“I want to start the meeting by asking some questions about the project,” I continued. All eyes turned toward the two project leaders, but I started with Alicia, the Division Manager. “Alicia, what is your role, as Division Manager, related to the Phoenix Project?”
Alicia was a bit startled. She had expected the hot seats to be occupied by her two project leaders. “Well,” she took a deep breath. “My role is to put the team together, assign the leadership, make sure there is consensus and that the project stays on track.” Alicia stopped, hoping that was enough. She clearly wanted to shift the project delays to her project leaders.
“Okay,” I nodded. “Let’s hear from the two project leaders. Russ, you are from the engineering department, how do you understand your role?”
Russ was quick, prepared and in less than a minute outlined his role to make sure the customer’s technical requirements were followed. There were close to 150 design specifications that would be evaluated at the end of the project.
“And Corey, you represent the production department. How do you understand your role?”
Corey gave a brief overview of the strict time deadlines, including an example of how production decisions sometimes required substitution of materials or a change in sequence.
“And sometimes, there is a conflict in Russ’s Quality agenda and Corey’s Production agenda,” I stated flatly. “And that is what we are here to resolve, today, the conflict between Russ and Corey.”
And that is when the silence began. –TF