Mar 18, 2026 · 22 min · 11 segments
Project professionals know anticipating the need to pivot is a mainstay on any project. But what warning signs should you look out for? How can project managers identify them? And how should you…
Mary HladioGuest
Franziska HöhneGuestSteve HintershottHost
Well, as I'm working basically on change projects, I strongly rely on talking to people.
So it's about subject matter, expert interviews, stakeholder interviews to determine what might be going on.
The early signals when it comes to red flags are oftentimes behaviors and communications.
Oftentimes it's those silent clues that you might get or behaviors or things, people not showing up to status meetings.
Those are your red flags that you would start to see before they even hit a metric on a dashboard.
That's interesting, because that, you know, it's like working in negative space.
So how do you figure out what's a what's a good silence or, you know, versus a troubling absence or a troubling, you know, lack of hand raised?
And so it's not just relying on everyone coming to you in a status meeting or everyone providing their status report.
Oftentimes, you're going to see people and see what's happening wherever that work is being done.
When people start to avoid you or they don't stop you in the hallway, they don't see you at the lunch counter and say something.
And what about the tools you use to accomplish this? Francisca, is there anything you use to support your stakeholder engagement surveys?
It's about having structured interviews on the deliverables you are aiming for.
Because when it comes to talking to people, especially to subject matter expert, it makes sense to document that somehow.
And the other tool I personally strongly rely on is also talking to AI about potential red flags, which works for technical projects and also for my change.
Well, as I'm working basically on change projects, I strongly rely on talking to people.
So it's about subject matter, expert interviews, stakeholder interviews to determine what might be going on.
The early signals when it comes to red flags are oftentimes behaviors and communications.
Oftentimes it's those silent clues that you might get or behaviors or things, people not showing up to status meetings.
Those are your red flags that you would start to see before they even hit a metric on a dashboard.
That's interesting, because that, you know, it's like working in negative space.
So how do you figure out what's a what's a good silence or, you know, versus a troubling absence or a troubling, you know, lack of hand raised?
And so it's not just relying on everyone coming to you in a status meeting or everyone providing their status report.
Oftentimes, you're going to see people and see what's happening wherever that work is being done.
When people start to avoid you or they don't stop you in the hallway, they don't see you at the lunch counter and say something.
And what about the tools you use to accomplish this? Francisca, is there anything you use to support your stakeholder engagement surveys?
It's about having structured interviews on the deliverables you are aiming for.
Because when it comes to talking to people, especially to subject matter expert, it makes sense to document that somehow.
And the other tool I personally strongly rely on is also talking to AI about potential red flags, which works for technical projects and also for my change.
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