{"id":7018,"date":"2011-07-26T07:44:59","date_gmt":"2011-07-26T14:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=7018"},"modified":"2011-07-31T10:36:01","modified_gmt":"2011-07-31T17:36:01","slug":"relationship-trumps-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=7018","title":{"rendered":"Relationship Trumps Everything"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019ve learned a lot about project management as a result of the trainings and schooling I\u2019ve had.\u00a0 But one thing I was never taught was that in any almost any work situation, relationship trumps everything.<\/p>\n

I can bring a project in late.\u00a0 I can bring a project in over budget.\u00a0 I can expand the scope of a project well beyond what was originally agreed to.\u00a0 And there can be no ill consequences for me, my project team or anyone else \u2013 as long as the relationship with the client is positive and warm \u2013 and I\u2019m delivering value.<\/p>\n

So, let me first make clear: I am assuming you are delivering value to the client.\u00a0 But even if you deliver value, you may not be kept on to do the work.<\/p>\n

There are a number of threads in this when I dissect that idea.\u00a0 With whom exactly is it that the positive relationship needs to exist?\u00a0 Who from the project side needs to be involved in this relationship?\u00a0 How does one know if a relationship is positive?\u00a0 What has to be done to create this relationship?<\/p>\n

What is the impact of not having a positive relationship?\u00a0 In sum, it gets you fired.<\/p>\n

So, with whom do I need to develop and retain good relationship?\u00a0 First and foremost with my project sponsor, my big \u201cc\u201d Client, the one who pays the bills.\u00a0 Then all the people who give my big \u201cc\u201d Client advice \u2013 they\u2019re critical.\u00a0 And the people on my project team \u2013 absolutely essential.\u00a0 Also, there are all the people from the client organization with whom I work, my clients with a small \u201cc\u201d.<\/p>\n

All of these people are really important.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to have the necessary knowledge to deliver a project.\u00a0 I don\u2019t deny that.\u00a0 But once you\u2019ve got your PMP what matters most is relationships.\u00a0 It really is.\u00a0\u00a0 I have seen projects with really good project management people on them lose contracts because of lousy relationship skills.<\/p>\n

Here is something I recently experienced.\u00a0 The client my business partner and I have been working with for the past two years had another consulting company produce a communication plan.\u00a0 It was really good.\u00a0 It covers all the basics: message; who to communicate with; channels of communication; timing.\u00a0 But the person who developed the communication plan with the Client and the project team was terrible at relationships.\u00a0 This person would go to meetings and act arrogantly, saying things like, \u201cYou should know this already\u201d.\u00a0 They would miss critical meetings without having a really important reason that prevented them from attending.<\/p>\n

The interesting thing is that this person\u2019s work product \u2013 and the products of the consulting company with whom they were connected \u2013 was excellent.\u00a0\u00a0 Our Client would complain to us about these other consultants and we would nod solemnly, agreeing that the client felt they had a problem.\u00a0 But my business colleague and I would use the reports these other consultants had produced as the basis of work we did with that same client.\u00a0 We would comment, \u201cYou know, the consultants from Company X made a very interesting point about communicating with stakeholders\u201d.\u00a0 But the relationship between our client and the other consultants had been ruptured.\u00a0 These other consultants lost the work after only completing a third of their contract.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t because of their work product, it was because of their poor relationships.<\/p>\n

My colleague and I, on the other hand, produced real perceived value to the Client and the client project team.\u00a0 The emphasis here is on the \u201cperceived\u201d.\u00a0 We always did at least a bit more than we were asked to do.\u00a0 We were always available, 24×7.\u00a0 Our relationships were warm \u2013 not intimate but definitely warm.\u00a0 And we tried to stay very clear on producing value \u2013 of course, the other consultants produced value but lost their work.<\/p>\n

But having that good relationship allowed us a good deal of freedom.\u00a0 Our \u201cweekly\u201d status reports were routinely late.\u00a0 We go our billing in just on time.\u00a0 But the Client and the whole client team saw us work hard, produce good product and we maintained a warm though professional relationship.\u00a0 And we prospered.\u00a0 The client very happily is a wonderfully positive reference for us.\u00a0 They want us to come back.\u00a0 We have found that it is true that relationship does trump everything.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve learned a lot about project management as a result of the trainings and schooling I\u2019ve had.\u00a0 But one thing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1523,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,6,847,848,849,850],"tags":[331],"class_list":["post-7018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","category-priorities-2","category-communications","category-self-leadership","category-1-1-leadership","category-team-leadership","category-organizational-leadership","tag-relationships"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1523"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7018\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}