Rescuing a failing project: The power of changing the project sponsor
When a sponsor is failing to fulfil their project sponsor responsibilities, the likelihood is your project will also fail. Using the analogy of Joe Biden and the US presidential race, PM-Partners’ Client Engagement Director Michael Bolton considers how changing the project sponsor is often the best way to bring a doomed project back on track.
Unless you’ve been asleep at the wheel, you will have seen the remarkable turnaround in the US election polls. At the time of writing, the Democrats and newly installed presidential candidate Kamala Harris have nudged ahead in a race that was predicted to be an easy Republican win.
This political scenario offers a fascinating case study in project management and how to recover a failing project when things go awry. While the tendency is often to change the project manager, this example allows us to examine the impact of handing over to a new project sponsor instead. It also provides an opportunity to reflect on the project sponsor role and effective governance more broadly. Let’s break this down and see what insights we can draw from the analogy.
Project White House 2025
Viewed through a project management lens, the process of becoming president is akin to a well-known project type, where the product (winning the election) is clear, but success is only determined on release (election day). Just like a project, the presidential race features:
- A clear goal – to win the election
- Governance – a sponsor and governance group
- Timelines – immovable election date of 5 November 2024
- Milestones – party nominations, registrations, and other key events.
- Stakeholder management – communications and engagement plan e.g. debates, rallies, advertisements
- Budget – financing including fundraising
- Risk management – identifying and mitigating risks, ensuring compliance and addressing other issues.
The impact of changing the project sponsor (the presidential candidate)
Continuing with our analogy, the change of leadership from Biden to Harris was essentially a strategic change of project sponsor. The project end goal – winning the election – was clearly in jeopardy and the decision to change the sponsor had a significant, positive impact on the party’s polling.
In the project sphere, it’s more typical to change the project manager when an initiative goes off track. But it’s important to remember that the role of project sponsor is ultimately accountable for the success of the project. They seek advice from their steering committee members and make decisions in the best interests of achieving the project outcomes. If they’re failing or unable to perform this role effectively, it’s logical that the project will also fail.
Key project sponsor responsibilities
A sponsor has three main project sponsor responsibilities:
- Vision and people: Aligning the project with goals, strategy, and objectives.
- Governance: Ensuring the project’s proper launch and execution.
- Value and benefits: Managing risks and changes while ensuring the project’s quality.
According to the opinion polls, Joe Biden had lost his electorate and several of his governance group. The perception was that he was unable to instil the vision and leadership to engage his party and the public at large and win the election.
To achieve the project outcomes, leadership is a critical success factor. The governance process determined that Biden was not matching up as a leader and therefore failing to meet his project sponsor responsibilities, so a change of sponsor was needed.
This strategic shift allowed the party to:
- Revise the narrative – leading to improved communications and stakeholder management
- Mitigate the risks – addressing concerns about Biden’s age by presenting Kamala Harris as a fresh, considerably younger contender
- Increase budget – boosting party donations and the vision and leadership of Kamala.
Who decides it’s time to change the project sponsor?
Ultimately, the decision to change the sponsor would come down to the steering committee (steerco), as it’s the responsibility of steerco members to:
- Provide advice to resolve items impacting the project’s ability to deliver to the agreed scope, schedule and benefits
- Monitor the project by anticipating and overseeing impacts and organisational change management
- Provide financial stewardship – ensure sufficient funds are available and remain available to complete the project successfully
- Promote the project vision and ensure alignment with business objectives
- Provide leadership and direction to ensure key objectives are met per the approved timeframes and budget
- Celebrate team/ individual success in project contribution, achievements and progress.
As they monitor project progress, the steerco members would be looking at key performance indicators, and it’s these indicators that would inform any decision to change the sponsor.
In the Democrat’s case, indicators were the polling results, the media sentiment, and the internal party sentiment. As these all pointed towards a looming election loss, senior stakeholders (steerco members) like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer made it known that a change was required, and we can only assume that behind closed doors the governance team got together and an in-principal decision was made. Joe Biden then fell into line with the party’s wishes.
For a struggling project, the steerco members can look to similar insights to make an informed decision about the fate of their sponsor. This includes project status reports that highlight progress towards achieving the benefits, risks and issues registers, change management (and resistance to change), as well as business readiness to adopt the change.
These indicators will help them determine whether the sponsor is living up to their project sponsor responsibilities – and whether they should follow the Democrats lead and put a new sponsor at the helm.
Only time will tell if Project White House 2025 proves fruitful for the Democratic party. But what is clear is that being brave and smart and choosing the right sponsor can make a significant difference to a project’s likelihood of success. While changing the project manager is often the default response when a project starts to fail, it might just be that the fish rots from the head and a changing of the guard is required.
Need help assessing the best way to bring a struggling project back on track? Whether it’s a case of clarifying roles and responsibilities, switching sponsor, or developing a fully customised reset plan, our experts advisory team can help. Contact us today for more information.
Driven by his commitment to client success, Michael has over 30 years of experience working globally at senior levels across both the public and private sectors. His proven capabilities in governance, assurance, PMO, and programme management, along with his expertise in stakeholder engagement, position him as a highly effective leader for large-scale transformation initiatives.
Michael’s working style is grounded in authenticity and transparency, ensuring that stakeholders have the information they need to make timely, informed decisions. This and his ability to blend strategic vision with practical, fit-for-purpose execution, have made him a trusted advisor for organisations including Sydney Water, Woolworths, The Salvation Army and the NSW Rural Fire Service.
