She Writes Change

The team, the sponsors, and the stakeholder are all there. Scope, goals, and timelines are aligned. But the most critical voice is missing: the end-user.  Not the internal client. Not the budget holder. But the person who really matters, whose life or work we are supposed to be improving. When the customer isn't represented from day one, we risk delivering a project that's on time, on budget, BUT isn't fit for purpose.

Post-Mortems or Lessons Learned are useful if run properly, of course, BUT they won't save your project. We've normalised learning lessons after delivery, after the damage, after the failure. But what if there was a better way?

The most expensive thing in your project isn't what you think. It's a the endless one-hour meetings with either the wrong people, or the wrong agenda. And I've seen this everywhere, hell, I've definitely been guilty of it myself in the past!

Stop asking for "Lessons Learned". Start asking for "Lessons Applied". How many times have you sat in a post project meeting review, listing out all the "Lessons Learned", only see them filed away in a document that's never read again?

I've delivered both projects and products (from idea to market), and there are significant differences in how you need to approach them. Many "projects" are actually products in disguise, and that's why they fail to deliver long term value. 

Stop annoying your sponsors: 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 "𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐄𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧". Escalate too often, and you look incapable. Escalate too late, and you become a liability. Sound familiar? Before even thinking about your sponsor, ask: "Can my team and I solve this without external help?" and "Is this issue significant enough to warrant executive attention?" This shows you respect your own authority and your sponsor's time.

Your project dashboard is a sea of green but you know something's off.  Your status updates say everything is on track, your weekly reports are all positive. But you know that it's not accurate. 𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐋𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐒𝐲𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐞!

You've integrated all your project dashboards into one view. So why is your Steering Committee still confused? I've seen organisations invest heavily in Project software and unified dashboards, integrating every project management tool, all to create the perfect "single pane of glass" view. Then they sit in Steering meetings where executives still ask the same questions: "Are we on track?". "What does this really mean for the business?". "Should we be worried?".

Whilst AI can handle more of the technical and admin work, the uniquely human aspects of project management become MORE critical to success, not less.

Launching a new digital product across 12,000 retail locations taught me that scale isn't about size, it's about psychology. You can't just double the resources for double the locations. The real challenges are human. Here's what I learnt about scale:

Is your governance framework balanced? Or is it holding your business back? 

So when I talk about the business risk of siloed delivery, I'm talking from real experience. And I've seen it in so many other places too. Disconnected projects undermine what could be powerful business outcomes, it puts pressure on people already overloaded with change.

After years of working in project delivery and transformation, I've seen 3 leadership types stand out.

Great Product Managers win markets. But Project Managers make sure that that great idea gets successfully launched to market.

It's easy to hope it "will sort itself out", but in projects, small cracks compound fast. That minor delivery hiccup gets pushed to "next week's" agenda again and again, until it becomes a board level crisis. 

Every team has a strategy deck. Every board signs off on ambitious goals. You have a beautiful Portfolio of projects. But you aren't delivering.

𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐀𝐈 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠: It’s a business tool, not a side experiment so apply the same strategic intent, and ROI focus you would to any core investment

There are two types of Project Managers who walk into your business. And the wrong type of PM, no matter how talented, can kill your delivery.

Having rescued multiple projects across fintech, hospitality, banking and financial services, I've seen the same warning signs appear again and again.

As a project delivery and turnaround specialist, I've learned that the difference between project success and failure isn't about how fast you can put out fires.  It's about preventing them from starting in the first place.