Definition – a situation in which people are afraid to criticize something because everyone else seems to think, or gives the impression of thinking, that it is good or important.

We all know the fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson and the proud Emperor, opportunist swindlers, frightened people and childish innocence.  Unfortunately many of us have also experienced it, to a greater or lesser extent, when it comes to what has really been specified or required under a contract and what the Client wants, or is prepared to pay for.

The Client’s ‘wants’ are respected and revered because the Client holds the purse strings.  The saying that “he who pays the piper calls the tune” is certainly clear but should Clients tell the piper ‘how to play’ as opposed to ‘what to play’.

Time and effort is spent crafting contracts and their scope to meet a Client’s requirements.  The Client who wants things done his, or her, way without criticism or questioning or recourse to the crafted contract engages ‘suitable’ contract administrators.  They are required to agree with everything; no matter how absurd, egotistical, or just down right wrong or unethical.  And if they don’t, they risk being replaced.  Even though their arrangements will often state that there is no ‘master-servant relationship’, they know who’s boss and who, in their right mind, bites the hand that feeds them!  If somebody does ‘bite’ then a ‘dismissal-because-the-client-doesn’t-like-you’ clause can easily be invoked.

The agencies who physically do the work are typically self proclaimed proponents that their most important resource is people.  But, they too need to satisfy the needs of the Client’s criteria for staff.  Ideally such staff must have decades of directly relevant experience but should also be cheap, and be malleable enough to be pressurised and cajoled into doing what is demanded rather than what is contracted.

But why does this happen?  The Client, who cannot see that his dreams of a spectacular new coat are fantasies as he listens to pandering ‘yes-men’, is fooling himself.  The result may well end up as either well disguised rags, or nothing on time or both and, more often than not, a few honest and innocent casualties along the way.

In such environments people survive, or rather avoid getting sacked, by keeping their head down, sucking-it-up, and going with the flow.  Is it ethical to place people in such an environment?  Is this in the interests of business ‘growth’, ‘profitability’ and (yes I managed to slip in the word) ‘sustainability’?

Do we not owe it to ourselves, our organisations, and our Clients to speak up?  As in the story it is not only the Emperor who is exposed but everybody else too and the bystanders eventually see it all.  The cover ups and blame that accompany the whims and fancies of the few who feel that they have the right to dictate rather than their obligation to pay the piper…especially when the piper has played his tune…will be exposed.

Bio:

Malcolm Peart MBA, MSc DIC, BSc; Chartered Engineer, Chartered Geologist, PMP.  Over thirty years’ experience on large multidisciplinary infrastructure projects including rail, metro systems, airports, roads, marine works and reclamation, hydropower, tunnels and underground excavations.

Project management; design & construction management; and contract administrative in all project phases from feasibility, planning & design, procurement, implementation, execution and completion on Engineer’s Design and Design & Build schemes.