We’ve all had it happen to us. We were able to get a signed agreement in hand, identifying agreed upon scope of work. Everything for a fleeting moment is right in the world. Then it happens. That one stakeholder (you know who they are) comes to your desk and asks. “Can we add this one little tiny feature?” or “Can we make this one tiny little change?”

Are you kidding me? This reminds me of when my son asks if he can have dessert when he hasn’t eaten his dinner. Though you can’t be as abrupt with a stakeholder like you can with a 4-year-old, the answer should still be the same. No.

Though you should not be an obstructionist, we could all learn a little from Dr. Cox in this case.  His (command) mitigated speech is all he needed.  In the real world, stride to be a win-win negotiator and be aware of the mitigated speech being used to conduct your negotiations.

This is a 1 minute video from Simon Sinek. I originally saw him in a TED Talk (video) from back in September 2009. If you have 18 minutes, I recommend you go view it. If you just have a minute, I think anyone (specifically project managers) should watch this video. Think about how you communicate with your stakeholders.

Due to a wicked sinus infection, I wasn’t at the client site for several days.  I found myself taking pill after pill, trying to get myself back to a condition where I could return to the program and really be effective.  I think I took every colored pill under the rainbow.  I chuckled to myself as I took a blue pill, as I thought about the movie The Matrix.

In a memorable scene, the character Neo is faced with a decision.  By taking a blue pill, he could continue believing what he wanted to believe.  By doing so, he was ignoring reality.  The one who was giving him an opportunity of enlightenment was Morpheus.

Morpheus: This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.

Welcome to the world of project management, Morpheus.  I’ve learned over time, which of my stakeholders to give the red pill to and which to give the blue pill to.  To be truthful, many don’t even want you to offer them a pill.  It’s my job to support and advise stakeholders related to our program.  It’s not my job to tell a stakeholder which pill to take.

When managing stakeholders, you really need to understand their motivations and expectations.  Not all stakeholders want the program or project to succeed.  Of the ones who do want the program to succeed, I’ve witnessed complete polar opposites of figurative pill popping.  On one side of the spectrum, I’ve dealt with a stakeholder who wanted to know every little detail of what was going on with a project.  This micro-manager almost choked on his red pills.  On the complete other side of the spectrum, I’ve had a stakeholder who showed up for a project charter meeting, swallow the blue pill, and just let everything take its course.

For those in the middle, there is a bit of a punchline.  Mix both a red pill and blue pill and you get a purple pill.  “Purple Pill” is a trademark for a heartburn medication, which is exactly what you’ll need at some point of a project.

So, I’m back in the office today.  I sat in a meeting with 50 other people and listened to a monthly status briefing by a vendor.  As I looked around the room and thought about writing this, I muttered to myself.

red-red-blue red-blue-blue….

Do you have that one stakeholder who comes to your meeting and finds a way to talk about something completely unrelated? You tell them you need to take the conversation offline but it’s still really annoying. Bla bla bla! It’s important when you schedule a meeting to have an agenda. It’s also really important to stick to it. When in doubt, don’t have the meeting.  Check out the video and try to convince me that you have not had this “robot” in one of your meetings.

As I study the collection and reporting of metrics and project statuses, I find many reports just do not deliver what they should. I believe there should be a stand-alone deliverable that a project manager is able to provide to a stakeholder at any time, illustrating the total project status.  I created a report and used the name “TPS Report” from the movie Office Space.  I try to interject a little humor into a project, where I can, without raising too many eyebrows.  Because I do not think I should keep all of the good stuff for myself, I hope others will download my free template.  It captures everything from overall project status to schedule, budget, scope, and quality, including a RAG (Red, Amber or Green) status.  What milestones were planned and accomplished?  What is planned for the next period?  Though I believe a subjective narrative does have its place in project reporting, I like the more objective approach.  Give your stakeholders the facts!
Please enjoy this free copy of  my Total Project Status Report Template.