We're all professionals

[Whorty]

Well, we all profess to be. Running our own little companies, having to deal with client stakeholder's contrasting requirements. So here's a little conundrum ....

You're engaged by a client to deliver a project. The client has 9 key stakeholders. 5 of those strongly support Option A, 4 strongly support Option B.

They can't agree a consensus on the Option to be delivered so they have a vote. Option A wins. You are therefore engaged to deliver the project for the client along the lines of Option A.

Now you're a smart consultant and you can see that Option A is not the better solution for the client, Option B would be financially better, but there was a democratic vote and A won.

In order to deliver the project, you will need to work with all stakeholders. The project will never be a success if you can't get all stakeholders on side.

Option A supporters seem to have different views on what 'A' looks like, so even in their group they can't agree on what good looks like. B supporters agree on the B solution and are all also clear that any flavour of A would make the company worse off.

Option A supporters are vitriolic against those in the business who supports Option B, so much so that they are openly hostile to them, often accusing them of being traitors to the company.

As a professional contractor, how would you go about delivering this project successfully?

[Yorkie62]

Well, we all profess to be. Running our own little companies, having to deal with client stakeholder's contrasting requirements. So here's a little conundrum ....

You're engaged by a client to deliver a project. The client has 9 key stakeholders. 5 of those strongly support Option A, 4 strongly support Option B.

They can't agree a consensus on the Option to be delivered so they have a vote. Option A wins. You are therefore engaged to deliver the project for the client along the lines of Option A.

Now you're a smart consultant and you can see that Option A is not the better solution for the client, Option B would be financially better, but there was a democratic vote and A won.

In order to deliver the project, you will need to work with all stakeholders. The project will never be a success if you can't get all stakeholders on side.

Option A supporters seem to have different views on what 'A' looks like, so even in their group they can't agree on what good looks like. B supporters agree on the B solution and are all also clear that any flavour of A would make the company worse off.

Option A supporters are vitriolic against those in the business who supports Option B, so much so that they are openly hostile to them, often accusing them of being traitors to the company.

As a professional contractor, how would you go about delivering this project successfully?

Its not within my remit to determine what is good/better for the organisation. If my contract states that I am to deliver A then A will be delivered to the set of agreed requirements.

Personally I don't particularly care how many stakeholders the client has, they are his stakeholders to manage, I don't want to get draw into his stakeholders political arguments.

Your scenario in the way in which you want it played out, in my opinion, put you dangerously close to putting yourself inside IR35 as you imply that you are going to engage on decisions that will directly affect the financial potion of your clients organisation - isn't that what an office holder would do?

[original PM]

So step 1 is to understand what people are saying the project will deliver and then you need to understand exactly what is being said and whether it is actually factual or not.

In your statement you say that Option B is better than Option A - is that provable from a factual perspective or is it just opinion?

Many times you will find someone is trying to push a project through to make themselves look good and they are 'over egging the pudding' in terms of what they say it is going to deliver - classic examples of this are where people put that it is required because of GDPR - as soon as people say GDPR people get scared and think they must - reality is often that is just added in to help get traction.

Next step is to 'watch their feet' - here you stop listening to what people say - because often they tell you what they want you to hear - and you watch their actions as this will define their true intentions.

Another thing to look out for is people who have not got their own way deliberately trying to derail things - these are often easy to spot because they come out with the most ridiculous statements and they are also heavily invested in things not changing.

There is just a few anyway from back in the day when I was a PM - there are many more but.....

[Whorty]

Its not within my remit to determine what is good/better for the organisation. If my contract states that I am to deliver A then A will be delivered to the set of agreed requirements.

Personally I don't particularly care how many stakeholders the client has, they are his stakeholders to manage, I don't want to get draw into his stakeholders political arguments.

Your scenario in the way in which you want it played out, in my opinion, put you dangerously close to putting yourself inside IR35 as you imply that you are going to engage on decisions that will directly affect the financial potion of your clients organisation - isn't that what an office holder would do?

What tosh.

You're engaged to deliver the project. As such, the stakeholders are 100% your responsibility. Project delivery is not just about a technical solution, it's about getting everyone on the bus and getting them all on board to the final destination.

I agree that if you're engaged to delver A, then you deliver A, but if you know (don't forget, you're a professional and have some intellect) that B would be better then you will need to have the skills to sell A to all stakeholders and ensure A is a success.

It's responses like yours that show why Brexit has been such a mess and won't be delivered successfully. You have the typical brexiter mindset.

