# Strategic Project Sponsorship and Organizational Agility

**Podcast:** HBR On Leadership
**Published:** 2026-02-18

## Transcript

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Welcome to HBR on Leadership.
These episodes are case studies and conversations with the world's top business and management experts, hand-selected to help you unlock the best in those around you.
I'm HBR senior editor and producer, Amanda Kersey.
The guest in this episode you're about to hear says most projects don't fail because teams lack discipline or tools.
They fail because leaders don't give projects the focus or sponsorship they require.
It's a gentle reminder that in a project-driven organization, success comes down to where you, as a leader, choose to spend your time and attention.
Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review.
I'm Alison Beard.
If the 20th century was all about operational efficiency in businesses, the 21st century is all about organizational change.
And how do new initiatives, products and services, strategies or business models advance?
Through project work.
It's what our guest today calls the project economy.
And it's estimated to generate $20 trillion in economic activity and employ 88 million people in project management related roles by 2027.
That's across every industry and size of company in every part of the world.
And yet, research indicates that only 35% of projects are successful.
At this increasingly critical business function, most of us are doing a pretty terrible job.
So how do we get better at it going forward?
Antonio Nieto Rodriguez is the former chairman of the Project Management Institute, founder of Projects & Co., and the author of the HBR Project Management Handbook.
He's here to talk about emerging best practices for companies and the people in them.
Antonio, welcome!
Thank you, Alison.
It's a pleasure to be here.
Project management seems like a clear idea, but how do you define it and think about it in a way that might be different than what people assume?
Well, I think one of the challenges with project management that I've faced personally in my career is that as soon as you talk project management, senior executives and people who are not experts in project management, they think, oh, this is something very technical, very tactical.
It's nothing for me.
So I've been facing that kind of discontent or disinterest in project management for 25 years.
So for me, I want to move out from that.
project management term and move it up into projects.
And we all do projects.
And for me, the definition is anything that has to deal with change, that's projects.
You can manage them through project management, agile methods, design thinking, product management.
But I want to really, I think we need to elevate and say, well, all what goes around change, that's projects and we need to manage them.
And how has project work changed over the past few decades?
Well, project work has changed in two big areas.
One is on a macro level.
I've been doing research.
And of course, we all talk about the Marshall Plan after the Second World War and all the projects that came from U.S.
funding to develop Europe, reconstruct Europe.
$13 billion.
Then we talk about the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009.
We were talking about $3 trillion of projects.
And now after the pandemic, we're talking about $15-20 trillion of projects.
I think the world will never see as many projects as what we're going to see in the next decade.
We need to reconstruct countries, healthcare systems, economies.
So that's from a macro perspective.
From a micro perspective, from the way work is organized in companies, in businesses, it has evolved significantly in the sense that so far operations have been prime in most of the organizations over the past 80 years.
That's why I say they were driven by efficiency, where most of the activities were around doing things cheaper, faster, more automated, more volumes.
Companies have been organized for that.
That's why you have hierarchy.
that's where cultures like command and control have been in place and so on.
But since like a few years when artificial intelligence and robots are taking over a big chunk of operations, the type of work is shifted to project-based.
So I think the biggest, biggest disruption that happens in the world of projects is what we're experiencing now, a radical shift from operations to project-based work.
And that's because projects are about sort of discovering the new, innovating, and the pace of change is such in every industry now that every company needs to learn how to do this well.
Absolutely.
And one of the challenges I have to admit, Alison, I'm a big, of course, expert in project, a big advocate of project management.
But our performance, like you mentioned in the introduction, has been poor or appalling.
I think project management has not delivered the expected results.
We need to find better ways to address the change, the future.
10 years ago, maybe it was five years from now, right?
So you would have a project that would last for three years, expecting to get some benefits, maybe in three, four years, a digital transformation, a new M&A activity, a new business unit.
But today the future is so fast.
So your future is tomorrow, right?
So that means the acceleration of project-based work has to go faster.
Let me give you a quick example.
Here in Brussels, they were setting...
establishing a hospital from scratch, Greenfield.
The start of the construction in 2016, completion of the hospital in 2020, so four years of construction, state of the art.
