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Hi everyone, here is Ricardo Vargas, and welcome to the 5 Minutes Podcast. If I could share with you just one advice about troubled projects and crisis management. It's to stay 100% tuned on the level of corporate support your project has. Why I'm saying this because one of the biggest indicators I know that people will say, okay, delays are indicators of overrun in terms of cost is also another indicator. Yes, but there is one that is critically linked to the DNA of the project is when you start losing the support for your project. For example, do you remember when a project starts? How does it start? We're full of power, full of you know, everybody wants to help. You know, everybody wants to be engaged, right? You know, you have a meeting to discuss something on the project. Everybody is there. Everybody wants to discuss. Everybody wants to contribute. But what happens? Remember, turning ideas into reality is hard work, and staying in the world of ideas is hard work. It's so easy. It's so easy. It's so hard to transform that idea into reality. Because there is a big, big mountain for you to hike to get to that result. And most of the time during this journey, it's common that you lose, that you lose the support that you lose, for example, the contributions that people, for example, that used to be completely available, are not available anymore. They don't want to engage. They don't want to approve. They start to become skeptical. So what is my take for you on that? First, do not disregard that. Most of the projects I saw collapsed because the project manager and the senior team did not see that indicator. They did not see or did not want to see that they were losing this, I would say, this positive mood and this positive support. When you do not have support, your work becomes miserable. So you need to see that. And one of the things I want to share with you is when you discover this. This is my personal advice. It's much better to be open. To be open and put the problem on the table. So many times when I saw that, I came to the sponsor or to the sponsoring committee and said, Are you sure you want to do that? Are you sure this is the project? Are you sure you don't want to change something? Because the best thing I said many, many times, and I will say one more time, is that the first thing you need to do when you are inside the hole is stop digging. And many times, projects that are in crisis because the project manager just hooks on the project so heavily that it's like you're going down into the hole with your project. It means you destroy your reputation. You destroy the results of the project. You destroy the value proposition of the company. Don't do that. This is not smart for you, for the company. This is a lose-lose game. And this drives me to the third comment I want to share. It's I know, look, you have a job. I know you have bills to pay. I have bills to pay. Everyone has bills to pay. And of course, you feel unsafe if the project collapses because you may lose your job. And this. That's absolutely fair. I agree completely, and I understand your point. But what you need to do, you need to develop your options. I have said this many times: You need to develop your options because then you will become freer and more open. For example, in my career, because I do different things, I was fortunate to be able to say what I think to my clients. Sometimes the client at first does not like you very much, but when you are open, you build a positive relationship, and you stop destroying the value of a project that should not continue, and the project should not continue just because you want to keep your job, because this is not sustainable. This is why it's so important that we develop, and ChatGPT does not do that. This is your feeling, your ability to perceive what is between the words and what is between you, know the thoughts, and know exactly how things are moving, because every time I saw problems, they gave early warning signs. Do not say they don't give because this is not true. And this would be extremely helpful for you to navigate in this volatile scenario we are living in now, this geopolitical scenario, because things that used to be okay, great projects, great business, maybe one year ago, they may not be now. And you need to be ready to rethink, revamp, alert your stakeholders, and move forward. Always think about that because the only thing you cannot do is be blindfolded in these volatile times. Because it will hurt. It will hurt you. It will hurt your company, it will hurt society. And this is not acceptable. So I hope you enjoyed this podcast, and see you next week with another 5 Minutes Podcast.
