Project and Program Recovery

Your need

You have an important project that has become critical. Without urgent intervention it’s likely to fail with significant impact. It may already be late, well over budget, or looking like it will never deliver the outcomes you need. The impact of it not delivering or delivering badly is not one you want to contemplate.

Helmsman's approach

We treat every project as a unique case. That means no pre-determined or generic solutions. Instead we follow a systematic but flexible approach focussed on getting the project back on track and delivering its intended outcomes with a minimum of risk.
Firstly, we use an evidence-based approach to answer the following key questions:

• Why is the organisation doing this project? What are the real objectives and drivers? How will we know if the project is successful?
• What is actually going on? What’s fact and what’s just noise or opinion? What will happen if this continues?
• What are the key constraints on project delivery? To what extent are these within the control of the project? What would it take to reduce or remove them?

We then work with the project leadership team and key stakeholders to develop a new delivery strategy focussed on managing the key constraints and re-building morale and momentum. We support the project team in turning this strategy into a detailed reset plan, and we treat this reset plan as a project in its own right - a project to get the main project back on track.

Implementing these reset plans is never easy so we continue to provide support to the project team, mainly in the form of individual coaching and group facilitation, as well as assistance with stakeholder alignment. Our aim is to build capability not dependency, so we exit as soon as the project team is in a position to deliver the reset plan.

Why Helmsman?

Our focus is on the complete picture. Ensuring successful outcomes means looking beyond the project and internal management to address ‘soft factors’ like the external context and the interpersonal dynamics in which the project operates. Helmsman research has shown that these "soft" and contextual factors usually become more important as project size and complexity increases.

Helmsman doesn’t deliver projects for organisations – it delivers organisations the tools, insights and strategies to bring their own projects to completion on time and on budget.

We believe the key is to build capability rather than dependency, helping clients achieve their desired outcomes rather than following process for its own sake. We build both individual and organizational capability and believe that successful individuals are the key to successful projects. Our knowledge, experience and research enable clients to build a solid foundation from which to execute delivery, enhance critical decision-making and drive project performance.