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Breaking Bad News to Project Stakeholders | Coffee with Brett - YouTube
Channel: teamgantt
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hey
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hey thanks for taking a few minutes to
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talk about project management with me
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my name is brett harned and i'm the
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director of education at teamgantt
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you know i'm just getting started with
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my day here and i'm enjoying a cup of
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methodical coffee's costa rica la
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pastura blend it's super delicious
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so into the pm stuff i've been talking
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a lot about tools and tactics on this
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little show
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and i think it's time to dig into the
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grittier side of project management
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because let's face it project management
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is so much more than reports
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and plans and spreadsheets that stuff's
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important but i'd say
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what's more important are people and
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relationships and that can be really
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tough work i think the most important
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work you can do as a pm
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is to build trust and solid working
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relationships with your team
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and with your stakeholders and the best
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way to do that is just to be honest
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about what you know and what you don't
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know
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and to keep project details out in the
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open you know the minute that you hide
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or avoid an issue is the minute that you
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open yourself to being exposed that
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sounds so dramatic but
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i really do think it kind of is i mean
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really if you think about it
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let's say that you discover a task on
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your project is over budget
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in the back of your mind you're probably
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thinking eh not a big deal we'll make
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that up
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later somewhere else in the project
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there will be more time
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i have to say this is the thing that
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drives me crazy
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it's basically the thing that sets off
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an alarm in my head as a pm coach right
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here's the thing you don't actually know
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that you can make up that time
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and if you don't do it you're gonna have
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to answer for it
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also you probably aren't even the reason
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for that overage
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but that's project management right we
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have to fix other people's mistakes
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and do everything in our very limited
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power to keep things on track
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trust me i know that it's a tough job so
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back to that budget overage
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i think you should acknowledge it and
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address it get it out in the open and
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move on
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at a minimum just making sure everyone
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is aware
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of the issue will do two things first
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it'll let you relax because you know
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that everyone's aware
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and by making them aware you can most
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likely come up with a plan for making
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that time
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up rather than hoping for that to happen
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you know some of us call that hope creep
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in project management
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and it's a real project problem for pms
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because it often comes from team members
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who don't want to expose their own
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issues or delays
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in hopes that it'll just resolve itself
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but remember
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very few issues actually resolve
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themselves
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and it's your job to do that okay so i
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feel like
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maybe i'm minimizing this just be honest
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thing because yes it's an easy thing to
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say
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but it can be kind of scary to do
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because at the end of the day
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you have to share bad news and that bad
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news is probably
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related to an important thing like a
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deadline or a budget
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essentially something went wrong and you
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have to find a way
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to say that without sending another
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person like a team member manager
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client or a stakeholder into a fit of
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rage
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so that reminds me of a story so there
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was this time i was working on a project
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where
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our designers presented ideas to our
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clients without checking in on whether
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those new cool ideas were actually in
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scope for us or not
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you can imagine i was disappointed and
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of course those ideas were not in scope
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and of course the clients loved every
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single one
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who had to rectify that situation this
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guy
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so here's what i did first i explored
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the situation so i was 100
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in the know about all the things related
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to the overage before i had the
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conversation with my client
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essentially i dug back into our scope to
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see if i could justify the additions to
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the scope and honestly i just couldn't
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then i thought okay how much more time
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and budget would we need to
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actually do this i drew up a really
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quick estimate reviewed it with the team
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and guess what it wasn't cheap but it
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was realistic and we were confident in
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it
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so that led me to the real prep thinking
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through how can i share this very bad
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news
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in a way that will not make my client
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angry i mean
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the news was just ridiculous essentially
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i had to say
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sorry our bad we can't do that cool
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thing that we propose
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because it's actually out of scope i
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mean we can do it but we need more time
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and a lot more money
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embarrassing clearly i couldn't say that
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so i had to put myself
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in my client's shoes to really
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understand the impacts right
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having that level of empathy for the
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other person's situation
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definitely helps you to frame the
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conversation for me in this instance
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it was really about claiming ownership
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of the issue
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and apologizing for the misstep but the
