Eu fun un consultor para unha morea de anos e como calquera consultor experimentado sabe, good communication is one of the key pillars to the successful delivery of a project. É tan obvio, it’s really almost boring to talk about. This isn’t a post about generic communication. Pola, Eu estou escribindo sobre o lado máis sombrío de comunicación — comunicación de malas novas.

Nin que dicir ten que dar unha boa nova para o cliente está feito todo o tempo, as often as possible. Who doesn’t want to give good news? Who doesn’t like to hear good news?

Por outra banda, bad news is no fun at all. I have always struggled with this. In the earlier days of my career, Gustaríame saber algo estaba mal con un proxecto e, en vez de dicir ao cliente, I would work longer hours to try and solve the problem. I would enjoin my team to work harder. It’s a natural enough impulse to think that a super-human effort can save the day. Some times this works, some times it does not. Even when it "works" it’s often a mixed bag. Is the quality of the deliverable really up to spec when key parts have been developed over several 60 para 80 horas á semana?

Cal é a mellor forma de xestionar malas novas? The answer is: tell it early. Don’t wait until one week before the project budget will be consumed. If you know six weeks out that there simply isn’t enough time to deliver some bit of promised functionality, tell the client right then and there. The client may get upset (probablemente ha), there may be incriminations and accusations and hurt feelings. Pero, cando as emocións refrescar, there’s still six weeks left on the project. Six weeks is a good chunk of time. There’s time to adjust plans, cambiar horarios, a bola rolar en ampliación do orzamento (boa sorte!) and just generally come to grips with the "facts on the ground" and devise a new plan that still results in a successful project.

Caso en cuestión: Eu estou traballando nun proxecto caracterizado por:

• T&E budget with a capped "Not to exceed" valor en dólar.
• A "best efforts will be made" promesa de entregar X, Y e Z ata o final do proxecto.
• Lack of promised key resources on the client side. These resources were not withheld on purpose, nor for any "bad" razón, pero eles foron retidos.
• A dawning realization as the project passed the half-way point that we were not going to be able to deliver "Z" (sobre todo porque os recursos comprometidos non foron realmente dispoñible).
• Regular status reports and "CYA" documentación que apoiou nos (o equipo de consultoría) up.
• Equipo de implementación ções con membros procedentes da empresa de consultoría (a miña empresa) eo cliente.
• Equipo de xestión lonxe, in both a metaphorical and physical sense. The management team was focused on another large enterprise project and due to space constraints, o equipo de implementación foi aloxado nun edificio separado no campus, down a hill and relatively far way from "civilization".

Con preto de seis semanas que restan no orzamento do proxecto, nós (o equipo de implementación) knew that we were trouble. The contract said that we needed to deliver "Z". Even though the project is time & materials and even though we only promised "best efforts" para entregar Z e aínda que tivo gran xustificación para a falta de entrega … a liña de fondo é que non estaba mirando bo — non estabamos indo entregar Z en forma de calidade que faría calquera orgulloso.

Recoñecendo esta, fomos para a xestión e díxolles que o orzamento do proxecto sería consumida por unha determinada data e que estabamos en apuros con Z.

Un mini-treboadas estalou nos próximos días.

Día 1: Equipo de xestión chama no seu equipo para unha reunión especial (nós, os consultores non son convidados). Contracts are printed and handed out to everyone and a line-by-line review ensues. Management puts the staff members on the defensive. I don’t think the phrase "Síndrome de Estocolmo" é * realmente * usado, pero comeza a foto. We’re a tight-knit group, ao final, eo equipo vén traballando connosco día consultores dentro e fóra hai varios meses.

Día 2: Management calls another staff meeting. They feel a little better. They want options and ideas for moving forward. They realize there’s still six weeks remaining in the current project budget, which is still a decent bit of time. One of the action items: axenda unha reunión co equipo de implementación integral (Consultoría, incluíndo).

Día 5: Equipo completo atopa, constructive meeting ensues and a new achievable plan put into place. Even better, we’ve already begun discussing phase two and the client invites us to prepare proposals for that phase immediately.

Se tivese esperado ata tres semanas permaneceu, ou peor aínda, unha ou dúas semanas, it would have been much different. Instead of a constructive meeting to re-align the project, teriamos sido tirar informes de estado, parsing the contract and reviewing old emails to justify this or that decision. We would have "won" but is it really "winning" neste caso?

Así, se ten que dar malas novas, give it early. Bad news given late isn’t just bad, é horríbel.