We begin the interview by looking at what makes government projects uniquely susceptible to a higher failure rate than private sector projects and then move into seven steps that Todd recommends for recovering a troubled project.

1. Episode 260: The Seven Steps to
Rescuing the Problem Project (Free)
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2. 2
It seemed that the final weeks of 2013, project management was on everyone’s
mind. And not in a good way. The roll-out of the affordable care act website
really brought to light that substandard project performance can have a
disastrous effect on public perception.
While we often hear about failed government projects, failed private sector
projects seem to fly under the radar.

3. 3
In this interview we welcome Todd C. Williams
(http://ecaminc.com/ -
http://www.linkedin.com/in/backfromred) has spent the
past 25 years advising Fortune 500 companies on what to
do about projects that are either headed for a cliff or have
already gone over.

4. 4
We begin the interview by looking at what makes government projects uniquely
susceptible to a higher failure rate than private sector projects and then move into
seven steps that Todd recommends for recovering a troubled project.

5. 5
The following are the first few pages of the transcript.
Hello Todd and welcome back to The Project
Management Podcast™!
Oh, welcome Cornelius. Hope you're having a
great day!

6. 6
Cornelius Fichtner: I am, thank you very much. But it seems to me that there
are some people out there who are not having a great day because we are
hearing a lot about seemingly failed projects especially from the public sector
these days and that's why we have brought you on because one of your
expertise is turning projects around.
So tell me, are government projects more likely to fail than the ones in the
private sector?

7. 7
Todd C. Williams: Well, I think in general, no. But they definitely get a lot more
visibility. I mean nothing spells a day worse than having CNN at your front door
when you get up in the morning which I think has probably happened to a lot of
people when we look at healthcare.gov, what's going on with the traffic control,
with all the other projects that are out there.
But I think that you'll also see that there are other projects that are equally as bad
in that it's places out there like the Boeing 787. I mean how many years late was
it. Once it got flying then it started having batteries which just kind of
spontaneously catch on fire.
Those projects do seem to hit both the private and public sector. I think the
private sector by just the nature of the name was able to keep it a little more
private.

8. 8
Cornelius Fichtner: Are there any characteristics, any components that favor one
type of project over the others in regards to success?
Todd C. Williams: Well I do think that the private sector projects do have one
very nice feature about them and that is that they're autocratic by nature, right?
There's someone who's at the top that actually does say: "This is the direction
we're going to go and everybody needs to fall in line." There may be some level
of, what do we call it, democracy or getting your ideas together whenever you're
trying to figure out what projects to run and where the company wants to go.
But once that decision is made, once the "vote" gets taken, then everyone has to
jump on board and toe the line. We've got to all follow that direction, otherwise,
we don’t have a job.

9. 9
To listen to this Interview you may download the audio at:
Episode 260:
http://ec.libsyn.com/p/b/d/6/bd6b10361a13f690/PM_Podcast_260_2014_01_17_-
_todd_williams.mp3?d13a76d516d9dec20c3d276ce028ed5089ab1ce3dae902ea1d
06c8803fd7cd5964ea&c_id=6678003
Subscribe to The PM Podcast in iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/project-management-podcast/id79900698#

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