The Squeaky Wheels

Ty is a work management evangelist; "accidental" project manager and marketing veteran with over 25 years of experience.

  Decision Making   Leadership   Stakeholder Management   ProjectsAtWork  

Every organization has squeaky wheels — individuals who are certain that their immediate needs outweigh everyone else’s. They often disrupt project portfolio execution, distracting project teams and making it difficult to know who is working on what. A queue to collect, prioritize and manage inbound requests is the first step in dealing with this pervasive problem.

As covered wagons made their way along the Oregon Trail headed for the gold fields of California or the lush timber of Oregon, whenever the wagon wheels started to squeak, the wagon driver knew it was time to stop and grease the squeaking wheel — before it failed. Along the trail there wasn’t the equivalent of a Firestone or a Goodyear to get a replacement. A failed wheel was inconvenient at best or a matter of life and death at worst.

Originally, I think the phrase “The squeaky wheel gets the grease” implied that problems should be fixed as soon as they are identified. But over the last hundred or so years, the phrase has become associated with “the person who complains the loudest gets what they want.”

If you lead an organization that relies on shared services such as IT, marketing or human resources to provide internal clients with products or services, you know that every client considers their request for services the most important thing happening in your …

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