Hey Reader,

I've been in Albania for a couple of weeks now.

This morning I woke up to loud music in the street.

At first, honestly, my reaction was - what is this, at this hour?

But then I looked outside.

There was a wedding happening. Right there in the street.

Family dancing around the bride and groom.

Music playing at full volume.

The whole neighbourhood involved.

It was loud. It was proud. It was blocking traffic.

And then I realised, that's the point.

Marriage here isn't a private event between two people.

It's a public declaration to the whole community.

I went from mild frustration to genuine appreciation in about thirty seconds.

Not because anything changed.

But because I understood what I was actually seeing.

That instinct, genuinely trying to understand something before assuming anything about it, is exactly what separates good delivery leads from great ones.

Most delivery problems aren't technical.

The team built the right thing, but it was the wrong fit.

The plan was solid, but nobody would follow it.

The stakeholder presentation fell flat, not because the work was poor, but because nobody had read the room.

Those are cultural failures.

And they happen because most delivery leads never truly learn the culture of the client organisation they're serving.

Client culture isn't the org chart.

It's not the stated values on the website either.

It's how decisions actually get made.

Who really has influence, not the title, but the trusted voice in the room.

What the organisation is proud of, and what it's afraid of.

What pace feels normal to them.

What words carry weight, and which ones trigger defensiveness.

What "success" actually means internally, regardless of what the brief says.

That's the real map.

And most delivery leads never build it.

They arrive with their methodology.

Their templates.

Their tools.

And they wonder why nothing quite lands.

Tourists follow the guidebook.

They confirm what they already thought.

They leave having seen the sights, but never really knowing the place.

Travellers get off the path.

They come back with a richer, more accurate picture of reality.

Most delivery leads are tourists.

They do the stakeholder interviews.

They build the RACI.

They attend the kick-off.

Then they press play.

But a client organisation has a culture.

A way of being that no template captures.

If you never stop to understand it, you'll spend months pushing against a current you don't even know is there.

The first few weeks on a project are gold.

Not for delivery. For observation.

Watch how decisions actually get made.

Who speaks first in meetings. Who speaks last.

Whose opinion shifts the room.

Find the person who's been there a long time, not the senior sponsor, but the mid-level person who knows how the place actually works.

Ask them: "Tell me about a project that really worked here. What made it work?"

Ask them: "What would keep you up at night about this one?"

Then listen more than you talk.

Read the environment too.

How people communicate in writing; formal or informal, direct or cautious.

What gets celebrated publicly.

What gets quietly buried.

Every organisation has loaded words.

Words that mean more than they say.

Words that land wrong if you use them carelessly.

Learn them early.

This isn't soft work.

This is strategic.

I remember working on a project for Budweiser years ago.

I built a good relationship with one of the leaders there.

Not through formal governance or status reports.

But through understanding him, how he liked to be communicated to, what a timely response meant to him, what he needed to feel confident the project was in good hands.

Whenever issues came up, I'd just call him.

No long email chains. No waiting for the next steering meeting.

Just a direct conversation, in the way he valued.

At the end of the project, that relationship was one of the things he specifically fed back about.

Not the deliverables.

Not the timeline.

The relationship.

No template builds that.

Only understanding does.

I think about the NHS National Programme for IT.

Over £10 billion written off.

One of the most expensive project failures in British history.

The technical capability existed.

The budget was there.

The intent was real.

But the approach assumed NHS trusts would simply comply with a centralised system imposed on them.

They didn't.

Because nobody took the time to understand that NHS trusts are deeply autonomous organisations with deeply local cultures. The clinician resistance wasn't an obstacle to manage. It was information. It was the message.

Nobody was listening closely enough.

The reason this lands personally for me is straightforward.

When my wife and I travel, we don't just visit places, we try to understand them.

It grounds you.

It humbles you.

It makes you a better guest.

And honestly, a better partner.

That's exactly the posture I try to bring to new client engagements.

Not: "Here's how we deliver."

But: "Help me understand how things work here."

The delivery plan follows once you understand the terrain.

If there's one thing I want to leave you with this week:

Before you write the plan — learn the culture.

Before you escalate — understand the politics.

Before you present — read the room.

The best delivery leads I've worked with aren't just great at managing projects.

They're great at understanding people, organisations, and environments.

They're travellers, not tourists.

And that curiosity is available to anyone willing to develop it.

Praying you have a blessed week.

Yom

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