How to escalate a problem the wrong way; 4 steps to do it right

In projects, escalation occurs when one's own or team's understanding is insufficient to resolve an issue.

When something needs to be escalated, unresolved problems, conflicts, or requirements beyond the project manager's or project team's decision-making authority must be passed on to the next level of management... or to another team.

The wrong way to do this is to drop the problem into someone else and walk away.

So, what's the right way?

A timely and appropriate way to handle an escalation includes the following elements:

1. Escalation Criteria
2. Escalation Paths
3. Escalation Process
4. Follow-up and Feedback

Escalation Criteria

First, a team or department or company should clearly document when and under what conditions an escalation is required.

The realization that escalation is necessary usually results from a comparison of the actual state against the planned state. The plan can be a project plan or any other baseline. It is helpful if the project is managed according to the exception principle and tolerances are established at all levels. This way, it can be determined that an escalation is necessary if a certain type of tolerance is expected to be breached. The types of tolerance may include: time, cost, goals, scope, benefits, risks, and sustainability. Tolerances at all levels of management effectively prevent every minor issue from escalating to the top.

Escalation Paths

An escalation path is a defined chain of individuals or committees to whom issues are escalated, usually from the specialist to the team manager, who escalates to the project manager, and then to the steering committee. From there, it may go up to higher management levels or specialized committees.

Escalation Process

An escalation should be done in writing and as quickly as possible.

Because the recipients of the escalation need to make a decision on how to proceed, the escalation must serve as a decision template. It is not enough to merely deliver bad news; it must be clearly documented:

What is the reason for the deviation from the plan?
What are the consequences in terms of time, cost, goals, scope, benefits, risks, and sustainability?
What can be done? What are the available options?
What are the consequences of these options?
What is the plausible recommendation for the next steps?

A suitable template should be used consistently across all projects.

Follow-up and Feedback

This should be self-evident, but it should be documented in the project contract or project handbook how the mechanism for tracking the progress of the addressed escalation works and how feedback is communicated to the project team.

Do you have any stories how how this was handled the wrong way? The right way?