A project can spend years losing ground and then begin moving in a different direction. That change matters. But calling it a completed implementation would tell the wrong story.
In my conversation with Kim Sorrelle, I described an unnamed wholesale distribution business whose SAP project was approximately six and a half years behind schedule, $3.6 million over budget, and on the verge of a lawsuit with its channel partner. I described turning the situation around in roughly 45 days.
Later in the same conversation, I called that period the “initial turnaround” and explained that work continued with the executive team and the people component of the project. Those statements belong together. They are an account of one engagement—not a promise that every troubled SAP implementation can go live in 45 days.
“It takes a long time sometimes to kind of unravel the people component of these big projects.”Anita Anello, in conversation with Kim Sorrelle
The important change is the direction of travel.
For leaders funding a stalled project, an initial turnaround is valuable when it changes the conditions that keep producing delay. The next decision becomes clear. The team can communicate again. The relationship with the implementation partner has a workable path forward.
Those are recovery conditions, not evidence that every technical or operational milestone is complete. A project can be in a better position while still having substantial work ahead.
A new schedule needs a different basis.
Another date is only useful if something behind it has changed. Have the blocking decisions been resolved? Does the plan reflect the business’s actual priorities? Can the people who own the work execute it with the authority and support they need?
My description of recovery in the interview starts with understanding the business and working backward from the solution. It includes the human part: how to get everyone communicating again. That is a different starting point from moving the date and hoping the same conditions produce a different result.
Distinguish recovery evidence from go-live evidence.
An initial recovery milestone should be described in terms of what it actually achieved. Clear decisions, restored communication, and an executable recovery sequence are different from completed data migration, proven testing, cutover readiness, and operational adoption.
The interview does not provide a dated go-live record, a detailed technical work log, or an independently audited savings figure for this engagement. It would be misleading to add those details or infer them from the initial-turnaround statement.
The useful lesson is not a universal countdown. It is that de-escalating a situation and completing an implementation are distinct milestones that leadership should track distinctly.
Keep the people work in scope after the immediate crisis.
In the podcast, I explained that the engagement continued with coaching for the executive team. That matters because the communication and leadership conditions around a project do not automatically stay repaired once the first escalation has settled.
A recovery plan has to consider what will hold the alignment through the next difficult decision. This is the role of the Deploy and Deliver pillars in my De-Escalation Breakthrough Formula™: make accountability usable, measure the result, and close the loop.
Ask for the milestone behind the headline.
When evaluating recovery support, leaders can ask a sharper question than “How fast can this be fixed?” Ask what the first recovery milestone would mean for this project, how it would be evidenced, and what work would remain afterward.
That conversation respects the financial urgency without confusing urgency with a guarantee. It also gives the business a clearer basis for deciding what independent support it needs now.
If the project needs a turning point, start with the actual situation—not a borrowed timetable. A private briefing provides a confidential first conversation about the blockers, the exposure, and the recovery decisions ahead.
Adapted from Anita Anello’s conversation with Kim Sorrelle and her De-Escalation Breakthrough Formula™ partner overview.