Oh My- I Really Can't Control Everything!
By Denise DeCarlo, PMP

As project mangers we typically like to be IN CONTROL. However, the reality of the situation is we certainly can not control everything. We can plan to our hearts content – but rarely does a project get executed and delivered exactly as we had planned. In this article we will explore how to handle situations that surface that are completely out of our control. Items we never dreamed to put into our Risk Management plan – or if we did - they were low priority risks and we didn’t document a risk mitigation approach. So how should we handle situations when the carpet has suddenly been pulled from underneath you and your project team members? Let’s explore four techniques to address this not-so-fun situation.

Let’s say your project is moving along just fine – not perfect – but it is well within the PMO guidelines for schedule, cost, and risk tolerances. You and your team are preparing for the next major milestone and - suddenly – the senior management team decides to put your project on “hold” because “there’s something else happening” at the executive level. You can’t bring on additional resources as planned, but you can proceed in a limited fashion with existing resources. This means you can’t work on all components of the end product because you need unique labor skilled resources to complete the product. So – how should the svelte project manager handle this situation?

1) Let’s first deal with your project team members

Ensure you communicate to your team immediately what is going on. You want them to get the news from you – not through the grapevine. They will have LOTS of questions for which you likely will not have a lot of answers. For instance – why can’t we bring on the resources as planned? When can we bring the resources on board? Does our end date get extended out? The team will likely be very frustrated with senior management actions and morale can drop significantly. If the team had been working very hard to achieve a milestone – and then management “changes the rules” and suddenly say that specific milestone is on-hold – it will deflate the team.

In this scenario – I tell the team “as much as I can” because I’ve been told the full story should not be shared with project team members until final decisions have been made at the senior management level. Be very careful in how you communicate the senior management actions to the project team. You don’t want to “throw darts” at the senior management team – instead you want to explain what is going on, why, and what the next known steps are. And then ask team members what their questions are, recommendations and ideas they have if appropriate, concerns they have, and if there’s anything else they need from you. Ensure they understand this is not a reflection of the team’s performance and thank them for working as hard as they did to achieve task completions on time with a high level of quality. They need to understand you (and senior management) do appreciate the work they have done and due to other strategic events – your project is being impacted by something out of their control.

At this point try to listen very carefully to team member reactions. Some will fall in the “who cares ‘category and will just go with the flow. Others will be extremely frustrated and won’t be focused on work activities for the near term weeks until they get a chance to “process” the situation and get re-grounded again. You’ll need to work carefully with team members that are frustrated (likely one-on-one) to talk specifically about their concerns and their emotions to determine how to best help them overcome the situation.

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