This week I had the luxury of being project sponsor as opposed to project manager.  What a strange view for those of us who spend our time in the opposite seat, managing the details of issues, timelines, budgets and matrixed team members who “don’t really report to you”.  The reason I say that it was a luxury is that it gave me the chance to learn some interesting lessons that I think we could apply as project managers.

The lesson starts when my wife and I decided to have a new patio installed and extend our outdoor living (what a treat when it’s 100 degrees).  So I started off as the project manager, going out and gathering requirements (i.e. “Dear, how do you want this to look?”), turning requirements into designs (I actually found a new use for Excel - you can use it to create grid paper for landscape designs), and getting bids (we went with a trusted contractor that has worked for us in the past).  So – after all of this, I told the contractor, “from this point forward, you’re the project manager and just check in with me as you need to.” 

He was doing a good job – getting all of the detailed delivery dates, going over the plans with us, and giving us some options to consider.  But as the sponsor, I started to sit back and enjoy not having to deal with the details.    

As the contractor’s team started to lay the pavers, I was speaking to him and I thought to myself, these pavers don’t look like the ones we wanted.  I said to the contractor, “What do you think? Do these pavers look like the ones we had picked out?” We quickly agreed that the difference in appearance was due to the fact that they were not sealed. So the team kept putting the pavers down and I went back to work.  Later that evening, I went outside to inspect progress.  All of the pavers had been laid that did not require cuts.  But I was still thinking to myself that it doesn’t look like the pavers we had picked out. At that point I glanced at the remaining pavers on the pallet and noticed that they looked exactly like I wanted.  How could this be, the pavers on the patio don’t look like the pavers on the pallet.  I walked back to the patio and turned a single paver over.  Low and behold, the team had laid every single paver upside-down!  So the next morning the contractor’s team was greeted with the extra task to pick every paver up and turn them over.  They’re lucky that I found this before they had to make all of the detailed cuts!

So, the simple listen for project managers – if a sponsor asks a question, don’t try to “guess the answer away” or fall into a “group think” where you and your team come up with a logical explanation without exploring all options.  Take time and listen to your sponsor and make sure you understand what they are asking.  Explore the possibilities and then move on.  It will save you time and improve your project success rate in the long-run!