13.17 Negotiations

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Project managers should be skilled at horse-trading. The first rule of negotiating is that you have to give to get. Winning at all costs is a self-defeating strategy. Sometimes, with all the demands and complaints that come your way as the manager of a large project, it is very normal to feel harassed, conned, and quite possibly, "ripped off." Turn that feeling around. You have the power to help customers and beneficiaries, perhaps in ways that are not as onerous and stressful as they may appear at first glance. That is why these people are banging up against you. They need help and are trying to leverage the dollars, resources, and cover of your project to get what they need. As long as you avoid deleterious scope creep but keep the troops reasonably happy and nonobstructive, the judicious application of favors can help. You do want to take care that you do not back yourself into the position of having to be Santa Claus to everyone just because you helped a truly needy party.

Once you throw something out there, however, the average beneficiary will probably expect more and will not be too bashful about expressing that expectation. In fact, they can start looking like demands instead of a polite solicitation of a favor, which is why many project managers feel that "no good deed goes unpunished." It is not unusual to do someone a favor and earn their criticism instead of their kudos because you did not meet their expectations perfectly.

Determining when to offer assistance, and to whom, is a judgment call that requires discretion. The lesson to be learned from this all-too-common experience is that people place value in an event to the degree that they contributed to it. Therefore, if the beneficiary contributes little, if any, money or sweat equity, then they perceive little value in it. Weigh the value to your project in rendering favors against the damage if the recipient turns insatiable on you. You solve this problem by finding ways, such as the following, to engage them before you start gifting anyone:

If you hold meetings to plan how to do something for them, they must participate in agenda preparation and task planning.
If the extra work you are doing for them requires an after-hours installation, be sure they provide staffing as well, for instance, for testing or server reconfigurations.
If it costs you $7500 to buy that special piece of software to support scope creep, get one of their cost centers to charge it against.
If you make any of these moves with reasonable forewarning and the beneficiary demurs, you should signal your commensurate loss in enthusiasm. The message to be delivered, however politely, is: "This work effort is no more important to me than it is to you, so I am happy to get if off my plate."

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