The four C's of project sponsorship

Here’s a challenge for you: Can you identify the number one predictor of project success?

According to Prosci, the leading change-management research organization, the answer is the project sponsor. In fact, project sponsor has topped Prosci’s biannual Best Practices in Change Management benchmark study as the number one predictor of success since 1998. Yet it’s one thing to simply name a project sponsor; it’s another to have the sponsor actively engaged in the project.

In order to achieve project success, a project sponsor must play an active and visible role, and should be prepared to assume the following responsibilities — what we call the Four C's of Project Sponsorship:

Commit resources. The role of project sponsor is best filled by an executive who has access to, and authority over, human and financial resources dedicated to the project. As organizations search for ways to “do more with less,” projects and daily operations often compete for the same resources. Because resource shortages can severely impact a project’s scope, schedule, and budget, your project sponsor should have the authority necessary to communicate a project’s priority and commit the necessary resources accordingly.

Communicate the project’s strategic purpose. Research has repeatedly shown that the project sponsor is the preferred sender of communications about the project’s strategic purpose. Indeed, the project sponsor should communicate with each stakeholder about the project’s goals and how these goals align with the organization’s strategic vision. Setting this expectation at the organizational level can provide answers to the age-old question, “What’s in it for me?” and help inform future conversations between supervisors and direct reports about the project’s impact on individual job responsibilities.

Conscript other leaders as change champions. To demonstrate support for the change across the organization, your project sponsor can empower leaders, including executives and mid-level managers, to communicate their support for the change. This support:

• Allows the project’s messaging to reach a broader audience. 
• Demonstrates endorsement of the change by other leaders, which enhances credibility and positive perceptions of their commitment to the organization’s success. 
• Enables the project team to collect more feedback from different perspectives as these change champions liaise to relay information from end users back to the project team.

Command enforcement of project changes. This can be the most challenging aspect of a project sponsor’s role. Resistance is a natural reaction to change; it is present to some degree on nearly every project. Despite the most thorough efforts to mitigate resistance, certain users may choose to resist changes brought about by the project, finding workarounds or reverting to previous business processes. In these instances, it is important that your project sponsor leads and commands the effort to communicate how and why the changes should be adhered to, provide any necessary remedial training, then follow through with corrective action if needed. Although this may be a challenging task, it can boost the credibility of the project and the project sponsor, and help realize the project’s return on investment.

Mastering the Four C's of Project Sponsorship will allow project sponsors to more successfully take on other important responsibilities, such as providing support and encouragement to the team, giving direction on escalated decisions, granting security to allow changes despite initial decreases in productivity or returns in investment, and clearing barriers to project success.

When the Fours C's of Project Sponsorship are executed from the project’s outset, the value of a project sponsor is substantially increased. Our Local Practice Area has experience in advising clients on how to add or restructure the role of project sponsor — even in the midst of the most challenging projects — to leverage the benefits of this role for the project’s success. Take charge and reach out to us.