Why People Make Your Project Hard, and What To Do About It.
Oct 08, 2025Authored By Kat Sykes
Once Upon a Time, a Bunch of Humans Got Together to Construct an Educational Building in London.
Here’s a cautionary tale about all the creative ways they found to make life harder for the project manager.
The project was only £5m.
But it had a lot of inherent headaches to manage, with its location being a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. I had to juggle ancient planning by-laws like Rights to Light, utility easements, an underground line running along the boundary and crumbling party walls. The cramped and timed vehicle access alone would give Hollywood stunt drivers a run for their money…
Then enter-stage-left a second client wanting to add another floor for a different use.
He had a level of prestige to uphold with the project, and was very particular in what he wanted. Fair play. But tricky to manage when what he wanted clashed with the design and construction team’s deliverables for the other client.
I kid you not, every key thing this poor man cared about ended up going wrong in some way. Which meant apologies, problem-solving and throwing my arms up to the sky every month asking “why me?”.
When the Client is Actually Always Right
Firstly, the planning advice he was given on the possibility for change of use was different to what we were given. His ended up being right, so we were immediately on the back foot and deemed not to be trusted. Great start!
Then, during design, there were some increasingly heated artistic differences between him and members of the design team. Which ended up adding mediator to my job description.
The client strongly stipulated a particular high-spec hot water tap, which was deemed very tricky to install in the given space. He was persuaded to go for a lower-spec tap which he was assured would definitely provide the outcomes he needed. You guessed it…it didn’t. So we had to design and install it all again, using what he requested in the first place.
The fitted casing for the integrated microwave didn’t match the (noted) measurements of the appliance they already had. There were literally no microwaves with the right dimensions online. Seriously, what are the chances of that?! So, to save the day, I ended up needing to physically schlep one across central London from a random shop to the site.
Best Laid Plans Are Great, Until No-one Follows Them
The building has finally been built, so it’s now time to move in. This should have been a small and simple cog in the 2 year design and construction process. Alas, it became another way to challenge the client relationship. The empty packing boxes were delivered on the right day, but not to the right location (that was on all of the documentation). So the client’s meticulously planned activities for packing up the existing office got delayed. Oh joy!
Moving day arrives. Everything is packed, and we are using a company we have used on other projects before, who were impeccable then. But not today…
It started promisingly, with two groups of removal men coming together from different areas to make everything happen as fast as possible. Well, it quickly descended into something I can only describe as a gang war, with people refusing to work collectively, as they were apparently getting paid different wages and considered each other to have different levels of skill. When we had 3 hours to go until the planned completion time, and not even half of the stuff had been relocated, I had to step in more forcefully.
Cue full ex-teacher mode, giving them the dressing down of their lives, culminating with this final statement: “You are capable adults, getting paid to do a professional job and I am having to tell you off, because the client is upstairs and seeing you act like a group of petulant teenagers. I know you are better than this, so let’s show him and get it all done at least near the agreed end time.”
Will This Saga Ever End
Apparently, the client overheard this (quite frankly, ridiculous) exchange, and found me to laugh and give thanks for handling the situation. I ended up leaving 3 hours late, with a 5 hour drive ahead of me to get to the Valentine’s weekend cottage I had excitedly and carefully arranged with my new boyfriend, who was waiting there for me. It was just such an unnecessary situation - the fury in my body was so strong I was shaking and finding it hard to talk more than a few words at a time by the end of the evening.
That weekend, I allowed myself a small feeling of relief, thinking that was the end of my project moving woes, but I was premature. There was an expensive beast of a board table, which the client explained was to be protected at all costs during disassembly, transportation and reassembly. We obviously confirmed this service in the contract and paid extra to ensure it was covered. The removal company went back to site on the Monday to reassemble the table, as they were so delayed on moving day. The photo I received after reassembly was like something from a horror film – chunks hacked out of the top and legs butchered into place, facing all directions except the anatomically correct one. Thank the stars for the furniture restoration specialist who became my guardian angel that week.
On top of all this client relationship work, to keep things moving during construction, I had to gather together a different group of people (who were old enough to know better), to shake my head and quietly explain my disappointment in how their idea of contract management was to whinge in e-mail chains about problems, rather than call me and put forward potential options for resolution.
The Pat On the Back For a Job Well Done
My reward for all of this hard work? A fancy ceremony on site, where the building was formally opened by a member of the Royal family. You know the drill – big scissors, speeches and flashing cameras. All of the speeches thanked everyone, except the group of people I was standing with who lived and breathed the project for 2 years – the architect, the construction manager, the site manager, and me.
As we all laughed about the situation, a member of the board excitedly made his way over to us and unleashed a brand new load of unappreciation. He directed a question to one of the men, who replied, “you’ll need to ask Kat about that, as she did that.” I gave a jolly, yet informative answer, which he didn’t even acknowledge. Then he asked another question of another one of the men, who gave the same reply. This cycle continued for 3 more questions, then he gave one nod of his head, turned on his heels and flounced off.
We looked at each other in disbelief, smiled and chinked our champagne glasses, all silently agreeing that it’s just as well we don’t do our jobs for external praise.
People Will Always Make a Project Hard, in Fact, That is Why Your Job Exists
It is the project manager’s lot in life to be the last buffer between failure and success.
There is a phrase you are supposed to use with others to protect your diary and sanity: “Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part”.
Unfortunately, if you want your project to succeed, this approach simply does not apply to you. Everyone involved who executes something late or out of specification makes your buffer smaller, resulting in inevitable extra stress and extra hours for you.
When I first started in project management, I thought my job was to plan for everything, and if it doesn’t go to plan it means I am bad at my job. So, when things went off kilter, I felt awful about myself. That was not optimal for my decision-making skills, or my performance.
The more experience I got, the more I realised that the job is actually about planning everything you can, and then being ready to calmly problem-solve when it inevitably goes wayward somewhere along the line.
There are three things I now always know for sure when managing a project:
- The story is always the same, just with different characters and situations.
- You can plan until your Gantt chart bleeds, but there will always be a new way for humans to throw a plot twist into your project quest.
- Expect the unexpected. Then, as each situation arises, see it from everyone’s eyes, so you can communicate in a way that agrees a solution everyone is on board with.
Hopefully they will be of some help to you too.
And please remember, projects don’t succeed because everything goes to plan. They succeed because someone like you stays calm when the plan goes rogue. You’re not just managing tasks - you’re taming chaos with charm.
So, take a bow, pour a strong brew, and give yourself credit… because behind every “smooth” project is one project manager quietly performing small miracles with caffeine, diplomacy, and a very polite smile.
Contributor Bio
Kat Sykes has been a primary school teacher, construction project manager, and NHS digital change manager. She has combined this experience to create a business that provides fast-impact stakeholder management training and kick-start project workshops. She designs and delivers gamified sessions on frustrations people face when trying to do their best work, addressing each barrier one at a time, to get better outcomes. Her aim is for emerging project leaders to learn from her battle scars, so that they can keep their diary and sanity unscathed.
