In last week’s article, Susan discussed the emotions involved when a project is terminated, “back burnered” to death, or mercifully euthanized.  But what about those projects that don’t or can’t get cancelled when they should?  Whether due to mandatory regulatory requirements, or being beyond the point of no return some projects simply leave us no choice – they must be finished.  Managing a troubled project to prevent it from becoming a failed project, and then turning it around and steering it back to a successful project requires super star skills.  Typically project specialists at the highest end of the project management spectrum are brought in as an outsider for these jobs to function as a special recovery project manager. 

In many respects, the successful planning and management of a turn around project are similar to a normal project.  It requires a new charter, and project plan to evaluate the failings of the first project and define the actions required to correct course.  There are many dimensions to a troubled project, and many things that must be done.  This will not be an article to attempt to discuss all the aspects of how to address a failed or troubled project, but how to address the communications and more specifically – the public relations during the turn around effort.  Through the course of this blog I have written many articles about public relations on projects.  The communications and public relations campaign of a turn around project certainly require the same PR principles that any project does such as:

  • Communications message content focused on benefits, helping to keep stakeholders’ focus on the ultimate goal to be achieved at the end of the journey.
  • Messages relating not just the information of activities or events, but conveying the value of those events to the business.
  • Communicating information promptly, when it is of prime interest and relevance to stakeholders.
  • Being aware of the spin or nuance in a message and selecting the appropriate tone of a message that is right for the target audience.

What is different about a troubled project, however, is that unlike a normal project, the project manager does not start with a clean slate and friendly stakeholders.  On a normal project everyone gives you the benefit of the doubt at the beginning.  The project manager can leverage the natural excitement that exists around a new undertaking and create friends of the project.  Once things begin to go awry, all that is lost and stakeholders are now mad.  The recovery PM operates from a position of a PR deficit.  As the public “face” of the project, he/she may no longer have any credibility and this requires extra finesse in the public relations campaign. 

There is no fast or easy way out of the PR deficit position, other than real performance – i.e. actually beginning to make some of the new commitments.  Until that is possible, a certain amount of humility when wearing the “project face” is just part of the role.  What stakeholders tend to want at this point is honest, clear, reliable, complete, straightforward, and prompt information.  As you and your team are performing discovery and identifying priorities, it is important to publicly acknowledge them – even before you may know the solutions.  This helps ease stakeholders’ anxieties that they have been heard and understood.  Your ability to quickly establish the stakeholders’ belief that the information being communicated is reliable and objective establishes credibility. It needs to be complete to insure that quality decisions are derived as a result.   Stakeholders want an open admission of mistakes that were made.  Fortunately, project management gives us a good framework that allows us to discuss such things as lessons learned in a respectful way that retains dignity for the team – especially when combined with process improvements that were implemented as a result of those lessons.  This is important to preserve the morale of the team because the team must carry out the required recovery work. 

A recovery project will probably institute more frequent feedback loops and communications should follow suit.  You cannot afford to let the silence created by a void of information generate panic driven false rumors.  PR during a troubled project therefore becomes very time consuming and it is a good idea to consider appointing a lead who is devoted to managing PR and frequent, prompt communications while the implementation team focuses on resolving issues and carrying out the work.

But what if the stakeholders themselves are the problem?  As described in the ESI International white paper entitled “Saving Troubled Projects”, one of the first things that must be discovered is project history and sensitivities.  As with any project, having a strong supporting sponsor with the appropriate level of seniority and credibility is essential for success.  This sends a clear message to stakeholders that this work is of importance.  The recovery project manager must make an effort to understand the political environment the project has operated in.  He/she must fully understand the objectives of the project, as well as the objectives and motivations of the stakeholders and where those may have been in conflict.  The sponsor should be leveraged to handle stakeholders whose motivations may be at cross purposes with the goals and objectives stated in the charter. 

In summary, a recovery project manager must use all the public relations tools employed on normal projects to an even greater degree on a troubled project to keep stakeholders eyes on the prize as the team rights the ship back on course.