But to my surprise, the hospital was open in 2018, before it was completed.
So I think there's no company in the world can wait four years to get any benefits from the projects.
The future is now, and we need to address that.
That's why you see exploding the number of projects in organizations.
I come across...
companies where they have more projects than people.
And I do want to get to how to do it better.
But first, that failure rate is so high.
What are some of the most common challenges or problems that projects run into?
Why are we getting it so wrong right now?
Let me highlight just three.
First, I think senior leaders, they don't have the competencies to be effective sponsorship.
They're not going to like hearing that.
I'm sure.
I'm sure.
But I'm sorry.
I always am 100% honest and bold on my thinking.
But I think sponsors have not realized that their role is crucial in sponsoring projects.
It's not about...
How many projects you sponsor?
That has been the kind of, I sponsor 20 projects.
I'm the most important person in this company.
Well, no, it's about less is more.
And it has been proven when you are an executive, the CEO, the VP, and you dedicate time to your project.
Time means not just one hour per month, but a half a day.
per week.
If this is the future of your business, I don't understand why senior leaders don't dedicate so much time.
They're all driven by operations and day-to-day urgency.
So very few leaders make this space.
And second, they don't understand the fundamentals of projects.
Most of the executives come from a path, marketing, finance, operation, strategy, and it requires for them to understand that projects are different, that you work in projects in a matrix, that is not so much the...
hierarchical approach, but it's team working and collaboration.
So it's hard to give you a number, Alison, but I would say 30 to 40% of the success of the project is if the senior leader is engaged and understands and drives the project.
Alison, the second point, I realized that in the area of change in projects, we are always running.
with all methods.
It happened in the past with IT projects.
I started implementing big ERP systems.
We were trying to apply some very traditional project management.
It didn't work.
Then Agile came and said, well, now you're going to use Agile for...
every project.
And that we see today with digital transformations, AI implementations, that doesn't work.
The failure keeps there.
The third reason, I think the role of the project manager, the project management profession has not taken ownership of the results.
it has been very focused on process, very focused on documentation.
It did make a lot of sense in the 60s, in the 50s, where you would do a lot of public sector projects where you want to document everything.
But I think the third reason for me is that project management didn't evolve to embrace the new reality.
And second, project managers have been more a deliberate type of role.
In project management, we always say Well, who's accountable for delivering the projects?
Who's accountable for delivering the benefits?
It's the sponsor.
We project managers were responsible of delivering the project on time, on budget, on scope.
And that has been the credo for project management for the last 40 years.
And we've missed to focus on the outcomes.
We've missed to focus on the benefits.
We've missed to take accountability of the results.
It's easy to make a project charter, but what companies are looking for is delivering value, either financial, either social, either sustainability.
So I'm asking my community of project managers to step up.
to take ownership, to say, no, it's not just the plan.
It's not just delivering on time.
What matters actually even more is delivering the benefits, whatever they are, and faster, please.
So for an organization that does have existing operations that need to be managed, but then also wants to pursue change and innovation through project work, how does that company change its structure or culture to be able to do both well?
Yeah, well, great question, Alison.
I've seen so many companies struggling because I'm not saying let's forget about what you're doing right today.
Let's forget about that organization that you've built so successful for that world driven by efficiency with hierarchies, with yearly plans, with deep expertise, deep technical expertise.
But how can we address change and a change that's going very fast and our products are just lasting less and less.
In the past, we last five years now.
five weeks or maybe five months.
So how can we mix that?
And it's a struggle.
You cannot say, let's forget my hierarchy and let's move everything into flat teams and agile structures and project-based.
That doesn't work.
So I think the challenge for the leaders, the senior leaders, the executives is finding that balance.
And I always say, You need to experiment.
You cannot just go and say, well, half of the organization is working without job descriptions.
They're all working project-based.
I think my approach, my suggestion is, what are your top five projects?
What are the five most important projects that your organization has to deliver?
Extract.
those projects from your daily operations.
Extract them.
They should not be done by people working in operations.
They should have a different structure.
They should have a different culture.
Put them aside.
Put them like independent.
They are on entities.
And of course, strong sponsorship.
