Have you ever had a stakeholder that had a knack for getting people on the defensive? I once took over a project that was in deep trouble because scope concessions had been made without a proper analysis of the impact of the change on the schedule and budget. That project was now in crisis mode and the stakeholder was using the weekly progress (what progress?) meeting to attack the current project management staff. That person was so good at getting under people’s skin that the meeting would turn into a shouting match within minutes. This was amplified by the stakeholder insisting on a set of topics to be discussed and the project management staff not complying.
When I took that project over I decided to do two things and to never move from that decision:
- First thing was to use the same tactic that allows a young soldier to survive a stark raving lunatic maniac aka his drill instructor. What you need to do is have a master interlock that paralyses your mouth while being yelled at. It helps if you have a little voice in your head that yells back at the abusive moron.
- The second thing was to stick to the list of topics that had been requested and agreed upon. Every time the stakeholder would try to move to something that was not on the list I would obstinately resume my briefing from that list.
Eventually the stakeholder from hell got tired of not being able to get under my skin and “delegated” the meeting to someone who truly wanted to work at resolving the project’s problems. It took time but we got to the end of it. Moral of the story? Stick to your guns.
What do you think? As always questions and comments are welcome.
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