One of
the hardest situations for a project manager to manage is the one were she is
the new guy/gal in an organization. The
'new guy' almost always gets the projects that other people don't want or that
are in trouble. Being the new person you have less leverage or ability to
either say, "no I won't do it", or "this is wrong, we need to
re-calibrate". The internal pressure is on to prove ones self and/or to
confirm people's decision that they were right in appointing you in the first
place. It is this internal/personal wish, desire, or motivation that drives us
to accept tasks that our professional competence tells us are if not
impossible, then extremely risky, not only for ourselves but for our employers.
How do
you handle this? As soon as you realize that you are up the creek without a
paddle then you have start documenting the real situation. Make sure that your
status reports indicate the true state of affairs and let the stakeholders make
the decisions. Always record your findings and make sure any changes in your
findings by other people are documented.
I was on
a project that was doomed by the time I was assigned to it. Strategic decisions
had been made which precluded almost any chance of success. However, when I
decided that we needed to report that the project was at risk I was overruled.
It would 'upset’ people I was told, so we had
to leave it as 'on schedule'. Unfortunately for the person making that decision
he actually wrote that opinion in an e-mail. So when he tried to blame the miscommunication
on others his "goose was cooked". So trust but not too much! When in
doubt document, is a pretty good working motto.
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