must go up to Board. Why? Because this is YOUR JOB as PM, your responsibility, your duty to report on progress issues.

Reassure them you will work with them on whatever comes back and that nobody is being sold down the river. You may want to state that any commentary is not personalised – it is highlighting the extent of the progress lag and the themes that are causing issues right now.

So, what is going on here?

An element of groupthink or herd behaviour may be at play. If everyone sees you pick up the slack, especially with that aura of superhero resilience, there really is no issue for them. And that is even the case with nice people. There is simply no reason to change present behaviours.

The rest of the dynamics may well be:

Fear – they are worried about their capabilities or afraid to get something wrong if they take on a project workload.

Commitment – they are safe when it is group discussion yet taking an action or a workload is a commitment. They are involved and accountable then and this can cause resistance.
Genuine work pressures – they do have time for the meetings yet the actual hard effort to complete project actions is a real strain if their BAU work is not re-balanced or delegated to non-project workers.

And brace yourself – you may not be helping. Action setting, tracking and completion is a drill routine. It needs to be repetitive, pedantic, and insistent in every project. You can still smile, but you must break open every undone action until you hear the commitment you need for its completion.

On that final point, practical things help like going back to your agenda set up, to how you visualise outstanding actions, ensuring you start with an action update not discussion points in meetings, how you devote entire meetings to chasing outstanding actions.

On other factors, if it is positioned well, the recommendations of your Project Board should help. You may need to re-affirm with the Board, the team and management what the resource expectation and the role profile of each person in the team must be to gain the traction needed.

One final note – you have a favourable wind coming: your Supplier. Plenty of issues come with introducing Suppliers into the mix, yet usually, their team are action-focussed, deadline-focussed and reporting-focussed if they are not getting what they need. You may find progress allies here.

Stop rescuing and start reporting and you should see an immediate improvement.

Good luck with it!