Core PA are proud to release the first of our new series of video blogs in which the team will be sharing tips, insights and advice around our expertise as project advisors. To kick off this series, we’re looking at why slowing down could help to speed up your project delivery.

When projects consistently fail to meet their original deadlines, this costs the Australian economy $billions each year. So what’s the solution? Could simply slowing down actually deliver your project faster?

Project managers often tend to overestimate in the short-term and underestimate what can be achieved in the long-term. Is this a lack of experience and foresight or are there other factors at large? There are many reasons projects fail to meet deadlines, including:

• poor project definition;
• a lack of team support;
• insufficient communication;
• scope creep; and
• not dealing with problems when they arise.

Equally, there are many traditional approaches to managing deadlines, but unfortunately these are not always effective. Very rarely do project managers consider stopping work to recover time. Why, because it’s counter-intuitive, potentially risky and requires tenacity.

Follow these three activities and you will quickly recover the lost time and come out with a clear understanding of what needs to be done to achieve the desired outcomes and realise the project benefits:

• Stop, take stock of where you are and get a clear understanding of why the current situation has arisen.
• Next, evaluate your options and think about alternative ways to deliver the outcome.
• Then, re-plan your approach by going back to the beginning and looking at the overall project objectives and understanding the benefits that the project seeks to achieve.

Do you have the guts to stop, take stock, evaluate and re-plan? Remember, changing the project plan does not equate to project failure.

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