When ERP projects fail, consultants and the project management team are tempted to simply throw up their hands and cite “lack of senior management commitment” as the evil force behind said failure. However, like much of the conventional ERP wisdom out there today, the real issues can be much deeper than that.
In my previous blog entries, I posed the following questions:
Why would any management team spend hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions of dollars on ERP with the goal of failing?
Do ERP Executive Steering Team members in most organizations consider themselves not committed?
Do people rise to senior management levels in most organizations because they are totally incompetent?
Many times, what is perceived as lack of management commitment or ownership is really a failure on the part of your consultants, executive sponsor, and internal project manager. Stepping back for a moment, commitment to ERP starts with education. However, all too often ERP project managers mistakenly assume that an educated management team is by default a committed management team. In practice, there can be a huge difference between “education” and “execution” of the senior management role. Consultants and the project management team often drop the ball in precisely this area, especially when it comes to managing the executive staff (and yes, they must be managed).
A big part of managing the ERP Executive Steering Team is not only educating them on their project responsibilities, but also coaching them on how to fulfill those responsibilities. This includes specifically what they must do, when they must do it, and in some cases, how to do it. In addition, you should tactfully remind executives if they have not completed an assigned task and find out when they will.
You should not spoon-feed helpless executives. Remember though, most senior managers did not rise to their level in the organization because they are ERP implementation gurus. Furthermore, they do have a business to run in the meantime. Therefore, if you want management to demonstrate their commitment to the project, the project management team must plan and facilitate this process and not leave it up to chance. Without demonstrated executive commitment (highly visible involvement: communication and supportive actions), do not be surprised when no one else in the organization takes the project seriously.
Many times, consulting firms avoid frank and honest dialog with senior management because they are afraid of falling out of favor. In other words, they act like salespeople not project managers. Other consulting firms simply do not have the experience and skills to manage executives. On the other hand, many internal executive sponsors and project managers are uncomfortable with upward delegation of responsibilities to their executives. Nevertheless, a project management team that cannot do this has no business running an ERP project. You see, it is not about becoming the bad guy or rocking the boat. What many fail to realize is most senior management teams (spending millions of dollars on ERP), actually want the project to succeed and have no interest in shooting a project manager trying to do his or her job.
Excellent, outstanding, and right to the point! Thanks for your contribution Steve!