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other thing i did was
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come to the table with some alternatives
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so i knew that the estimate was a lot
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and just offering an increase in budget
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and scope would feel greedy
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and maybe even disrespectful so i got
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creative
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i came up with some options i told them
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we could do the work
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we could split the work with you and we
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could minimize overages
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we could move part of the work to a
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phase two or we could even just scale
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the design
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back to fit within the original scope so
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i knew that i'd never remember these
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options in an actual call that's just
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who i am
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so i jotted them down on my notebook so
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i could review them with my client and
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not sound like a nervous idiot
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and i suggest you do the same thing
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because being in command of the facts is
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important when you're delivering bad
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news
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and if you want to come to an agreement
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quickly and next steps you'll do that
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so here's what happened i called my
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client i was direct and honest
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i can remember saying hi chris thanks
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for taking my call
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i have an issue that i'd like to resolve
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with you and i just said it
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what my team delivered was great but
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unfortunately the solution is out of
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scope
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i'm sorry for this but wanted to talk
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through some possible solutions so we
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can stay on track
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so i got those words out and i waited
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for the reaction
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i'm not gonna lie it was not pretty he
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actually yelled at me raised voice
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i was completely shocked but honestly
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not personally affected by it
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you know when you've worked with a
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variety of clients from different
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backgrounds and a lot of different
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personalities
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you get a variety of replies there's
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bound to be a raised voice or an angry
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sneer
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every once in a while you deal with it
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as a pm and really
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in that situation i did feel bad i just
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wanted to fix it peacefully
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so i apologized again and rolled into
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the solutions
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i did that because i think being
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respectful of people's time and getting
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straight to solutions is the best way to
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recover and honestly
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the way that you recover is what people
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typically remember
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they remember that more than the actual
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mistake so handle this like a pro
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and you'll get the outcome that you want
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for me in that project
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the outcome was actually the combination
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of our teams working together to
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implement that design
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so that meant that we increased our
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scope but we shared the responsibility
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with the clients
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in the end that worked out really well
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and we ended up working well together
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and doing more work with that team
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i like to think that was because we
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built a solid working relationship
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based on trust so yes i'm saying it i'm
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going to take that credit i'll take that
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credit as a pm when i can because it's
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not often that you get it
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so let's do a quick caffeinated recap on
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how to break bad news
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ready first understand why the issue
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happened so you can explain it
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then outline alternative options for
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resolving the issues
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have some empathy put yourself in that
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other person's shoes and try your
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hardest to understand
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how they'll be impacted by the news
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you're delivering and tailor your
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approach to that person and situation
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have the conversation in person is great
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but a phone call or video conference
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works too
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do what's convenient and impactful
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personally
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i like to schedule a meeting but
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sometimes an impromptu meeting can work
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this is where you can use your own
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intuition think about it
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will an out of the blue call with bad
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news catch that person off guard and
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upset them
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if the answer is yes then schedule a
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meeting then
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be direct and honest remember don't beat
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around the bush
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get the issue out there then listen and
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let the other person react
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remember stay empathetic i already said
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that but i'm saying it again
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hear them out apologize again if you
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need to and move into number seven
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which is to present the options you come
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up with before the call
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then just work through it if there's
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anything that i've learned in my career
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it's that there's no project issue that
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cannot be resolved without an
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open honest conversation so prepare
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yourself
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put your game face on and just deal with
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the issues as they arise
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you can do this i promise and that's it
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for this episode folks tell me
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have you had situations like the one i
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just described
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did you handle it differently did you
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handle it well i'd love for you to share
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your tips tactics and even stories in
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the comments
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and while you're at it please give this
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episode a thumbs up
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and subscribe to our youtube channel
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also be sure to check us out on social
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where we're sharing a lot more project
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management content and tips tactics
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and of course an amazing project
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planning and management tool called
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teamgantt
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thanks again for joining me today with
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coffee with threat
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hopefully you're enjoying your own cup i
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hope you have a great day
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