When a project stalls…

What do you do when a project stalls? What do you do when validation is slow in coming?
ActorJohn Travolta delivers an astonishing lesson in project and team management.

In an interview, he explains:
“If I’m trying to finalize a deal with 7 people around a call (lawyers, agents…), I have a radar that alerts me to the person or people who are putting the deal at risk, and I then politely ask them to step aside.”
A simple but powerful piece of advice: identify the obstacles and reorganize the group dynamic.

When you can’t get rid of a person

Of course, some situations are trickier than others. What to do when the “blocking” person is a superior, a key client or even a family member?
Travolta answers:
” There’s always a way to handle the situation skilfully, and make them understand without offending or hurting their feelings. “
This is the art of good management: maintaining a balance between efficiency and human relations.

La Fontaine’s lesson: the fly in the ointment

This reflection echoes Jean de La Fontaine’s fable, Le Coche et la Mouche. Horses struggle to pull a coche up a hill. An unwelcome fly, thinking itself useful, ends up taking credit for the success. This is the origin of the expression ” la mouche du coche “: a useless, even harmful person who disrupts a project… while claiming ultimate success.

How do you deal with these situations?

Have you ever had to change roles within a project committee or team?
How did you deal with difficult stakeholders who risked jeopardizing a collective project?
What strategy do you use to prevent the “gadfly” from taking up too much space?

Learning the lesson

The success of a project depends as much on strategy and organization as it does on the management of human relations. Taking inspiration from John Travolta (and La Fontaine!) reminds us that knowing how to identify, channel or reposition energies is often the key to breaking the deadlock.