Executives, you need to spend time on them.
By extracting for those...
five top projects already, and moving out from that hierarchical structure, that operational activities, that you can see already quite a lot of acceleration in the way you deliver projects.
So often, though, it seems as if particularly project leaders do have operational responsibilities as well, and then sort of they're expected to...
tack the project on top of that.
So how are companies that you work with navigating that balance?
Are they giving the executives that time to take away for the project work?
Great, great question.
This is really one of the core problems I always raise when I do workshops with senior leaders is how come you cannot extract people from your day-to-day job and put them...
in a project.
It's one of the biggest challenges that I see.
Even companies which have 10,000 people, they are not able to free up 50 people to carry out the project.
The best projects I've seen in research, one of them, of course, the iPhone, the first one, which I researched very much in detail, at that time, they were able to take the day-to-day people, the senior leader, the best people of Apple at that time, and extract them.
for two years and a half to develop.
And people who were in the operations hall said, well, I'd love to join this project, but who's going to do my day-to-day activities?
And we were saying, don't bother.
Anybody can do your day-to-day activities.
You have a deputy when you go.
So we'll put those people, we'll promote them, we'll create more talent.
But you are the best person in these companies.
How come?
You're not working in the most strategic project in the future of your work, right?
It doesn't make sense.
But companies struggle so much.
And there's nothing worse that you can do, Alison, than have half-time people working in your projects.
I work one hour per week.
Then I work two days per week.
Then it's a mess.
It's not how you deliver great projects.
It's at least try to get the best people around.
I think that makes sense when you...
sort of have a clear idea of what the future is going to look like and you know exactly which five projects are the most important.
But isn't the issue in many cases that organizations sort of have 30 projects on the go and aren't really sure what's going to pan out, you know, and they can't take all of those people away from their day-to-day activities?
So how do companies prioritize?
I'm sure everybody that's listening to this, they can relate to that point.
Companies have way too many projects.
I think if there's a core skill for leaders in current times, it's focus and prioritization, knowing what is the big bet.
And unfortunately, it's just...
very hard to uh to see when you see more projects than employees and like you're saying how can they do their day-to-day job plus three four time projects that's where people get overwhelmed i i am sure that the big reset is is linked to this so many projects plus day-to-day activities it's just stressing everybody out and and i think that when you work with companies where the priorities are clear where people know these are our top three their top five um and and We know where we're going.
This is the focus.
That's where I think executives need to work on, on really making the tough decisions.
What are some best practices for putting project teams together?
Well, Alison, the formula for engagement is super simple.
So the most engaged people in a project, you know which one is it?
Volunteers.
Let me put you an example.
Maybe in HPR, you are launching a new project.
Why don't you ask who wants to join?
Makes sense.
It's so simple, but it makes so much sense.
Because there's different things that happen here.
First, if nobody wants to volunteer in the project.
That project is terrible.
Don't start it.
Don't start it because it's just people are going to be forced to do it.
So ask for volunteers.
Nobody shows up.
Don't start it.
You don't need a business case of three months hiring consultants to make you.
Yes, this is if nobody jumps on it.
Terrible.
Don't even start it.
It's just a five minutes test and you save three months of work.
Second, if the project talks about business case.
Very few people get excited.
Who wants to work in a project that delivers 10% return on investment?
Yes!
Nobody, right?
15%?
Nobody.
Who wants to work in a project which is going to make a more sustainable world?
Who's going to work in a project who's going to increase the customer experience and make customers more happy and deliver better value to a customer?
Who wants to work in a project who's going to create our employees or make our employees more happy and make us a top company?
Lots of people.
So we have been, when we were talking about some of the issues, I think project management has been focused on talking about things that don't matter to most of the stakeholders, like a business case.
Business case is super important.
It's the return on investment, for sure.
But that's not what engages people.
The purpose.
engages people.
When you have volunteers, they will dream about your project.
They will do whatever they can to make it happen.
And it can be because of the purpose.
It can be because they like to work with you.
They see a big opportunity to learn.
Of course, as a project leader, you need to balance that.
But as simple as that, Alisson, who wants to volunteer?
