Help me herd these cats

November 4, 2024 2:35 PM

My current project at work does not have a project manager and as a result is an absolute, unmitigated shitshow. I have decided to become the project manager because it seems to be the only way any of us will survive the year. I need some advice on how to do this. Details within!

The main issues as I see them:

1. Absolutely no communication across teams.
There are three distinct teams involved with this project and none of them ever look at the same folders or schedules, nobody communicates when their phases are done, and people simply do not respond to queries.

2. No adherence to workflow
People turn over products to the next team but then do not stop working on them; version control has been a nightmare and nobody knows when it's ACTUALLY ok to start their part of the project. In part this is because the bigwigs frequently interject feedback super late, and nobody feels empowered to either say no or say they'll have to wait for the next phase to see that implemented.

3. No visibility.
We have posted and communicated schedules, workflows, checklists, and templates. None of these are ever consulted or used. The senior management will only use private slack chats, NEVER the main channel. As a result there are like 62 super secret squirrel conversations where important decisions are made and then sit in a black hole forever.


Things I am currently doing:
-Posting a daily status update in the main slack channel where I put blockers and due dates in BRIGHT RED TEXT so everyone can theoretically see exactly what they're meant to give to whom that day.
-Continually responding to the 42 questions a day about "when is this..." "where does this go..." with links to the SCHEDULES AND WORKFLOWS that literally answer all of those questions
-Working nights and weekends to unfuck everything that gets fucked up throughout the day (unsustainable)
-I have organized deliverables into batches and I am attempting to enforce the batching so that the schedule can hold -- this is not terribly successful as the bigs frequently demand that things move to new batches, and contributors continue to deliver things piecemeal, out of order, and with no regard for batch dates.

What else can I do here? Nobody in these other teams is outwardly resistant to functioning like a real project -- they all seem excited that I'm here to make this make sense. But so far, it's all lip service -- they never change behavior.

So how can I make it impossible for them to do anything BUT work in sequence, on schedule, and according to our actual project stages? At this point I'm barely able to hold it together like, professionally, so I am here for any wild-ass thing that might work.

posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese to Work & Money (18 answers total)

So how can I make it impossible for them to do anything BUT work in sequence, on schedule, and according to our actual project stages?

You 100% cannot make it impossible. I've worked on projects with a whole team of project managers with reasonably well defined processes where this did not happen, so let go of that idea.

First thing though, if I was going to step into a project management role, I would want acknowledgement and buy-in from people above me and the wider team that I was, in fact, going to be the project manager. It's a full time job, and while you de-facto project managing might help the project in general, either your individual contributions will suffer, or you will drive yourself crazy trying to do two jobs, one of which you are not paid for.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 2:41 PM on November 4

I am a project manager.

No process can overcome an entrenched culture of senior managers giving super belated feedback that more junior contributors then need to incorporate, etc.

If you can better understand WHY the senior managers are doing what they're doing (the 1:1 messaging, ignoring the windows when it would be optimal to opine on work in progress, etc.) then you have a better chance of adapting to their needs and persuading them to participate in whatever process improvements you devise.

I suggest you at least skim Chip and Dan Heath's book "Switch" on how to make change when change is hard. It's a quick and easy read.
posted by brainwane at 2:49 PM on November 4

(My individual contributions on this project are already suffering, because due to a total lack of management or organization, I cannot move meaningfully on literally even a single one of my deliverables. So that's not really a concern at this point.)
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 3:16 PM on November 4

I don't know what kind of organization you work at, but at my for-profit company we jokingly/sobbingly say, "The only way to get anything done here at Goat Rodeo Inc is to show how much money will be made by doing it OR how much will be lost by not doing it."

That translates to :

NOPE: "If we do X, it will mean we'll all be more efficient, work fewer extra hours, and be able to take on new projects!"

YES: "If we don't do X, we'll lose the $5,000,000 McGuillicutty deal."

We refer to our management as coin-operated for good reason.

(Le sigh.)
posted by jerome powell buys his sweatbands in bulk only at 3:57 PM on November 4

What you’re describing doesn’t really sound like a problem you have the ability to fix. If people more powerful and high-ranking than you refuse to allow any changes that would make this work better, I’m not sure why you think you 1. can or 2. should attempt to take on that burden. “Because nobody else is doing it” isn’t a sufficient reason. The people whose job it is to make this work have decided not to bother. Maybe it would be a better use of your effort and skill to find a different gig where those attributes will be appreciated and used.
posted by showbiz_liz at 4:18 PM on November 4

Ok I looked at your post history… if you’re truly committed to staying at this place, I still say it’s not a good use of your personal resources to keep trying to roll this particular stone up the hill. What’s the worst case scenario if you just… do what you’re assigned and nothing more? Worst case for you personally, I mean, not for your dysfunctional company?
posted by showbiz_liz at 4:23 PM on November 4

I mean the problem is I literally cannot do what I am assigned, as NOBODY IS DOING ASSIGNING. The work just exists in space and time, as an item on a schedule, but nobody is ensuring that assignments are made. I can assign myself something, but then I cannot complete the assignment, as nobody prior to me in the chain of work has done their work on that assignment so that I can begin.

