Want Good IT Projects? Tackle That Elephant In The Room

Show me a corporate IT project that’s having difficulties and I will bet I can show you that the problem isn’t the technology. Usually, a basic human issue has not been addressed. The very need to address it has been overlooked, to the point where it becomes the elephant in the room — squashing the chances to do top-notch IT implementation from day one.

The problem lies with the company’s executive team. The C-level officers and key department heads may think of themselves as “team players.” But in most midsized companies, and even a lot of large ones, they haven’t built the relationships needed to work together on a high level in high-stakes situations.

Watch how the top pro sports teams perform. In the Chiefs’ latest Super Bowl run, there were times when Patrick Mahomes and his receivers seemed to have a magical connection, with the ball getting to the right guy at just the right moment. They didn’t achieve that magic simply by running plays in formal practice sessions. This QB and his receivers are known for bonding on a personal level. They go for meals together, play video games and work out together; they’re constantly both talking and practicing their mutual craft. Likewise on good baseball teams: the catchers and pitchers try to get on an intimate wavelength so they can make joint decisions, quickly and effectively, about how to deal with opposing batters.

Very few executive teams have this degree of synergy. The CMO, CFO, head of sales and other top leaders all try to be nice to each other. They have their own domains and budgets, so they stay in their lanes and avoid interfering with their neighbors. They can run the company day-to-day pretty smoothly this way. But when it comes to doing something new that affects many of them — like a significant IT project — they’re not grounded in sufficient relationships.

Suppose the CMO wants to invest in renovating the campaign management systems, which aren’t generating enough leads. If this is done in a vacuum it won’t go well. The new system must work with sales to convert the leads efficiently. Our firm has been the IT solutions provider on many such projects. I’d estimate that of every million dollars spent with us, half of it goes to getting the client’s team members properly aligned. Sometimes this is very difficult, but it’s necessary. If the personal and emotional relations between team members are weak — or worse, adversarial — they won’t be on the same page at the start, nor will they pull together through the tough parts.

There may come a point in any project when you face the equivalent of needing to rally from a touchdown behind. That is when a poorly aligned team breaks down. Instead of collaborating under pressure, instead of the players knowing how they must interact to get it done, they throw rocks at each other over what’s gone wrong. You’ve seen it happen in sports on TV, with a receiver and quarterback screaming at one another on the sidelines while scuffles break out around them. That’s what executive team breakdown looks like. Everybody is getting trampled by the elephant that everybody ignored. The company has essentially drafted a bunch of players and expected them to blend in, without the relational foundations they need.

The solution? In our experience, structured team-building exercises don’t help much. Someone needs to take the initiative informally. Just say, for instance: “Hey, let’s do lunch or go out together sometimes.” Get closer, have some fun, and in the process, talk some business: “You know, here’s what comes up for me. What about you? How do you think we should handle it?” Build on these beginnings and eventually you’ll have a team of champions: a team that can work together to conceive a good game plan, then move it down the field to the goal.

Always remember that the intangibles matter ‘way more than the tangibles. Just because you can’t control them in a formal setting doesn’t mean that the biggest risk on a project disappears. Learn to recognize the elephant, find the courage to confront the elephant, and eventually you will win Super Bowls.