For every Project Manager, the greatest news is the announcement of a founded project!
While reading the formal communication received by the financing authority, you feel your efforts rewarded, you feel that the innovativeness of “your project” has been recognized; briefly, you feel satisfied and a sensation of real joy pervades you.
Everything wonderful, but…
A sudden news can make your enthusiasm quite “evaporate” …
Namely, the communication sent by a partner organization that it cannot be able to stay in the consortium, with the consequent decision to withdraw. It can happen of course, quite frequently, for example because of organizational changes, adoption of a new strategy, staff turnover, incurred financial difficulties, etc.
The Project Manager is asked to also face this kind of critical issues, finding feasible and sustainable solutions to kick off the project. It is what is called “complex problem solving”! Indeed, the Project Manager must immediately react, evaluating the available options.
So, how to proceed?
First, it is necessary to verify the eligibility conditions of a partnership, depending on the EU funding programme, and on the call for proposals under which the founded project has been submitted. This is an essential check, because, even in case of withdrawal of a partner, the consortium can remain eligible. In this case, the PM must discuss with all the other partners how distributing the pending activities and related budget quotas. Otherwise, under this condition, the PM must also discuss the option of finding a new partner to replace the one withdrawn. For sure, the replacement by a new partner is the only available option in case of loss of eligibility criteria of the consortium. To replace a partner means to can count on a wide network of potential member, and this is an added value for each PM, to be able to move and involve complementary organizations, redesigning the partnerships, if necessary!
Besides networking and problem solving, strong communication and negotiation together with patience and “keeping a cool head” can really help and make the difference.