12.2 Introduction
When you hear the words “Made in Germany,” what are your first impressions? Most people think of Bosch, BMW, Mercedes, or Siemens. These German brands are known worldwide. They invoke an image of premium engineering, excellent craftsmanship, and high quality. Regrettably, the construction of the Berlin Brandenburg Airport tarnished this reputation.
What went wrong? Prior to opening in 2011, the airport inspection uncovered some 120,000 defects. Imagine not being able to turn on the lights, or in some cases not being able to turn them off. Some automatic doors didn’t open. Worse, consider the danger in finding 170,000 kilometers (106,000 miles) of faulty wiring. Nine years of rework were required to fix the errors. The grand opening occurred in October 2020.
How could such a high-profile project be so poorly executed? One pundit noted, “The supervisory board was full of politicians who had no idea how to supervise the project.” Sadly, inexperienced (some might say incompetent) leadership is an all-too-common problem in project management. Amazingly, leadership may not have been the biggest issue. Stakeholder conflict created equal dysfunction. If you take a closer look at highly documented project failures (see Table 12.1), you will likely find evidence of naïve leadership and stakeholder conflict.
| Failure | What Happened? |
|---|---|
| Berlin Brandenburg Airport | After 15 years of planning, airport construction started in 2006. The airport opened on October 31, 2020—nine years late. Conflict among stakeholders with different visions led to scope creep, delays, and cost overruns. |
| Boeing 787 | Billed as the Dreamliner, the 787 came to market two and a half years late and, by some estimates, $20+ billion over budget. |
| Challenger Space Shuttle | On January 28, 1986, the Challenger Space Shuttle exploded just 76 seconds after take-off. A faulty seal on one of the solid rocket boosters combined with the cold weather caused the tragedy. |
| Healthcare.gov | Healthcare.gov was developed to enroll customers in an insurance plan under the Affordable Care Act. When the first enrollment period opened, the software didn’t work, tarnishing the ACA’s image. |
| Waterworld | This Kevin Costner epic began shooting before the script was complete. Multiple rewrites and a tough filming environment turned a 96-day scheduled shoot into 150 days. The movie came to market $135 million over budget. |
What were the primary sources of conflict? New requests from state sponsors required frequent design updates. So did new safety regulations from the European Union (updates are destined to happen on a 29-year project). Private investors fled the project as project risks mounted. Political pressure to get the job done trumped protests from project managers. Shortcuts created long delays. It’s hard to imagine a more toxic mix. You may be wondering, “What did the blameless autopsy reveal?” The project was a “top-to-bottom, start-to-finish failure.”
One final thought: The German satirical outlet The Postillon proposed a new verb tense, Futur III, to mock the airport fiasco. The tense refers to “an event repeatedly kicked down the tarmac never to actually happen.” Others joked, “Let’s just move Berlin to a functioning airport.” To avoid being on the wrong end of this type of satire, you need to learn how to manage conflict. Specifically, you need to . . .
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Grasp the roles of power, trust, and influence.
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Build rigorous negotiating skills.
Let’s get started.