It's like, for example, my "assignment" is "paint the toy wagon red with a little white stripe." That's fantastic, can do. Except instead of a wagon, someone dumped three jack-in-the-boxes on my desk and when I ask what needs to happen with them, they're like "I dunno, big boss just told me to do these. Paint the wagon I guess?"
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 4:26 PM on November 4

In that situation, I would send off an email asking for clarification (knowing that I won’t receive a satisfactory answer) and then just… wait for a wagon, or maybe slap some paint on the jack-in-the-boxes. I really sympathize, this sounds insanely frustrating and as a fellow fixer it would drive me nuts, but it sounds like it might be time for some radical acceptance on whether this project actually matters to anyone else at your company as much as it matters to you.
posted by showbiz_liz at 4:33 PM on November 4

Oooffff, this sounds like quite the cluster... You don't say very much about the nature of your industry, organization, project, the size and make-up of the teams, how long things have been going like this, what if anything makes this particular project different, or even how long you've been there relatively to everybody else. So I have more questions for you than I have answers.

Here's the general principle I go by these days, having studied and then given up on change management: people tend to function the way they do for reasons that seem good to them at the time. That goes even more in organizations, when you add culture to the mix. To what extent are you confident that you understand what's driving the behavior you're describing? There's probably a very specific set of circumstances where adding a bit of structure via project management activity woud substantially reduce the dysfunction. Maybe you're in one of those. But if you're not, you risk burning out very quickly, for not much in the way of results. (Sorry.)

Let me ask you this: Let's imagine for a moment that there was a project manager assigned from the very beginning. How do you think the process would have unfolded under those circumstances? Not in an ideal scenario, but keeping everything else constant - the people, the pressures they're under, the organizational politics, the nature of the work, etc. -- and just adding a project manager. Whatever that would have been like, consider that adding a project manager to the mix at this point may not yield the same result. Like adding flour to cookie dough after it's been in the oven for half an hour.

I know you're asking for specific things you can do. This is not going to be much, but it's general enough that it might do something at least for your stress level, and maybe, just maybe, contribute marginally to addressing the situation. If you are co-located, start having coffee with people from the three teams, the ones that you think everybody looks up to, and pick their brain about what they think is going on. Give them a chance to vent, then see what they think would help. You may discover some allies, because the way things are going you are probably not the only one hurting.

Also, where is upper management in all this? Do you all have the resources you need? Are you on an unreasonable timeline? This kind of chicken-with-its-head-cut-off behavior from three whole teams of grown adults makes me think there's something fishy going on in the context.
posted by gigimakka at 4:35 PM on November 4

When we were trying to unfuck the process at our company, management's backing was critical. I unfortunately cannot imagine trying to wrangle something like this when management or higher ups are part of the problem. You need their buy-in and they need to understand the necessity of all these protocols to begin with.

Let's say you do get their enthusiastic buy-in and they're excited to be part of the solution.

In our case someone needed to confirm that steps were being correctly followed during every transition of a task (from person/department A to person/department B). If something wasn't done correctly, there was no hand-off to another person. There was a review process to either confirm a task was done to the desired specifications, or it was sent back with feedback.

Is there a hierarchy in your case that can allow reviews like this to happen naturally, so that you are not handed three jack-in-the-boxes? Are you considering taking on such a role, and is your position in the company such that people are willing to listen when you say "this task was not done correctly"? This is a critical aspect of project management at our place - a task does not move forward if its predecessor was not approved/verified.

So my very basic question regarding this whole situation is where are the managers or supervisors? Who is leading the teams that allow them to turn in subpar work or to continue to revise assignments that were marked as done? If you're trying to herd a bunch of team leads and convince them that they need to follow a protocol, you need to be in a position that requires them to listen to you. As in, your job title needs to officially be Lead of Team Leads or something. There need to be consequences for someone fucking up, and if you're not in a position to dish them out then ultimately any system you set up is powered by fairy dust. It sounds like you're trying to step into a managerial role when you're maybe assigned to paint toy wagons, and that is 100% an uphill battle that will destroy you. I've been there. No matter how much people claim to appreciate you stepping in, if there is no hierarchical reason for them to listen to you they'll "forget" and do what they've always done.

There is no way to volunteer to be a project manager without having access to a birds eye view of the project, including assignments, resources, deadlines, etc. You need to be in meetings regarding deliveries, you need to be in planning conversations, etc. This all needs someone at the top granting you such access and sticking to it instead of continuing to have squirrel chats.

If your own work is grinding to a halt due to bad company practices, you'd ideally have someone above you who could listen to a detailed explanation of the problems. It's extremely difficult to fix a situation like this if you're a widget maker trying to herd other widget makers however.
posted by It Was Capitalism All Along at 4:52 PM on November 4

You can't do this by yourself. At the very least you need management buy-in, followed by management actually mandating and enforcing actions from the top down.

