CHAMPIONING the Project

By Gary Kennedy, P. Eng., PMP

(2023-06-11) CHAMPIONING!!! The HIGHLY BENEFICIAL Support that Project Managers should receive from the VP and CEO level for their projects!

When the Executives make it known that they support your diligence in Safety, Best-Practice Processes, Efficiency, Workplace Respect, Health, Trust, Environmental Protection, Cost Stewardship, and other Professional Concerns.

Got their visible and actual support? NOW YOU'RE COOKING WITH GAS!!!

I've had the good fortune of USUALLY having fantastic VP support out there. This helps you get crucial buy-in from the whole team when explaining industry best practices (and Lessons Learned) to optimize project success.

This VP support can also be a meaningful part of the team program for:

- Performance Incentives for Good Work

- Measured Fair Responses for Poor Work

Of course, it's a 2-way street, because the VP is trusting the PM to correctly SIMPLIFY the PM Best Practice Processes within reason, for practical purposes. No VP wants a full 7-stage decision gate system with 5 Gatekeepers for the installation of a small pre-fab industrial storage shed on a rural greenfield lot (but always do a good site investigation - heaven knows who may have buried various utilities many years ago)*.

THE CONCERN: All Project Managers and their Project Teams need to know that the VP and other executives with the organization support the very important and intense work that they are doing. The Project Managers, Coordinators, and other Project Teammates have a challenging job to deal with interior/exterior personnel on achieving the objectives. Any apparent weakness of credibility from the top levels will tend to undermine adherence and performance. The Safety, Quality, and Efficiency priorities should be seen as enthusiastically shared concerns with the entire organization.

(End of Project Management Article)

*(Note: I've been on excavations all over Eastern Canada since 1987, and please be assured that there are lots of power, water, sewer, telecom, WW2 materiel, historical artefacts, and other items to be found out there.)