He was angrier than I had ever seen. The competition was gnawing at our heels, and we were in danger of losing our position as market leader. This project was critical in terms of market share, and we had an aggressive schedule that was already in jeopardy.
Unfortunately, there were three parallel projects that leadership deemed to be “number one” priority, and another of these projects was considerably behind schedule. Our leader decided to pull resources from our project to support the other project. This resource move pushed our delivery date out four months, and he didn’t want to hear it. As he barged into the conference room, his voice erupted, “This project cannot slip! What don’t you understand about competition? I need answers right now!”
See Reality, Accept Reality, Deal with Reality
Our leader had hoped that he could cut resources on our project without having an impact on the schedule. He was wrong.
Our team gathered the necessary data to present to our leader. This battle couldn’t be won on an emotional basis – our leader had that market cornered! Our best bet was to help him see reality, accept reality, and deal with reality.
To prepare, we spent considerable time studying the data. We examined effort estimates to complete tasks, time available to work on those tasks, dependencies and opportunities to parallelize, resource levels and mix, scope changes, phased delivery, delivery strategies, and even options like contracting more labor or outsourcing parts of the project. No stone was left unturned in terms of speed to value. We came up with quite a few options that were better than the current state, but none were as good as the baseline plan.
Before we could proceed and help him see and accept reality, we had to disarm his emotions.
Lead with Value
In our leader’s state of mind, talking about estimates and dependencies wasn’t going to work. We had to start by aligning everyone. To do this, we chose to lead with value and address the emotions. “We know how important this project is to market share, and there’s nothing that matters more to this team than delivering early, improving our value to the customer, and gaining market share.” By opening with value, we spoke his language – delivery, customer value, market share.
Next, we addressed the emotions in a positive way. “We understand how upset you are, and we are all just as upset. This project is super important to us as a company and to us as a team. We are all wholeheartedly committed to leaving no stone unturned as we seek to deliver more value, faster.”
By leading with value and speaking his language, and aligning with her emotionally, we disarmed his anger and figuratively placed us all on the same side of the table. As we then explained the situation, he quickly came to see and accept reality.
Know More, Care More, Do More
Next, we had to demonstrate that we know more, care more, and are willing to do more to help accelerate the project. The easy battle would have been to argue over the decision to move resources, but that would have been counterproductive.
We discussed every option that we had explored, and we demonstrated that we left no stone unturned in terms of speed to value. At this point, he saw our level of commitment, and he even started reviewing the data together with us.
As we reviewed the data, our team then presented options for him to act upon. For each option, we calculated the impact on cost and schedule. We collectively arrived at a hybrid option in which we slightly modified the scope, phased the delivery, and added contract labor.
The project was viewed as a success. While not delivered as soon as originally planned, the replan allowed the customer to realize most of the value as quickly as possible, which was early enough to fend off the competition.
Next Steps
At Exceptional Difference, we help engineers, leaders, and executives communicate in the language of value. We enable teams to see reality, accept reality, and deal with reality in a way that shows how they know more, care more, and are willing to do more than anyone else to make a difference.
Our Commitment Deep Dive offering covers keys to successful planning. This includes the commitment ethic, estimating both time required to complete tasks and time available to work on tasks, managing risk, tracking progress, reviewing historical data, and immediately applying lessons learned to the remainder of the plan. As a result, you will get better at planning, and you will start making commitments you can meet or beat.
We also offer Exceptional Starts, in which Exceptional Difference works alongside your team and sets up your project or your new team for success by laying a solid foundation based on your reality.
Contact us at info@exceptionaldifference.com or visit www.exceptionaldifference.com to learn more about these offerings and how we can help your team speak the language of value.
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