| Episode Type | Expert Insight Interview |
| Guest | Richard Broo, Project Management Turnaround Specialist & Founder, True North PMP Consulting |
| Guest Website | truenorthpmpconsulting.com |
| Listen | View on Sales POP! Podcast Page |
Episode Overview
Projects rarely fail in a single dramatic moment. Richard Broo, founder of True North PMP Consulting and a project management turnaround specialist with more than four decades of experience, describes how failures quietly accumulate through the invisible erosion of planning discipline, scope control, and leadership engagement. By the time organizations notice the damage, it is already expensive to fix.
Broo works with small to mid-sized companies to diagnose troubled projects and restore them to health. In this episode he walks through the most common failure patterns — from unchecked scope creep and unexamined assumptions to weak executive sponsorship — and explains the structured triage approach he uses to resolve critical bottlenecks within 60 days.
Key Insights
1. Here is what you need to know about the three-way intersection where projects actually break down.
Project failures do not trace back to a single cause. Broo identifies a precise intersection of project planning, execution, and people discipline as the place where problems take root. Organizations that keep radar on all three elements catch warning signs early. Those who focus only on timelines and budgets miss the human and process factors that quietly derail delivery.
2. Here is what you need to know about scope creep and why defining what is out of scope matters as much as defining what is in.
Every project needs a documented scope statement that lists both what the team will and will not do. Teams review that statement at every meeting. Without this discipline, well-meaning contributors add features the client never requested, vendors receive conflicting direction, and costs climb invisibly. Broo’s example — a mouse with an unrequested illuminated button — illustrates how even sensible additions can become expensive distractions.
3. Here is what you need to know about assumptions and constraints as invisible project assassins.
Behind every scope statement sit assumptions about why the client wants each feature and constraints about what the project cannot exceed. Broo coaches clients to surface, verify, and document all three categories — scope, assumptions, and constraints — before work begins. Assumptions must be verifiable, measurable, and realistic. Skipping this conversation leaves the team building features rather than creating the value those features are supposed to deliver.
4. Here is what you need to know about the hidden cost of weak executive sponsorship.
Leadership disengagement generates costs most organizations never quantify. When a sponsor becomes unreachable, the project team enters a vacuum: wages accumulate while decisions stall, vendor schedules slip, and team morale erodes. Broo argues that 19 percent of all projects fail, and leadership disconnection ranks among the leading causes. Active sponsorship — attending reviews, responding quickly, empowering the team to escalate decisions — is not a courtesy; it is a structural requirement.
5. Here is what you need to know about the triage and root-cause correction process for recovering a failing project.
When Broo enters a troubled engagement, he starts with a one- to two-day triage comparing original baselines against the current scope, schedule, and budget. He then facilitates a no-judgment root-cause session with the project team, cross-references their findings against leadership’s perspective, and applies the five-whys method to identify the two or three bottlenecks doing the most damage. Targeted corrective actions, daily monitoring, and clear ownership close those bottlenecks within 60 days.
Quotes
“Projects don’t usually fail due to one issue or scenario. There’s an intersection between the project planning, the project execution, and the people and the discipline within that execution. That’s where we start to see the failures come to fruition.” — Richard Broo
“We’re creating the value, not the feature. The feature is just a manifestation of the value.” — Richard Broo
“I’ve got skin in this game. Where’s your skin? And I’m not gonna let my skin be burned any more than it has to be if you don’t want to help me out here.” — Richard Broo
“Face reality as it is, not as it was or how you would like it to be.” — Richard Broo
Project Recovery: Key Statistics from True North PMP Consulting
Related Resources
| Statistic | Detail |
|---|---|
| Project failure rate | 19% of all projects fail |
| Primary failure intersection | Planning, execution, and people/discipline |
| Scope creep root cause #1 | Teams adds unrequested features without client approval |
| Turnaround timeline | Critical bottlenecks resolved within 60 days maximum |
Our Host
John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.
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