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I’m not sure how the weather has been holding up in your area, but here in the UAE, it’s going from hot to barbecue-your-food-on-the-hood-of-your-car kind of hot.
But believe it or not, the new season isn’t just the start of different personal routines – it’s also a great reminder of competing interests between all of our government “partners.”
Different Seasons, Different Speeds
The higher the level of government – federal or state/provincial central agencies – the more work starts to wind down in the next couple of months.
Late winter might be a furious scramble, but summer is when everything slows down. People are away, services often see less demand, and most people settle in to a slower pace.
More locally-based governments though? Welcome to busy season!
Road repairs, permit applications, infrastructure upgrades — this is when it all happens. In fact, for many areas in the world, this is the only season in which a lot of this work is even possible.
And that’s where public sector collaboration can break down.
Big Projects Need Public Sector Collaboration
The bigger the project, the more funding partners are involved. A municipal government might be able to renovate a few parks or repave some streets, but if it’s a full-scale rip-up and re-build over multiple city blocks, they’re probably going to draw some funding from the state or province.
If it’s really big – like public transit – then every jurisdiction in the area will probably be involved.
And that becomes a problem if one branch of government is ramping up for busy season, and another is winding down and getting ready for vacation.
Emails are going to be answered at different rates, meetings are going to be more difficult to arrange, and payments will have a greater chance of being delayed.
This is when the true definition of the “partnership” will be tested.
Plan for People, Not Just Processes
This email isn’t meant to be a predictor of poor professional public sector collaboration this coming season.
It’s just meant to serve as a reminder of the importance of getting ahead of project needs, and anticipating recurring issues that most certainly arise.
We so often focus so much on the tactical, that we forget the people who are responsible for the tactics.
No project is delivered without the people behind them, and – very regularly in the public service – many of those people work in a completely different organization to our own.
So before summer hits full swing, scan your milestones — and anticipate who might quietly disappear just when you need them most.
And then let’s reach out to our partners, and give them a call before we really need to.
Because by the time the silence hits… it might be too late to fix it.
If navigating slowdowns, stakeholder silence, and challenging public sector collaboration are part of your project reality, leverage the Project Health Check – it just might help you uncover your biggest blind spots and rescue your project.
