There was once a King, who knew that his kingdom would soon be attacked by his neighbours. He hired the best craftsmen and builders in the world, and they soon turned his castle into a formiddable fortress.

As expected, shortly after completion, his castle came under attack.

Unfortunately, the King had neglected to gather his army and asked the builders to defend the castle. Sadly, these great builders were bad fighters. The invaders won and the kingdom was lost.

"And it ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new."

Nicolo Machiavelli c.1505 (trans. W. K. Marriott)

Any project - by definition - involves the introduction of a new order. And - without doubt - every project will be attacked by those who either benefitted from the old order, or who are simply scared of the new.

So - knowing that you will be attacked, how can you protect what you have built?

By being Defendable and Defended.

Defendable means:

• Being able to articulate choices that were made and defending them.
  • "We considered that as an option. But then we decided on this, because of cost benefits."
• Documenting and communicating these choices.
  • A decision log is an excellent way of doing this. It should be visible, signed off & agreed, and non-ambiguous.
• Aligning decisions with management strategy and direction.
  • "Management strategy is that we should proceed fast and make brave decisions. We cannot be all things to all people."

Defended means:

• Having people on the project team who can articulate, bravely, what was decided.
• Living with the consequences of your decisions - even if these are unpopular in some areas; and are sometimes plain wrong for some stakeholders.
  • Builders can help to defend, but for a real defense, you need credibility. The most credible people on a project are the permanent staff who will be there long after the project has ended.

How to tell in 10 seconds if your project is in trouble.

The king needed his castle to be two things: defendable & defended. You can't defend the indefensible; and the most defendable structure will fall if not defended.

If, on your project, you know that your solution is either not defendable; or it's not going to be defended by the company resources (the consultants have limited credibility in defending) - then your project is under risk.

Let me give you a practical example: On a recent project, my client had a cultural habit of blaming the implementation partner for anything that went wrong. "You'll need to ask them. They made the decisions..." And when this phrase was uttered, the defenses were down and the project initiatives failed.

Conversely, I've had clients who said "This is our initiative. The consultants are the builders of our house; but we take accountability for the structure and we own the success." The project was defended, it survived the inevitable attacks, and achieved its goals.

(You'd think that, to be safe, it would be better to blame the consultants. Paradoxically, this doesn't work. The builders cannot defend, the castle is ransacked, and all the inhabitants suffer...)

The best of the leaders are those when the job is done, when the task is accomplished, the people will say: We have done it ourselves.

Lao Tzu