I saw a major project go sideways this week—in a big way.
(You know what they say: “Go big or go home.” They really embraced that sentiment. 😳)
Let me know if this scenario sounds at all familiar:
You and your team put in hundreds of hours of work to scope a major project.
You’ve planned every detail, considered every angle, negotiated every term. It’s as solid a plan as you could create. You’re proud of the work.
You bring it to your stakeholders / leadership team / board for final approval and suddenly things go sideways. No one likes the plan. They question every decision. The whole project is at risk.
You’ve told them all along that this was a critical and time-sensitive project—so why are they torpedoing it now, at the last minute?
Sometimes the project is even “successfully” completed but instead of thanking you, folks are calling it an unmitigated disaster. No one is happy.
I’ve seen this play out time and time again. It’s even happened on teams I’ve led. And it’s not limited to IT projects or corporate environments, although I’ve certainly seen plenty of it in both. Sadly.
This week’s example came courtesy of my condo’s homeowners association.
Their mistake
The mistake my HOA—and the team in the example above—made was informing their community rather than engaging them in the process.
They told us the project was important. They told us work was happening.
But they waited until they had a final, fully-baked solution before bringing anything to the community for approval.
There were no options presented. No opportunity for input along the way. No transparency in the process—or even a defined process at all.
There was a very proud showing of “look at all the work we’ve done and the decision we arrived at” couched as an opportunity for feedback. And then they were “butt hurt” (as any proud GenXer would say) when that feedback didn’t go their way.
With 100 homeowners and over half a million dollars on the line, this outcome shouldn’t have come as a surprise.
Their mistake was not bringing the community along with them in the process. And it’s a mistake that plays out all too often with our professional communities and projects, too.
Laying blame …
When this happens, there are two ways we can respond as leaders.
The first is to blame our stakeholders. It’s surprisingly easy to do, particularly in environments with any sort of organizational divide or politics (so basically, every org).
It becomes “us versus them” and “they” don’t …
appreciate us or the hard work we do
understand or value our expertise
want what’s best for the organization
Or in my HOA’s case, it was that “the community isn’t ready” for the project.
It’s easy to tell ourselves that we’d be able to do amazing things if only it wasn’t for our stupid stakeholders.
… or leaning in
There is another path we can take. We can learn from our mistakes, lean into the feedback, and course correct in real time.
Our HOA could have said: We appreciate the feedback and realize that we need a more thorough review process, so we’re going to come back with a clear plan to address the community’s concerns.
Not “you don’t get it.” Not “you’re not ready.” Not “you don’t want what’s best.”
But rather: “We heard you.” Maybe we didn’t get it exactly right, but we’re going to fix it.
The real problem here isn’t our stakeholders, it’s us. It’s a failure of leadership.
If you find yourself with a stakeholder revolt on your hands, don’t blame them. Take a good long look in the mirror and ask: Where did we go wrong, and how do we fix it?
Cancelling the project is rarely the answer—but course correcting is.
Bonus read: Working with people is the hardest part of leadership, but the only part that really matters.
Cover photo by Slim Emcee on Unsplash
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