She Writes Change

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:

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

The reality is that the rigid application of either Agile or Waterfall rarely fits the messy reality of complex delivery.