The story about King Xerxes is fascinating, and you should know it.

Look.

Some clients send an angry email when infrastructure fails.

Others call their lawyers.

King Xerxes had even a more ambitious escalation procedure.

He whipped the sea.

Yes.

Apparently, the King was very ambitious, in general.

He had bridges built across the Hellespont so his Persian army could cross into Europe.

Until here… All good.

The issue is that a storm destroyed the bridges.

At the time, they did not have ACONEX or ANSARADA to torture you and trace responsibilities.

So, Xerxes responded by ordering 300 lashes for the water, and chains to be thrown into it.

Finally!

Amazing!

That’s it!

Yes!! Finally, someone holding the weather accountable.

Imagine being the project manager or the consultant assigned that task.

“What do you do?”

“Infrastructure dispute resolution.”

“Interesting. Which firm?”

“Mostly coastal.”

Three hundred lashes.

Very specific.

Clearly, 250 would have been too lenient.

And 350 would have damaged the relationship.

You have to preserve collaboration.

The sea’s response is unrecorded.

I assume it continued being wet.

Now, before you laugh too hard at Xerxes, think about how you manage your own projects.

You put an obligation in a contract.

You assume the asset will cooperate.

Then, years later, reality does something deeply unprofessional.

It turns up.

The pavement needs work.

The maintenance records contain gaps.

And the people approaching handback discover that they have spent twenty years agreeing that everything must be in “good condition”…

…without agreeing what that means.

Excellent.

One party means:

“It works.”

The other means:

“It will keep working.”

The engineer asks:

“For how long?”

The lawyers ask:

“Would you like to discuss our rates?”

And the Board asks:

“Why wasn’t this sorted out earlier?”

At that point, whipping the sea starts to look surprisingly competitive… even compelling.

Well…

In my unsolicited piece of advice of today, I think that there is a better option:

Make the handback requirements work before you need to enforce them.

Simple.

Not rocket science.

Define the condition.

Understand the remaining life requirements.

Agree how compliance will be demonstrated.

Leave time to inspect, challenge and rectify.

Because an asset approaching the end of a concession doesn’t become younger when you send it a strongly worded letter.

Believe me.

If that worked, I would write to my lower back.

This is why I put together:

​THE ROOM: 9 Lessons For A Successful HandBack — A30 Montreal.​

Nine lessons using the A30 Montreal project as the case.

For CEOs, Project Directors and Board members who would prefer to understand the handback problem while they can still do something useful about it.

Get the nine lessons here.

​THE ROOM: 9 Lessons For A Successful HandBack — A30 Montreal​

You can prepare the handback.

Or prepare the whip.

I know which one I would put in the budget.

P.S. If your handback strategy depends on everyone being reasonable in the final year, please remember:

Xerxes probably thought he was being reasonable too.

He gave the sea a very clear performance improvement plan.

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