the good news:
Have you heard this before? Or felt the deep pangs of budget woes and compromises? You’re not alone.
Of course, more budget is always nice. But I am here to tell you that there are plenty of projects with fat wallets that are full of Drama Llamas and end up falling flat like half done pancakes left out in the blistering sun 🫓🥀☀️
Why?
WELL. The truth is, it doesn’t matter what your budget is. The real underlying challenges that prevent project success aren’t always solved with money (and let’s face it, the more budget you have the more you inevitably spend, and still find yourself longing for more).
These real challenges can be quite tricky because they are often not visible with the naked eye, unless you know where to look for them. They’re often below the standard tick box project management frameworks that all the experts push. Within the nucleus of change that no one dares to venture. Think: where’s Wally.
An example? Let’s look at leader sponsorship and stakeholder engagement.
The project being the priority of, “we all want this project to work because we’ve put budget into it” is surface level alignment. It’s not compelling. It leaves room for shifting accountability. Instead, we need to understand each stakeholder and their genuine motivation on a deeper level. The kind of motivation where if one stakeholder fails to achieve their outcomes, everyone feels the pain.
When you build a project around something deeper than “mutually beneficial outcomes” it stops being a negotiation, politics goes out the window, and true collaboration starts. Everyone has skin in the game – reputations, credibility, future funding, the works.
How has this worked in practicality?
A brilliant illustration of this in practice can be found on Montréal’s REM project. This is one of the most ambitious transport infrastructure builds in Canada. The success of it wasn’t about engineering excellence or project controls – it was about shared fate.
The government of Québec and CDPQ (the investment arm of the province’s pension fund) both had their reputations and outcomes on the line. CDPQ’s financial return was directly tied to the network’s long-term performance, and the government’s political credibility hinged on its delivery. These outcomes were written into contracts, legislation, approval timeframes.
Collaboration wasn’t optional, it was necessary for survival. While having a shared fate is simply one of many important metrics for project success, it’s part of the secret sauce that ensure projects don’t become pancakes. The real leverage point isn’t another matrix or stakeholder map – it’s the mutual risk equation. The shared incentives and consequences that make success non-negotiable.
How do you draw these deep motivations out?
Alas, there isn’t another excel spreadsheet or project management software that can draw this shared fate out of your stakeholders, or any of the other deep success factors that drive real change. It takes real human work by experts skilled in uncovering and aligning these success factors (and showing you how to do the same!) When this is identified from day one, teams stop playing the blame game and start playing for the win!
electro: helps clients build future ready businesses and genuinely inspiring workplaces by transforming organisations from the inside out. We can help you align your purpose, people, performance and tech with change that’s felt and sticks.