[Whorty]

So step 1 is to understand what people are saying the project will deliver and then you need to understand exactly what is being said and whether it is actually factual or not.

Exactly. You've seen the business case for Option A. It's generally accepted that it was full of lies and false facts. They even used a bus to communicate these lies to the rest of the company.

In your statement you say that Option B is better than Option A - is that provable from a factual perspective or is it just opinion?

Even those that support Option A agree that Option B is financially better for the business. Option A doesn't have quantifiable benefits. It's all a bit wholly and 'some time in the future'. Option B is known as it delivers along the same benefits that the company enjoys today.

Many times you will find someone is trying to push a project through to make themselves look good and they are 'over egging the pudding' in terms of what they say it is going to deliver - classic examples of this are where people put that it is required because of GDPR - as soon as people say GDPR people get scared and think they must - reality is often that is just added in to help get traction.

Agreed. The lead supporters of Option A are doing exactly this. They are playing to the prejudices of other stakeholders. They've been pushing for this project for years without success. They were given the opportunity though to sell this project by the new management team and, it turns out, were willing to say anything and everything to push their project through. Even telling lies and turning colleagues against each other.

Next step is to 'watch their feet' - here you stop listening to what people say - because often they tell you what they want you to hear - and you watch their actions as this will define their true intentions.

You're on fire today. See, you're not as dumb as you often come across as. The actions of the Option A supporters is to keep saying what they don't want, but haven't set out their requirements of what they do want. As a PM you know you can't deliver if the requirements have not been agreed as you and your team don't actually know what 'good' looks like. THese self same Option A leads have all done a runner from the project too; they snipe from the sidelines bit refuse to take active roles within the project.

Another thing to look out for is people who have not got their own way deliberately trying to derail things - these are often easy to spot because they come out with the most ridiculous statements and they are also heavily invested in things not changing.

Given that you (as a professional) can see the lies in the business case, and you have no agreement on what 'good' looks like within the A supporters, how then will you also get the B supporters on board and deliver a success project. Do you go for a comms plan than alienates the B supporters more by keep attacking them, or would you try to work collaboratively to get everyone moving forward to a successful delivery?

You've added some really positive comments and thought to this so thanks. Unfortunately it begs the question why you voted out when most of what you say above would lead you to supporting Option B rather than A, but hey ho.

[Old Greg]

[original PM]

You've added some really positive comments and thought to this so thanks. Unfortunately it begs the question why you voted out when most of what you say above would lead you to supporting Option B rather than A, but hey ho.

I looked at Tusk, Junker and the EU as a whole and no matter what they say or do the EU has become so big that it cannot allow itself to stop existing - and what this means is no matter what anyone tries to say the EU will always put it's own survival above the survival or any of it's member states or the population thereof.

And after coming to that conclusion it is clearly impossible for the EU to continue to vote for an organisation that will ultimately turn against you as it has to too survive.

I understand there are benefits to being in the EU - in such the same way that a hooker understands the benefit of having a pimp.

But ultimately the hooker does not want to be a hooker but the pimp wants her to stay one for his own financial gain.

[NotAllThere]

Well, we all profess to be. Running our own little companies, having to deal with client stakeholder's contrasting requirements. So here's a little conundrum ....

You're engaged by a client to deliver a project. The client has 9 key stakeholders. 5 of those strongly support Option A, 4 strongly support Option B.

They can't agree a consensus on the Option to be delivered so they have a vote. Option A wins. You are therefore engaged to deliver the project for the client along the lines of Option A.

Now you're a smart consultant and you can see that Option A is not the better solution for the client, Option B would be financially better, but there was a democratic vote and A won.

In order to deliver the project, you will need to work with all stakeholders. The project will never be a success if you can't get all stakeholders on side.

Option A supporters seem to have different views on what 'A' looks like, so even in their group they can't agree on what good looks like. B supporters agree on the B solution and are all also clear that any flavour of A would make the company worse off.

Option A supporters are vitriolic against those in the business who supports Option B, so much so that they are openly hostile to them, often accusing them of being traitors to the company.

As a professional contractor, how would you go about delivering this project successfully?

Sounds like an argument to not bring democratic processes into commercial ventures.

[stonehenge]

The answer is simple.

You come up with a solution that everyone equally dislikes. At least that's what Theresa seems to have done.

[Yorkie62]

Bull
I am a subcontractor, and as a subcontractor I will deliver exactly what I am engaged to deliver. If the client wants something different to what is on the contract then we need at a minimum a contract amendment.

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