The Red Pill Executive. Tony Gruebl
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learned how to deliver bad news to the sponsor in a way that’s empathetic to their needs, so the conversation builds trust into the relationship. Over the years, our process improved until we reached a success rate of 95%. However, even with that rate of success, some sponsors were so enmeshed in company culture and so used to their dismal results that they weren’t interested in red pills, even in a crisis.
Case Study:
USVantage: A Company President Walled in by their Operations Culture
Early in Think’s history, the president of USVantage brought us in for a critical product launch, a bonded insurance offering that would make a significant addition to their portfolio. We had the president’s firm directive that this project must not fail.
Think’s team went to work, but soon ran into difficulty. We requested a schedule from Operations and got the response: “We’re agile, and we don’t work that way.”
Team leaders said, “We need to set expectations for customers.”
The response was the same: “We’re agile, and we don’t work that way. Check with someone else.”
We found ourselves moving from office to office and getting the same response. We could not implement the project.
This shop stiff armed our team, corporate operations people, the sales team, and everyone else who approached them. Finally, the problem escalated to the president.
He went ape!
Still that shop would not relent. Their culture rewarded obedience to standard practices more than project success.
Eventually, Think’s team had to withdraw. This was a cultural issue where one sector of the company had everything locked down.
That client provided tremendous learning for our team. Since then, based on what we observe in our initial contacts, we design a unique plan of action for each client. Now, we’d go after the logjam and design an approach to break it from Day 1.
In Edge of Tomorrow31, when Cage first came awake inside the time loop, he stayed true to his training and allowed Master Sergeant Farell to have control. That’s when he realized this approach had only one ending—a swift death on the beach. Before long, Cage’s attitude and body language changed. He spoke with authority, became pre-emptive, and assumed responsibility.
He took ownership.
His fellow squad members naturally followed him. Master Sergeant Farell felt confusion as his domineering energy collapsed, but he had no way to fight back.
In the project management world, the Operations Executive who takes ownership for a project’s success will see their numbers rise. Working in partnership with a skilled project manager is important, but this is a partnership where information flows easily back and forth, where everyone has a voice. The Operations Executive is always aware and involved in the project with the firm goal of seeing it completed well. That’s ownership.
Cage practiced for many days, both in the training bay and in the field until he could kill hundreds of Mimics without even looking. His senses and his movements became instinctive. He got better and better at the job. The result? He stayed alive longer. But one day he said to Rita, “We’ll never get off this beach.”
Cage connected with another Red Pill warrior, a bio physicist named Dr. Carter, from whom he learns that the armies of Earth have been fighting Mimics as individual soldiers when they are actually all part of a single organism: the Omega.
Killing Mimics was pointless. Only taking out the Omega would win the war.
“No matter what we do. No matter how carefully we plan, we can’t get off this beach.”
~Cage in Edge of Tomorrow103
At this turning point in the movie, Cage realizes the beachfront battle is actually a distraction. To win the war against the aliens, Earth dwellers must shift their objective.
In our own ah-ha moment, we suddenly saw the difference between winning the battle of the Iron Triangle and winning the war against project failure. That moment rocked our world.
Trap of the Iron Triangle32
At the core of project management stands the Iron Triangle (a.k.a. the Triple Constraints of time, cost, and scope/quality). According to PM training, when a project manager can stay within those three lines, their projects cannot possibly defeat them.
Or can they?
If the Iron Triangle is actually bulletproof, why the 70% rate of project failure? Could it be that our best tool is also a factor for failure? In the world of project management, this idea is pure heresy.
Like shark hunters rely on the shark cage to protect themselves while meeting their “projects” face to face in the water, we rely on the Iron Triangle to protect ourselves from failure. In Jaws33, as Hooper gets ready to take the shark fight into the water, he prepares the shark cage. Quint asks: “What d’ya have there, a portable shower or a monkey cage?”
When Hooper responds, “Anti-shark cage,” Quint says: “Cage goes in the water, you go in the water. Shark’s in the water.”
As a marine biologist, Hooper had extensive training and figured he knew what he was doing. However, when the massive shark attacks his cage, we see how quickly his protection could become his deathtrap.
While the Iron Triangle can become a deathtrap in terms of defining project success, we also acknowledge that it can be helpful. Maybe we aren’t using it right.
The Iron Triangle provides a framework for addressing the three fundamental project constraints with project managers and technical teams. It facilitates discussions when comparing strong, middle, and weak project constraints. Knowing which constraint is the softest in a project gives a place to go for relief when unforeseen problems come up. The strongest constraint is immovable and therefore slack is in the weaker ones. Simple.
However, the overwhelming evidence of failure says the Iron Triangle might be too simple. It cannot manage its own constraints or forecast outcomes in the practical world. Most project management experts recognize this. Several have tried to broaden the Triple Constraint Model into a diamond or star to bolster the Triangle’s shortcomings.
The TRIJECT Model34 incorporates and unifies Michael Dobson’s theory of the Hierarchy of Constraints.35 It’s the best model we’ve seen, but something fundamental is still missing.
Michael Dobson is a good friend and coauthor of our last book, Bare Knuckled Project Management: How to Succeed at Every Project.36 Michael is a prolific author, business consultant, and true project management master.
During an email discussion on March 14, 2016, Dobson said:
“Sometimes people confuse management’s initial statement of the Triple Constraints (“Budget: $40m, Time: NLT 6 months, Scope: IT system upgrade”) with the *real* triple constraints. A project is what it is, not necessarily what they tell you it is. We prefer not to spend more than $40m, but if the project will earn us $100m, it’s worth continuing even if the cost doubles on us. If the upside is only $50m, then costs have to be kept under much tighter control.”37
Dobson is in clear alignment with Kerzner. The constraints are what Operations Executives say they are. Unfortunately, too often these figures are not in full disclosure to the PMs on the front lines.
Here we come to the crux of the matter. Working within false parameters creates an equally false measure of success. Could a blue pill Operations Executive sometimes focus on protecting their own interests rather than performing at maximum effectiveness for the company?
“Working within false parameters creates an equally false measure of success.”
Red pill executives are full-out