How to save your doomed IT project.
In my previous post, I told you all about the gems to be harvested from failed IT projects. Now I will break down for you how this can be done, starting at a birds-eye view in this post and drilling down further in the future.
1. The Mission: Start with why
If you find yourself in the midst of a doomed project, the first thing to figure out is why you should even bother saving it. Indeed, in some cases, the best course of action is to cut your losses and abandon the project all together.
Now if you find that this project is worth the investment to save (and you really have to dig deep to actually believe this yourself), it is of critical importance that each team member understands why this decision has been made.
As Jocko Willink lays out in the stellar leadership book Extreme Ownership, you have to make sure everyone believes in the “why,” understands the “why,” and then pursues the “what.”
The consequences of ignoring this can be catastrophic. If people don't understand why they are being put through this ordeal, they will do all kinds of detrimental things. This includes actively working against the project, doing a half-assed job, badmouthing the project, the client and management, quit their job or refuse to work on the project. These things sound harsh. I have seen all of these things happen.
Now the thing is that they don't do this to be mean. They do it because they think it's the right thing to do. And if management either haven't found a good enough reason to soldier on, or if they've done a poor job of communicating it, they may think it is their duty to stop the madness before it goes too far.
If you are a project member in the midst of a project gone haywire, you need to take responsibility for understanding why the project is worth saving. And don't stop until you get a satisfactory answer. This is your life, don't sell it cheaply.
2. The Vision: Figure out the success criteria
In the military, we had to walk. A lot. Sometimes we knew where we were going, sometimes we had no idea where or for how long. The psychological stress of not knowing for how long you are walking is terrible.
The people tasked with saving the project need to know exactly what goal they are working against. They need to know that there is a light in the end of the tunnel, and that they wont be stuck in the abyss forever. If the end is a long way away, break it down into milestones. Also make it clear to them that this work is very important and much appreciated. When milestones are reached, celebrate the victory. This helps increase ownership and will knit the team even tighter together.
3. The Values: Never, ever undermine the integrity of your team.
No matter our level of consciousness of it, we are all driven by virtues and values. These are the principles that we live after. Both as a leader and a team member, you should be very conscious of what you stand for.
As a leader, you should not allow any shortcuts or dishonesty to creep into your project. This will infest the project and create a culture of shortcuts. No matter what has happened in the past, now is the time to own up to mistakes, and set new standards for going forward.
If the team is forced to do things that conflict with their values, they will loose respect for their managers, and loose ownership over the project. These are exactly the kinds of things that makes team members look for other jobs (and rightly so).
As a team member you should never ever do anything that conflicts with your values. This undermines your personal and professional integrity.
If you as a team member feel you are being forced to do things that conflict with your values, now is the time to dig out your companies' values. Most companies have these written down, very few use them actively, but they are there for a reason. Ask your managers how the decision in question align with their corporate values, and don't accept half assed answers.
There are no situations that are so bad that you are forced to lie or cheat your way out of. Consult with your team and find the right decision that you can all get behind. Honesty and hard work will prevail no matter what, and if you violate this you will be found out, or the consequences will not be worth it.
These topics boil down to three things, Mission, Vision and Values. They will keep you on track to turn the project around. The Mission is why you are doing this, the Vision is where you are going, and the Values is the moral integrity that you will deploy going forward.
If you can get these three things down, you are already on your way to successfully turning the project around. As I said, this is a birds-eye overview, I will break down each of these into concrete steps in the following posts so stay tuned, follow, like and share and I'll be back soon!
Cheers, Adam
