Issues during the Execution Phase

00:03 Remember when we said expect the best plan for the worst? Well, it's worth having this attitude throughout a project.

00:11 Of course, you have to be confident and positive about your project, but that confidence needs to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is the controls you have in place to cover your back if the worst happens.

00:24 Imagine that two months into the Lamborarri project you had planned for six cars to be complete, but none have been.

00:30 Or that during training, half the new sales team resign, leaving you understaffed for the grand opening. Another job of yours as super project manager is to be able to step up in these situations and save the day.

00:43 So when your project gets derailed, let's look at the four steps you can take to get it back on track. Just like you have been doing throughout the project so far.

00:53 Approach the situation in an organized manner by following these steps.

00:57 React. Read.

01:00 Respond and resolve.

01:02 All repeat. First comes react.

01:07 Assess the damage and perform damage control.

01:10 Then read the situation, understand the reason and the root cause of the problem. Then comes respond.

01:18 Create an action plan and take steps to correct the issue.

01:23 And lastly, resolve or repeat.

01:27 Confirm the issue is resolved from your response through monitoring.

01:30 If so, carry on with the execution.

01:33 If not, go back a step or two.

01:35 Change something until step four is resolved.

01:40 Let's look at an example, something as simple as boiling water.

01:45 In fact, let's use that.

01:48 Imagine you've gone home for the day from your laboratory project and decide to treat your partner, parents, friends or pet to some gourmet pasta.

01:56 You put the water on the stove to boil.

01:58 It's going to take a few minutes.

02:00 So you sit to watch the latest episode of your favorite soap opera.

02:04 Then suddenly splash.

02:06 The water is boiling out of control and spilling all over the stove.

02:10 But instead of panicking though, your project manager instincts kick in and you perform Issue management.

02:18 First you react.

02:20 You take the pot from the heat to stop it from boiling.

02:23 You perform damage control by putting the pot somewhere safe and cleaning up the water before it reaches your recipe.

02:30 So now you have time to read the situation.

02:33 What was the reason? The high temperature on the stove, right? Sure. But that's not the root cause.

02:39 That was you not paying attention.

02:44 So you respond, you decide to create alarms on your phone at one minute intervals to remind you to check the pasta.

02:52 Resolve. You cook the pasta with your new action plan.

02:57 At the first reminder, you see, there could be a problem.

03:00 So you lower the temperature.

03:02 All is well. 30 seconds later, though.

03:05 Splash. Oh, no.

03:07 It's happened again.

03:09 The problem has not been resolved.

03:11 So you repeat the steps.

03:13 You read the situation again.

03:15 But the root cause is still your lack of attention.

03:18 So you adjust your action plan, setting your alarms at 32nd intervals.

03:26 The next time you cook pasta, the issue does not occur.

03:29 Great things have been resolved and you continue to prepare the rest of the meal and create a wonderful spaghetti bolognese.

03:37 Great stuff. So let's have a look at a case study regarding car production to see how this relates to our project.

03:45 See you there.