The CEO’s eyes narrowed into small slits and they didn’t leave my face until I said, “What do you mean what’s taking me so long? We only got the signed proposal last week.”
“I got off the phone with the Chief and his patrols haven’t seen any of our trucks in the field. He expected us to start work as soon as he sent over the signed proposal. Last week, he said. The clock it ticking, he said. This project has to finish on time, he said. And, then he hung up on me. What the hell is going on?”
“Let me get this right,” I say with an even tone in my voice, “the way to deliver this project as soon as possible is to start work without having all the necessary information?”
Not Starting a Project With All the Necessary Information
“Damn right,” the CEO says, “we don’t have time to collect all the information you need. In my day, we didn’t take time to plan. We went out and got the job done.”
He had managed to grow the company over the years. And, he had a good relationship with many of our customers across the country. But, he didn’t see the constant challenges with our project performance on a day to day basis. I was the face of the company out in the field. I came face to face with angry and frustrated customers all the time. They wanted what they wanted no matter if it was spelled out in the proposal or not.
I was also in meetings with the CFO who would grill me about the expenses and my budget overruns. Being busy and getting started on a project these days was more than running out the door and getting the job done. Those must have been the good old days everyone talks about.
Making the commitment to myself to fix the issues was a choice I made. I took the time to go deeper into the issues and get help along the way. I wanted to go through everything I learned and get our CEO to see we had a chance to do things different, but I said, “This project needs to finish on time right? And, you want me to stay within budget and deliver everything we promised to the Chief, right?”
“Damn right,” he said again. This time with his face became a deeper shade of red.
And, how well have we been meeting these commitments lately, I was going to say. But, I said nothing.
The Consequences of Not Having Some Information
Without a pause, he said, “That’s another thing I want to talk to you about. We’ve been making too many promised we can’t keep. Our CFO tells me to funnel more money into your labor account all the time. It’s got to stop. And, some customers we’ve had for a long time won’t even talk to me anymore. What are you doing about that?”
No way was I going to take the bait. The only thing that is going to convince anyone of anything are results. And, I expect the results will come from the new way of planning projects and the way Gary says we are going to manage them. I need to buy some time. So, I say, “I get the Chief wants to see us in the field. We did send some guys out to do site surveys, but he must have missed them. We sent out access request to the buildings we need. And, we have the Procurement department checking on the status of the hardware. So, we did start. No one noticed.”
“OK, fine, fine, fine,” the CEO says. He was backing off a little.
He needed to back off even more, so I said, “the people we need on the Chief’s project are already working on other projects. These folks need to finish what they are doing or find a way to transfer the work to someone else. That’s already underway. It’s not going to do anyone any good to load and already overloaded resource with even more work.”
He said nothing. His arms rigid with tension. He stared at me and said, “I’ll be watching this project. The Chief is a good friend of mine and he’s been a good friend to this company. I’m not going to disappoint him again. Now, I’ve got calls to make.” He swiveled in his chair, turned his back to me, and started to pick up his phone.
Higher Confidence Levels Go a Long Way
As I walked back to my office, I through about the information we got from the Chief’s signed proposal for the project. I have no idea where we got some of the estimates. Much of the key information was missing. And, somethings didn’t make any sense to me. It was not enough information to start with. Some information is necessary to start a project, isn’t it, I mutter to myself.
Gary showed us that there is bare small amount of information we needed to start the planning process. It wasn’t as much as I though and it’s took no time at all to complete once we got everyone together. We made sure we had a consensus on the project’s goals. And, we built into the plan ways to exceed expectations with no extra costs or delays.
During the planning session we sequenced the work which gave us a road map to follow. I’m sure the sequence will prevent delays and the rework we usually encounter. The resources we need are also identified. But, even more important, we now also have some idea of when we will need them and for how long. Dealing with the departments managers for those resources is going to be much easier.
If nothing else, the plan we have will act like a reference point against which we can compare our actual performance. Without this baseline, who knows if we are on track to meet the due date or not.
The CEO will get all his questions answered in due time. Right now, I have a project to start and more projects to plan in the new way. I’m convinced we had all the information we needed to start planning. The planning was done to the right level of detail. We got buy-in from all the participants. This has got to be the way to finish project and deliver them on time, with everything we promised, and within budget. Now, I only have to prove it.
Never, Never Give Up
As I rounded the corner to my office, I almost ran into Jim. Startled, he said, “Gary wants to see us in the conference room. He’s got something to show us.”