How does the rise of project-driven work relate to the gig economy?
Is your sense that companies are hiring contractors and freelancers to get a lot of this done?
Is it a balance or are they trying to handle most of it in-house?
I think when we started to hear about the geek economy, I think...
Yes, one of the reasons was let's hire external resources to work in our projects because we're so rigid internally.
Like I cannot free from my 10,000 people, I cannot free 10 of them because they're so busy in day-to-day operations plus other projects.
So it started like that.
What I see now is that companies are finally taking the step of shifting resources to more project-based work.
Again, when I use the word project, I include agile teams, self-directors.
So very flat, project-driven teams.
So that's happening.
To the point that I talk about it is that companies are...
Canceling job descriptions.
We all had job descriptions.
Like, listen, most of the people listening, probably they had a job description, which tried to describe, like, where do you fit in this box, right?
And just do those activities in this box, in that operational field.
That's your box.
If you do it right in two, three years, you just go up in this structure.
But many large companies and small companies are realizing that people don't work in boxes anymore.
And job descriptions are not needed.
anymore it's it's a thing from that world driven by efficiency that together with the chief operating officer in these roles i think they will not last very long so i think the the project driven world is now being embraced by organization where companies like alibaba or other major players are really embracing this type of work where Yeah, they're looking for people who can have an idea, who can develop the idea, who can implement the project, and who can run the idea or the product or the business and generate value for the companies.
This is what I call end-to-end players or strategy implementation professionals.
We want this type of end-to-end players who can work transversally in organizations.
Are there lessons from your project management world that might be helpful for people doing?
more traditional ongoing work?
I think project managers have been a bit not very proud or about their work.
They've been seeing like, okay, you are not very modern.
Agile teams are better or innovation people.
So I think as a project manager, you need to believe on what you're doing.
Second, I think we need to take more ownership.
I've been...
working 25 years in this space and managing large transformation M&A.
And I always was waiting for the sponsor.
I know the sponsor was very important for my projects, but I was kind of waiting and hoping that the sponsor will learn and follow a training on how to do it or make some times for my projects.
And I've learned the lesson is that the first thing I do in my projects is I go to the sponsor.
And talk frankly with the sponsor.
Listen, are you ready to put time on this project?
It's very important.
I need you.
And I'm happy to coach you.
I'm happy to tell you how projects work and what do we need to focus on.
But I need your time.
And I need a couple of hours per month.
Let's say an hour.
every two weeks i need to talk to you i need decisions from you so i'm very much proactive because i know that role is very important and these people are really busy so that's a one of the biggest lesson learned was being proactive with my project the second maybe is i i talked to many project managers and we are very technical to the point of sometimes difficult to understand slash boring, right?
Who wants to talk to a project manager?
Come on.
Do you have something more interesting?
No, but that's awful.
You're more interesting than my sort of vision of what a project manager is.
Yeah, you see.
And because...
I don't talk about project management.
I don't talk about Gantt charts.
I don't think that's my kitchen.
That's what I do when I need to think about making a plan.
But you are interested on the bigger picture.
You are interested on how my ideas will contribute to our needs as an organization.
So I do this exercise with project manager.
Tell your partner what you do without mentioning the words projects and project management.
And they say, oh.
I'm struggling.
What do I do?
And then they start talking about the value they bring.
And that's what people want to hear.
So you cover this topic broadly in HBR, but talking, adapting, understanding the language of your stakeholders, using it.
That's how you get their engagement.
That's how you get their attention.
That's how they appreciate your value.
And that's the second big learning.
When I did that, things changed for me.
Senior leaders wanted to talk to me.
When I forced them to prioritize and kill projects, they were saying, Antonio, we want another meeting with you, was the CEO of the bank.
Because I forced them.
I forced them to create value.
I forced them to have strategic dialogue.
So I would say if you're listening, you're working in this space, move on into that space.
Move on the value creation of your stakeholders.
And things will change very fast.
That was Antonio Nieto Rodriguez.
speaking with HBR IdeaCast host Alison Beard.
Antonio is the CEO of the consultancy Projects & Co.
His new book is Powered by Projects, Leading Your Organization in the Transformation Age.
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