Have you ever been assigned program management for an organizational change program that you think is really dumb? How can you appear to be doing your job while secretly ensuring that program objectives never see the light of day?
Simply follow the five principles guaranteed to ensure failure:
Principle One: Set Unrealistic Deadlines
Principle Two: Never Admit Mistakes
Principle Three: Kill the Messenger
Principle Four: Don't Waste Time Talking to People
Principle Five: Continually Increase Scope
Principle One: Set Unrealistic Deadlines
Most important, before you get started, ensure that unrealistic deadlines are set. Remember, your program is so important and urgent that the deadlines are immobile. Unrealistic deadlines will help you in two ways. First, when things don't work out well you can always blame the deadlines. Second, throughout the entire program, whenever anyone makes a suggestion that might possibly enable you to succeed, you can easily dismiss it because there's not enough time.
More often than not, your superiors will have done you the favor of setting unrealistic deadlines already. You can simply avoid telling them the truth and negotiating for realistic deadlines. If you're lucky, your organizational culture ensures that decisions, once made, are never changed. After all, executives never make mistakes. (See Principle Two.)
Sometimes, effective application of Principle One alone will result in program failure. With proper planning, you can spend millions of dollars on scores of experts (thereby illustrating clearly your desire to succeed), while remaining secure in the knowledge that the deadlines are impossible. Just to be on the safe side, don't count on it; be sure to apply Principles Two through Five.
For descriptions of Principles Two through Five, be sure to read my future posts.
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