Who’s really on the team II – who’s actually saying “no” by saying “yes?”

In my previous post (Who's really on the team...? (Introduction)) I pointed out that it’s sometimes hard for a project manager to know who is really supportive of a project’s goals and timelines and who isn’t. In other words, who is in reality saying “no” by saying “yes?”

While this can honestly be about as easy as “sorting fly poop out of black pepper,” it is critically important that a project manager go into the project looking for these folks. Not trying to advocate being pessimistic or paranoid, but if one or more of these kinds of people are involved in your project, it’s at risk. Plain and simple.

So…. How to figure out who these folks might be? Start with those who will be most affected by the change. Case in point; I was once a training manager for an FAA Part 135 air carrier. That’s more or less an airline - the big differences being the class of equipment (i.e., business jets and turboprop twins instead of 777s or Airbus 380s) and lack of a set schedule of routes and times. It was, as the industry terms it, “an on-demand charter operation.”

Most of our pilots were not employees of our charter company. Instead they were employed by someone who owned the business jet that used it in conjunction with their business most of the time but allowed it and their pilots to fly it for our charter company part time. The idea here was the owner got some extra revenue from his airplane through charter to help offset their cost of ownership.

Unfortunately, I saw way more instances than I really care to remember where our salesperson would take the owner and pilots out for a big expensive meal to help woo them into joining our charter ticket. As the wine flowed and the conversation centered around all the wonderful revenues said owner would receive from all these extra charter trips they could fly with their airplane (and their pilots) over and above their normal business trips.

Invariably the owner and his crews would all be saying “Yes, yes, yes. We can do this! Sign us up!” 

By now you’re probably already guessing the end of the story. The level of participation agreed to by these pilots sometimes didn’t live up to that promised.

Why? Picture this; you’re this owner’s pilots. You’ve just flown into home base from a long 4-day, 3-night trip. You’re looking forward to a little relaxation and time with the family. You haven’t been in the same state as your own home 6 hours and you get called from the charter company wanting you to head back out for another long charter trip – for which you’ll receive no extra pay. And this is the 4^th such call you’ve gotten this month. How motivated are you to accept the trip?

So, in this scenario, all these pilots got from their boss enthusiastically adding their aircraft to our charter certificate was what amounted to an extra part-time-plus job…for no money. Is it hard to believe that – despite their enthusiastic support of his signing the charter contract during the wine and steaks dinner - they’d turn down charter trips whenever possible.

Therefore, always keep your eyes open for the reasons why those “on the team” wouldn’t really want to support the team. Maybe it's job insecurity, maybe it's loss of status. Or maybe they just think the project will bring them more hassle. Whatever their objections might be, if possible, remove those objections for the health of the project.