Published
“Asking questions is the only tool non-executives have”
This was one of the comments made by a speaker at the Major Projects Association seminar, The Investor, The Board and Major Projects back in 2008. He went on to share a list of infrequently asked questions (which he explained were the ones that aren’t asked enough):
Does the project or programme have:
• Unstable requirements (or poor elaboration)?
• Non gold-standard methodology?
• Non gold-standard organisation?
• Lack of a comprehensive test programme?
• Limited end-user involvement?
• Poor commercial arrangements
Questions like these are extraordinarily powerful tools that anyone, not just non-executives can use to double check they understand what is the purpose of a project; why certain decisions have been taken; how the project is being delivered; and whether it is going to be successful.
Framing your questions
Over the past 40 years the Major Projects reports have captured the lessons from some of largest and most complex projects which makes them extremely useful as a guide to framing the questions you ask. We have a ton of evidence as to why past projects of different kinds and from different sectors may have failed or perhaps fallen short of the value they were expected to deliver (and the same report also offers a neat ‘Top 10’ for causes of megaprojects failure). You can use this kind of insight to help identify what questions you should be asking about the projects on which you are working and how you should ask them.
What if?
Questions needn’t be limited to focusing on the past (what happened) or the present (what’s happening), ‘what if’ questions are very powerful assurance questions for looking at what might happen in the future. If you use them in a non-judgmental and open way (in other words, you frame the question without having already framed the answer too), they are a very assertive way of checking how the project is set for the future. ‘What if?’ questions are useful for non-executives and non-technical people because they put the onus on the responder to explain their risk management, their contingency planning and their use of options. The person posing the question may be unaware of many of these technical elements and the ‘what if’ question enables them to assure the project without needing to second guess what is required for that assurance.
Using questions to engage non-execs and other interested parties
Strangely, questions can be a very powerful way for the project team to engage with their non-execs, their sponsor or their external assurer. You can encourage these people to engage with you and have confidence in what you are doing if, rather than simply presenting an update on what you are doing, you use Socratic or rhetorical questioning techniques. Reflect their questions back to them ‘why do you say that?’ or paraphrase their question and repeat it back to them to double-check you have understood what they are asking for. Use a rhetorical device to allow you to place yourself in their shoes, for example: “Given the history of this project, you may be tempted to ask ….”, “If you were concerned about the dependencies between what we are doing here and our other retrofit projects, then you’d want to know …” This kind of technique demonstrates that you understand the implications of what you are doing, the risks associated with this part of your project and the anxieties that are likely to be nagging at those overseeing the project.
What are the questions you would ask?
The Association’s Lessons from our Archives series invites you (with the proviso that you work for a Major Projects Association member organisation) to choose a report from our extraordinary archive of over 40 years and via an interview, identify what are the questions you would ask about major projects delivery. If you’d like to take part in this series which is running right through until 2023, then email our Knowledge Manager, Jonathan Norman, so that you can identify a report that plays to your interests and agree a date and time for the interview.