Musings at Altitude

As we’re closing out this client engagement in Baton Rouge, I’ve been thinking about how important each cycle of impression is during all phases of client engagement.  For purposes of this discussion and for simplicity (my mind is just a little bit fried right now), let’s agree that the first impression is up to and through 15% of the project lifecycle; the last impression is the last 15% to include egress from the client site; and that 70% in the middle is the sustained performance impression when the initial risk is overcome, the team has settled down, and the bulk of the project work is being done.  Arguably, the last phase is the most important phase, and that’s what I want to muse about today.

Over the last 10 years in several different countries in numerous different client engagements, I’ve personally experienced the pains and the huge burdens of a bad start to a contract.  Sometimes it’s because the requirements and expectations weren’t defined early enough to be effective at the start.  Other times it’s because we have the wrong person matched with a particular client causing immediate friction between our team and that client team.  Every now and then its also because the team supporting a given client does something strange or bizarre causing the relationship to kick off on a very sour note.  And then some times its because of poor logistics or some bad form of coordination that causes delays or awkward last minute knee jerking to get the client engagement on track.

A bad first impression can be overcome as long as the client gives you a chance to get started after the bad impression occurs.  If the first impression is so severe that the relationship has been torpedoed, you probably can’t ever overcome – though I’d be the foolish one to try.  More realistically, since its so late in the game and the client may not have other choices, you’ll get a chance to overcome that bad first impression, and if the engagement far exceeds expectations from that point forward, the recovery could be complete.

During the sustained performance impression period, all players get into a routine – the servicing staff, the staff being serviced, the clients/customers of the company being serviced, and the supporting staff to the servicing staff.  All folks get into a fairly visible and habitual process that guides the team through that 70% of the work that goes from exciting to fairly boring, and from a rapid recovery mode to a methodical client service engagement.  This is definitely not my favorite phase because it becomes tedious and predictable most of the time, but this is the phase where most of your learning and leading can take place.

The final phase is the close out, and this is when that final shift must occur, required deliverables must be delivered, and the final discussions with the client, the prime (if the sub) and the team must get underway.  If the first and middle phases go well, the final phase could be a breeze.  If there are any complicating circumstances up to the start of the final phase, the final phase could be a real bear as the entire team works hard to recover from those mis-steps and to deliver on time and hopefully on budget in spite of whatever challenges were created from those earlier phases.  Even if the first two phases went swimmingly, the final phase could be tough as new challenges pop up thus causing a mad scramble to cross the finish line.

As I think about these three phases and my own personal experiences in each phase, here are some semi-random thoughts about impressions:

(1) you can overcome a bad first impression with incredible work during the sustained performance impression and the last impression phase

(2) you can mute a positive first impression with mundane performance in the sustained performance phase

(3) you can overcome a bad first impression and a mundane sustained performance impression (assuming you still are on the job after both of those two) if you have miracles occur during the last impression phase

(4) you can ruin everything accomplished with a bad or even mundane last impression

Arguably, in some contracting environments, even a mundane performance could be better than someone else’s poor performance, but that’s probably not something we should shoot for.  Being slightly better than some other bad performance is not a sustainable model.  The nirvanic client engagement is one that kicks off on schedule and as expected, and the project then comes in ahead of schedule and under budget with rave reviews coming from the client.  Both the first and last impressions are phenomenal, and the sustained performance phase comes off without a hitch. 

But is that real?  It sure doesn’t happen much like that for me.  God has a wonderful way of teaching me lessons in almost every engagement, and in those lessons, I closely watch the impressions.  If I got to chose the timing of the lessons I would learn, I’d take a bad first impression over a bad last impression every time.  I’d take a crisis during the first or last impression phase over a mundane sustained performance phase any time.  Regardless of what happens in any of the phases, how we respond will also be remembered even moreso than the event that caused the impression to begin with.