Project Leadership is a cruel gig. We can build the best solution – on time, on budget, to specification, but if the customer is not completely satisfied, if the customer does not embrace the solution and embed the changes then we will have failed. THAT bites. It’s one of the toughest, hardest lessons that we learn along the journey – that getting a great result requires so much more than just delivering a great product; we also need to understand the things that matter most to the Customer and manage them exquisitely.

“Creative Hands”

Imagine if your company had a conversation with itself about how it manages change.
Imagine if it asked openly and honestly

• “What can we do to deliver better project outcomes?”
• “What do we do right? What do we do wrong?”
• “What are the Things That Matter Most to us?”

What would it say?

My current client recently had such a conversation. It was tough – raw, confronting, insightful, honest and far-reaching and has now set the scene for a transformational change to the way that the company manages changes. The great thing was that the client called out a series of 16 really important gaps and talked seriously about how to help plug them.

What grabbed me was that the outcomes were not ground-breaking or revolutionary by any means. By and large, they didn’t revolve around the classic “scope, cost, schedule” trilogy but rather, they dealt with intangibles – engagement, communication, perceptions, skills…fundamental, universal and yet so easy to overlook. To the client, they are the Things That Matter Most.

In this Series, we will walk through the 16 Gaps, grouped into 4 streams:

• People / Organization
• Communication
• Project Delivery Process
• Relationship Management

As we walk through these streams, take a moment to ask yourself whether these things matter to YOUR client; think about whether these gaps hold your organization back and just what steps your team can take to address them.

People / Organization

“More consistent application of Project Management skills is required”

“There needs to be more consistency in the way that projects are run”

Clients crave confidence, a sense that we are approaching their change with structure and order. They want to know that we will do a good job with their money and above all, beyond everything else, they loathe surprises.

One of the great benefits of using an enterprise wide methodology is that it engenders confidence – it gives the team that sense of control and boundary but importantly, also lets your client see that you have a considered, structured approach to taking care of their interests and getting the best return on their investment.

Anxiety slips in when we don’t apply that structure consistently and across all our delivery activities. Confusion sets in and we risk the client slipping away and wondering “Why am I getting mixed messages? Why are some people applying the process and others are not? What’s being missed? Who’s cutting corners here?”

Never underestimate the power of having your team execute all change initiatives with a common language, a consistent methodology and repeatable, structured processes. What a great way to build and reinforce that confidence, both within the team and across the wider client community.

“Match large and specialized programs/projects with appropriate skills and experience”

One of the toughest, most unforgiving characteristics of a complex project is not knowing what the path to the end looks like. While less complex projects can be mapped out with a degree of confidence, the larger gigs have greater uncertainty and much higher ambiguity. We know where we want to get to, but the path to get there is far less clear.

Project Management historically provides a “control” framework, based around the change acting as a “system” of interrelated components. We use the control processes to manage the system and can predict with some confidence how the project will roll out. Give or take. Famous last words, I know…

The problem with a system-related approach is that while the system components interact and cause the wheels on the widget to go round, it is actually people that make the key decisions. People. While less complex projects build the effect of human decision making into their control processes (we can often predict how decisions will be made given a limited number of participants and choices), larger projects do not typically fit such a neat picture.

More variables, more people, more unknowns. Complex projects require specialized methods, specific process considerations and importantly, leaders with a different mix of skills – a strategic focus, an ability to see both through the fog AND over the horizon and an unerring ability to keep stakeholders engaged and committed throughout, even though the path to their end state remains unclear.

Do you have the right people running your larger projects?

Ask yourself whether your stakeholders are talking to each other without a single, coherent narrative to bind them together. Do they see decisions being made without a consistent, embracing framework? Do you have all the system components coordinated and a consistent message to help manage expectations?

In the customer’s mind, it’s as much about confidence as anything. The answer may not be to put the longest serving team member on the toughest task but instead, we definitely need to make sure we understand our team members’ attributes and strengths and use them to best advantage.

“The effectiveness of customer engagement is not consistently meeting our customer’s needs”

Customer engagement – the single most important driver towards keeping the customer satisfied. Real, authentic, dynamic engagement. Understanding the customer’s needs and priorities, finding the right way to connect with them and giving them an emotional stake in the process. Making them feel part of the journey and not just a passive observer.

What I love about this statement is that it is a signpost, a flashing red spotlight with music blaring, calling out the bleeding obvious – that if we measure our success solely by the old Scope/Time/Cost paradigm, then we risk failure through not bringing the customer along and making them feel that they “own” the change.

I once delivered a technical solution to a client in another country – on time, under budget, within all the scope and quality markers, but I was deemed to have failed and delivered an inferior product. Why? Because our efforts at engaging the client were abysmal. The local CEO was not truly committed and only went with the change because head office directed him to. He didn’t motivate his staff, didn’t embrace the opportunity – staff didn’t attend training and ultimately didn’t use the system properly. In the end, head office spent another 8 months supporting his team until they were ready to use the so,union, the CEO was relieved of his duties and I was tarred with having delivered “THAT solution…the one that took forever to get working…damn white elephant”.

Engage the customer from the outset. Heart and mind. Make customer engagement and communication one of your success markers, alongside and just as critical as Scope, Time and Cost.

Next Please…

What are your experiences? Have your customers given you similar feedback and if so, how did you and the company respond? What steps did you take to address these gaps?

Please join me for the next post as we look at the customer’s feedback on Communication.

The post “This Matters To Me” – Keeping the Customer Satisfied appeared first on Tony Adams - Project Manager.