Why I Love Red Projects?

RED — This is not the usual colour that people usually like to map or see in their project’s health. I have seen people who see this as a bad and try every opportunity to make it not associated with the colour Red. Tweak the numbers, squeeze the parameters, twitch the plans to make the project at least look Amber/Orange.

Here, I won’t teach you how to recover a Red project to Green. I won’t give you tips to make a red project look like amber or any other colour. But, rather I want to share on why I love red projects. Yes, you read it correctly, it is not a typo, I do love red projects.

And some of the reasons are …

• All Help in the World: It is usually the project manager who asks for help, tries to look for the best possible way to move forward. But, in a red project, the whole world is ready to help you. Everyone wants to help, and everyone is ready to offer their best. Now, it is my choice to choose whatever help I want.
• Fresh Pair of Eyes: There can be scenarios when the project manager is so immersed in the details, they might miss seeing/analyzing the challenges in best possible ways. When I have a project in red, I have some more eyes looking to see something that might have been missed.
• Delegation: I get more freedom to involve, delegate, access, and assign the right possible people and resources to make things better. Suddenly I have all the choices and independence.
• Center of Attraction: Project manager becomes the centre of attraction (maybe attention). People at all levels have time to listen to your stories, suggestions and plans. I am the most important person in the room. It is an opportunity to rise and shine.
• Celebration: Every time I successfully close a red project, it gave me great satisfaction. It always taught something new that I did not learn until then, it made me get more recognization and appreciation, and every Red project ended with a celebration for me.

Some of the famous myths around Red projects

• Management doesn’t like Red projects: This is one of the biggest myths that managers and leaders don’t like red projects. Everyone knows that things can go wrong, whatever might be the reasons, sometimes plan deviates, things don’t work, solutions fail, and we find gaps in the design. So, management doesn’t have any specific hate for Red projects. And so far, I never came across or heard any leader who says this. Everyone including the customers of the project offers their support and assistance to recover a red project, but no one ever says they don’t like/support it. Leaders have always requested to involve and update them so that they can answer the people if there is an escalation, and help in avoiding an escalation.
• Red projects give more work: Red projects won’t give any additional work, you will do the same things that you are expected to work on a project. Probably you will develop a recovery plan and rebaseline the project plan after agreements.
• Processes are painful: Red projects processes should not be painful, and if they are, then it is high time you need to sit with your PMO manager and rework on the processes. Processes should help in recovery but not create pain.

So, never try to run away from Red projects, don’t see them with stress and pressure. Be open about the project health, don’t worry about reporting the news (it is not good or bad, it is just the status), and more importantly never hide and be transparent with everyone. As a project manager, you should be the last person to get stressed and worried about the project.

Happy Red Projects!

Image Source: Google Images