There’s a point in every project when things look the bleakest. It’s the moment when everyone on the project team starts wondering whether it will all come together or not. Questions rain down from leadership, the business questions why they are being impacted, there are no clear answers to anything.
It’s in that insanity that clarity starts to shine through. The team has two choices:
- Cave to the pressure and let all of their work fall through.
- Rise to the occasion and push through.
Teams generally hate to fail. They will do anything to break through and grab the brass ring. I’ve seen more all-nighters pulled at this phase in projects than all other phases combined. The ultimate deadline is having leadership pull the plug on the whole thing. If the only path to success is to power through, people tend to choose that route.
Enough pressure over time can turn coal into diamonds. The same is true of projects.