Ship: Never Ignore the Pirate Ship

A project needs the project team and its stakeholders to recognize and tackle its problems. If the team acknowledges the problems, it can fix the ones that can be fixed and escalate or work around the ones that can’t. But it’s a bit more complicated than that. To point out the problems, the team needs to feel safe. To listen and act on what they hear, their bosses need to feel safe. But every discussion about bad news is a potential threat to everyone’s status.