Project Management

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When Escalation Becomes a Habit: Are We Using It Too Easily?

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Ashwin Kumar H M
Community Champion
Consultant| Canarys Automation Ltd Bangalore, Karnataka, India

Escalation is an important tool in project management—it helps unblock decisions, bring visibility, and manage risks. But in some environments, I’ve noticed escalation becoming a default response rather than a last resort.

When overused, it can:

-- Reduce team ownership

-- Overload leadership with operational decisions

-- Slow down resolution instead of accelerating it

This raises an interesting question: - Are we always escalating for the right reasons, or sometimes because it’s the easiest path?

Curious to hear from the community:

.- What criteria do you use to decide when escalation is truly necessary?

.- Have you seen situations where avoiding escalation led to better outcomes?

.- How do you build a culture where teams solve problems proactively before escalating?

Looking forward to your perspectives.
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Kwiyuh Michael Wepngong
Community Champion
Financial Management Specialist | US Peace Corps Yaounde, Centre, Cameroon
Thanks Kumar for bringing this up, I think it's quite critical
The level of usage of escalation must be a well thought out process and should be the last resort whatever.
Escalation should only be considered when all other available options have been exhausted.
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Francisco Herrera
Community Champion
Program Manager, PPM&PMO Specialist.| Coppel, Mexico. Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico
In my experience, I always follow two rules before escalating:

Wait and See: I usually wait at least some days (n omore that 3) for a response before taking further action.

Direct Approach: I prefer to talk to the person directly to address the issue before involving leadership.

Most of the time, this personal approach works for me. It builds trust and solves the problem faster than a formal escalation. Only when these steps fail do I consider it truly necessary to escalate
Francisco
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Abolfazl Yousefi Darestani Manager, Quality and Continuous Improvement| Hörmann-TNR Industrial Doors Newmarket, Ontario, Canada
Any tool, technique or method has its own pros and cons and should be applied wisely. I am not a fan of escalation as the first option in most cases.
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Kevin Sheppard Senior Project Manager| Loblaw Companies Limited Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I've observed a growing tendency for project teams to escalate challenges directly to Project Managers, rather than first attempting to resolve issues through direct, face-to-face engagement with the relevant individuals or groups.

Before I escalate, I follow a similar approach as Francisco highlighted – I ensure I do my due diligence first based on the following:

Attempt to resolve locally – make every reasonable attempt to reach out to the individual or teams involved first.

Gather the facts – make sure I clearly understand the problem and what steps have already been taken to resolve.

Identify Potential Solutions - I find it also helps to present potential solutions or options to the problem when escalating to leadership for intervention.

Clearly articulating the impact: What’s at risk.

Consult with my peers – sometimes a different perspective or take on the issue can help confirm whether escalation is necessary.

Keep a record of what actions have been take already, by whom, etc.
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Michael King
Community Champion
Senior IS Project Manager| Baycare Health Systems Clearwater, Fl, United States
As always, it depends......

In the vast majority of project situations escalation should not be the first course of action. I also prefer the personal approach and try to reach out to the team members to get the problem resolved. The teams seems to agree with this approach.

The are times when an escalation is needed immediately, such as needing some type of resource by a specific date / time or else the project will fail, for example submitting results to a government agency by a certain deadline and if this deadline is not met then the project cannot proceed. I could argue that this could have also been solved by adding more time to the task at the beginning, but at a certain point in time it becomes critical. The only other immediate need for escalation that comes to mind is safety - you need to change something immediately or else risk the well being of team members or customers or members of the community.
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Lissette Indhira Pimentel Sosa
Community Champion
Program Manager| HARPER SRL Santo Domingo / Distrito Nacional, Dominican Republic
It becomes a habit when ownership is not clear or when teams feel it’s safer to pass the problem up.

What has worked is making it clear what can and should be resolved at the team level, and only escalating when there’s a real decision or constraint they can’t move.
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Sergio Luis Conte Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations Buenos Aires, Argentina
If a project manager needs to escalate continuously then it is not an effective project manager or a project manager that adds value to the organization.
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Srikana Ray
Community Champion
IT Project Manager
I ensure I have the full context of the situation or task details, risks and any patterns in delivery before any escalation. I work with the team to set up internal deadlines, have one-on-one conversations with them and identifying blockers. If those efforts don’t resolve the issue and timelines are at risk, then I escalate, that would be the last resort.

In many cases, early engagement through direct conversations and follow-ups have resolved issues without escalation. Understanding challenges and giving timely nudges often led to better outcomes while preserving team trust.

I focus on building trust and maintaining regular check-ins so issues surface early. Having clear expectations and open communication encourages the team to address problems proactively instead of waiting for escalation.

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