the great South African syndrome

the great South African syndrome Dear Executive – Is your organisation suffering from the great South African syndrome? Poor project delivery and insights into what you can about it Without being dramatic and stating the obvious, I believe that South Africa and its organisations and institutions suffer a great syndrome that is a general inability to execute well on plans, strategies and/or mandates. Before I offend too many people, let me admit that this is not a problem exclusive to South Africa – other parts of the world are also not so great at implementation – I simply focus on South Africa because I have a vested interest in our success. We do really well at many things including developing great strategies and strategic plans (even legislation and policies) as well as delivery of certain types of projects – what comes to mind is the infrastructure build for the 2010 World Cup which was delivered relatively well (the e-tolls projects may be a subject of a separate future article altogether). My concern is that with the large volume of planning that we do (I do not know too many self-respecting organisations that do not proclaim to have a strategic, corporate or business plan devised or reviewed religiously every year), our record of great delivery is very poor – we seem to forget that plans need to be executed in order to realise or achieve the intended benefits. Inability to implement well is our great syndrome (admittedly, severity will vary from organisation to organisation and from industry to industry). Projects involving technology seem to be particularly badly afflicted by this problem. I am concerned that this syndrome seems to be getting worse generally and not improving despite many well-meaning attempts to rectify it. We need to own up to this problem if we wish to resolve it and become as successful as our plans dictate we would be if we deliver well. My intent here is to share with you some key practical insights of what you can do about this syndrome if you wish to surmount it. Should you wish to satisfy yourself of the existence and extent of this syndrome, I suggest the following actions:

1. Take stock of your own organisation’s plans and major projects and reflect on how many stated objectives were successfully achieved and how many projects successfully completed. (Feel free to congratulate yourself if the overall successful delivery rate is anything above 40% – you are doing better than most)
2. Have a look at government and its institutions and its major plans – how much unused budgets are being returned annually due to lack of delivery? How many projects are coming in on time and within forecast budgets?

There are a number of root causes which I believe are key contributors to this sad state of affairs, namely

• Lack of realism
• Over-optimism
• Not nurturing delivery capability or capacity

I also call lack of realism inability or avoidance to confront reality as it is – that is acting as if conditions are as we wish they were and not as they really are. Most organisations have a really poor record of implementing changes and projects – however this seems to be forgotten as we insist on implementing all our strategies almost all at once regardless of our actual capacity to deliver. Over-optimisim leads to a pervasive culture of believing that we can take any number of initiatives, call them projects, assign any available budget (often badly estimated) and get a project manager assigned and results will happen. Sometimes we are caught in a situation of historical neglect and required fixes become urgent – here we also believe that we can declare “it has to be done”, and that it will actually get done. We do not ask the key question “can we deliver?” Project Management has been with us for a while now as a discipline intended to help us translate strategic goals into “business benefits”. Project management has been widely adopted by many diverse institutions – and when done right by organisations, it really helps deliver. Where problems arise is when project management is seen as a silver bullet and a panacea for all organisational problems. What many executives fail to appreciate is that project management itself goes through a lifecycle of maturity beginning at low levels of maturity to extremely proficient and optimised. I think somehow executives have been wrongly sold the idea that project management exists only at high levels of maturity. It is also important to address a popular but unfortunate misconception here – that project managers deliver projects – In too many organisations a myth exists that a project manager will do all the work required to deliver a project. Project work is done by a number of subject matter experts (e.g. software developers/ engineers, systems analysts on technology-type projects) whose time and work needs to be coordinated in support of project goals or objectives. This is important because having a great project manager is only part of the answer to “can we deliver?” It is also important to factor in the fact that many of your subject matter experts may be involved on more than one project and almost always involved in some type of operational work. Overcoming the syndrome Following are a few practical tips that you can implement to raise your organisation’s proficiency in delivery

1. Make all work (ongoing and planned projects) visible
2. Select, prioritise and commit to a realistic number and size of projects after careful and realistic consideration of these key questions
   1. Are we doing the right things / projects? If successful, will this project measurably achieve one or more strategic objective?
   1. Can we deliver?  Do we have the necessary resources available at the right time to complete the project successfully? –planning techniques will help a great deal here
   1. Will we get benefits? Focus on measurable outcomes that take your organisation forward
3. Match the delivery expectations to your organisation’s actual capability and capacity to deliver (and capability to absorb the changes your planned projects will introduce) – Start small if you must
4. Insist on risk management to inform your choices
5. Visibly support project delivery and insist on project success
6. Build on your project wins – increase expectations as delivery confidence builds

I hope this article will help you to resolve to escape the great syndrome of poor delivery. I hope you will have the courage to do fewer projects initially if you must and build on your successes as you go. Please look out for future articles that will provide deeper details on many of the aspects discussed here. About Xolani Xolani is a Project Success Specialist. He works with organisations to ensure successful delivery of projects by focussing on

1. Setting up projects for success
2. Rescuing troubled projects
3. Accelerating project delivery

Xolani can be reached at xolani@xolani.net / www.xolani.net / 083 435 7469 In this “Dear Executive” series of articles I hope to bring to you, the executive whose work involves sponsoring and championing projects, practical insights from my experience with strategy-making and project implementation that will contribute to your project’s success and ultimately your organisation’s success.