The problem is, management may not know how to do this. What are good project management practices? If no one in management knows, they need to be educated. Then they need to spend the time and money figuring it out and then molding the company culture (including themselves) to work that way.
posted by lhauser at 6:47 PM on November 4

Welp since management is MIA and nobody exists who can make me an authority I guess I just have to continue grinding myself into dust so I don’t become the scapegoat who gets fired when the project fails. Fantastic.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:30 PM on November 4

No, you don't grind yourself into dust, you escalate to your own management and then their bosses.

You can tell super senior people that their late feedback is a problem. You can manage expectations around the quality and timeliness of your work. You can triage your own work and define what your own success will look like and make sure your own boss has your back.

You cannot magic this project into a win through your sweat, blood and tears. I've had this conversation with my team, emotional ownership is great, but it is not your job to solve a disorganized project, no matter how interesting it is. You need to let the MIA management take the fall, and your boss needs to be informed and 200% on your side.
posted by larthegreat at 11:45 PM on November 4

Getting daily time with the senior leadership to show them current chaos and request reedback early, possibly via their assistants, is one way to get hated by everyone while helping the cash to flow and customers to get their (seasonal) Li'l Red Truck or Jack-In-Box. Get a forecast cash figure that will be impacted by late delivery.

On the opposite side of the same coin: find allies in each team who can say what the ask stated as and what it eventually became -- and why -- plus some commitment to standardize that information with a task tracker like Jira or Trello.

(Minimize hand-offs between teams and, if it's hard to minimise hand-offs, normalise then to some standard presentation and packaging to save the next team working on it from burning time discovering what is in the package.)

There's gotta be some people who are trying their best and could use a friendly "we're all in the trenches" face, or even some people who will respond well to being shown trust to act like adults at your team-to-team level. Good luck!
posted by k3ninho at 12:29 AM on November 5

It sounds like your work has successfully done other projects, what’s different about this one? Is it under resourced? Is it not a priority? Is the organization imploding and they’re gaming it out in those senior management chats and that’s why they won’t share anything?

Figure out what senior management cares about and show them that you value that (so someone will stick up for you if you’re made the scapegoat). Forget about the project except for making the bosses happy. If you have time, network. Quit propping up a dysfunctional system.
posted by momus_window at 6:52 AM on November 5

OP -- from your latest response, I see a concern about becoming the scapegoat who gets fired when the project fails.

I can understand how this makes the stakes seem that much higher. However, if you look at the responses here, the emerging consensus is that you may not currently have enough control over the project to save it from failing. (The consensus may be wrong, because we are not in the situation, but it appears that way based on the information available here to date.)

I would add another consideration to the mix: in a chaotic situation like this, even well-intended and somewhat effective efforts to be helpful may not necessarily be perceived in a way that would save you from being scapegoated. The situation reeks of politics *and* incompetence or dysfunction, and who gets stuck with the blame in these types of circumstances tends to be a matter of power dynamics.

So this changes my advice: It seems to me like in terms of triage, the immediate priority is to take a look at your realistic chances of becoming scapegoated, and take action to protect yourself. You may need to talk to someone outside of the immediate situation to gain perspective -- whether in the organization or someone in a similar professional role elsewhere. (In other words, I'm not suggesting this is all in your head/all about your feelings, where a therapist would be the best person to talk to.)

If, with some perspective, it doesn't look like you're actively being targeted for scapegoating, then you have some options as outlined on this thread: keep a low profile, or find a more political way of navigating the situation that may allow you to contribute to a resolution without becoming scapegoated in the future.

If, on the other hand, as a result of taking perspective it appears that you personally could be at risk from the failure of the project, then your energy might be better invested in networking and looking for another job both inside and outside the organization. Which might not be a bad idea overall, given the level of dysfunction you are describing -- but I don't want to minimize how much of a pain it is to change jobs, which is why I didn't make it my default suggestion.

It sucks that you are going through this. You sound like a reasonable person who deserves much better!
posted by gigimakka at 10:19 AM on November 5

I wonder if there's a way you could reformat the ask here to focus more on say, how to best avoid being a scapegoat, or pitch problems to management, or deal working in a dysfunctional company until you are able to find a healthier work environment. Those seem to be the main problems that need addressing. It's generally impossible to project manage your way from the bottom up - protocols and pipelines and whatnot need to come and be enforced from the top down. If management folks are making (or changing) decisions in sidebars and that information is not making its way to the right people, on time, etc., there is no project management hack that will change their behavior. You're unfortunately dealing with a structural problem - which sucks so incredibly hard. Your frustrations are all valid, it's just that you are unlikely to find a solution to a structural problem if you are not already in charge of that structure, at least in some way.
posted by It Was Capitalism All Along at 10:56 AM on November 5

I guess I just have to continue grinding myself into dust so I don’t become the scapegoat who gets fired when the project fails

Your time might be better spent on networking for new job opportunities instead of grinding yourself into dust.
posted by yohko at 4:53 PM on November 5