Companies, departments and divisions all have some way of communicating how it's projects are progressing. Whether they are multi-million dollar game-changing technology investments or a special effort to clean up some client record keeping, someone asks for an update or status - and we find a clean way to say it.
In many cases it's pretty straightforward, but for high profile efforts it can be hard to get the straight stuff from the project team. I'm accustomed to a scale you may have seen in your organization which I call the 'stoplight' update: Red, Yellow and Green. Yours may use "1,2,3" or "On Schedule, On with concerns, Behind." The idea is the same - to efficiently communicate what is going on to management and let them read details if they wish.
I have found, however, that when you take the time to look under the covers, some statuses aren't what they seem - and that can be catastrophic.
Now, let's start with the easiest to read: "Red". It jumps off the page, gets phones and hands ringing and calendars filling. it is for this reason that no one calls anything a "Red/3/Behind" status unless things are in really bad shape and there is a clear need for management intervention - and even then it might not be valued to say it. A past colleague of mine was managing a large important project that the division president's - and many others' - bonuses were tied to. The effort was running out of daylight and issues were piling up at the very last. She issued a status of "Red" and was immediately summoned to her boss's boss's office to discuss it. To emphasize two things, no, I didn't accidentally type 'boss's' twice in that prior sentence. Also, sometimes "immediately" means different things to different people. This was the right now kind.
No one really knows what the conversation was about that morning but some kind of wonderful magic was worked. It seems that within the walls of the boss's boss's (!!) office a genius wonder work took place. I can say this because 5 minutes after that meeting the project was 'Green' and zooming along like a rocket sled on rails. My cohort's countenance, though, somehow didn't seem to have perked up at all. In fact she had an ashen, frowny face. You figure it out. We can agree that regardless of the manner your leadership reacts, "Red" says what it is.
Jumping to the other end of the scale we have happy, perky, pleased as punch "Green". Life is good in these projects. You can imagine rose petals falling form the ceiling of any room in which status meetings take place. Objectives are being met, it's within budget and the project manager sleeps like a baby at night. Now it's fair to say also that just because someone says a project is on schedule they may be hiding problems. If your organization has any standards at all, though, it's difficult to justify the risk of saying something is fine, when everyone knows it isn't. I have seen projects that were referred to as being on schedule, but it should have been called "on-schedule depending on whom you speak with."
The toughest one of all, the one that you better look at are projects that are in the middle ground of "Yellow." As you might imagine this means caution is needed and some things are being dealt with inside the group. I once worked for a person I quote roughly 5 times a week - sometimes consciously sometimes not - who said this about statuses of "Yellow": "Lance, a yellow is a red but nobody wants to say it." I have found his point of view, unfortunately, accurate on more than one occasion. If you see middle ground updates on important efforts, you likely ought to act like it's got momentum to being delayed and do something.
What's going on here? I've kind of adopted the idea that the willingness of an organization to speak clearly about issues, acknowledge them and begin acting on them shows up in many ways. Projects are just one. If an organization can embrace a project that is behind schedule and not grind up the project manager for saying it, isn't it likely that same organization wants to know issues in other areas of it's operations? I think this is a reflection of the culture of an organization's commitment, accountability and performance ethic. As leaders we have an opportunity to impact the way our businesses work from the inside out based on our approach and response to daily operating issues.
1. Don't wait for status reports. If you are waiting for status reports to tell you about something that's important to you, that's a passive mistake. If something matters, you'd better be getting to the meeting and hearing the discussion firsthand. Asking hard questions and not letting people or issues slide off the hook. Be actively engaged in lending a hand to keeping things on track, which might involve championing the cause yourself to others.
2. Embrace and appreciate issues. Nothing will get around quicker than your acceptance of the issues in play and your appreciation for knowing them. I've seen people not communicate issues for another week past their discovery because they haven't had a chance to talk to their boss yet. Then later they have to deal with challenges to their credibility because it is disclosed they knew about it much earlier. Maybe you can help them by getting on the phone with the other leader and asking them to come to the meeting and help resolve the issues faster. Again, how you react to issues is a direct predictor as to how many issues you'll actually hear about.
3. Get executive leadership involved. When I was with Nationwide Insurance we had a great model in place where each project of any significance had an Executive Sponsor, someone on the business unit leadership team who owned the project and was actively involved in resolving issues, etc. This model, when used properly, empowers people to speak candidly about concerns and know they have someone involved that can help move blockages. When I served in these roles I often referred to myself as "The Bush Hog." I couldn't build what these talented peolpe were building, but I could help clear the brush and boulders so they could work.
If projects and special efforts are part of your business' reality - and it almost has to be - your active involvement can go along way to accomplish two goals of leadership: engaging people in their work and helping them succeed.
