Your Project Should Never Be on Track
Most projects have regular status meetings with interested stakeholders. In those meetings it’s typical to summarize a project’s progress into 3 categories:
Green —The project is on track, or
Yellow —There are potential issues with the project that can be remedied if addressed now, or
Red — There are serious issues that will cause a schedule or budget overrun
Oftentimes these meetings are merely a formality — something meant to reassure leadership that the outcome they are paying for will be accomplished.
And that’s the greatest risk.
Having a culture where ‘green’ is the expected norm is dangerous.
- It encourages people to hide issues — managers want the project to ‘look good’, which discourages everyone from asking for help early and often
- It encourages complacency — everyone thinks the project is ‘on track’ when, in reality, that’s rarely truly the case.
- It encourages inaction — stakeholders get used to not having to do anything to support the project, which creates irritation when they have to ‘finally’ step in to ‘fix things’
As such, a healthy project is never green until it’s DONE.
A healthy project team has a culture where it’s okay to ask for help. It means the team feels safe at work. It means your organization is devoid of toxic narcissists who love to play the blame game.
And that’s a team that can get things done.
