The Business Perspective: When Projects Ask More Than the Business Feels It Can Give
Part of the series on 'Big Ask, Small Core' Projects
The Summer Series on ‘Big Ask, Small Core’ Projects
This summer, I’m exploring the reality of running big ask, small core projects — the ones where a small central team must drive change through an organisation that’s already busy keeping business as usual on track. These projects don’t come with huge armies of dedicated project staff or big extra budgets. Instead, they rely on people in functions and business units to make space for change alongside their day jobs.
If you missed the first article, which focused on the Project Management Perspective, you can catch up here:
👉 Balancing Big Ask, Small Core Projects – Project Management View
We’ll explore these projects from five critical angles:
1️⃣ The Project Management Perspective
2️⃣ The Business Contributor Perspective (this article)
3️⃣ The Governance Perspective
4️⃣ The People Dynamics (Change & Communication) Perspective
5️⃣ The Leadership Perspective
The Big Ask for the Business
If you work in a business unit or functional team, you’ve likely felt this before:
➡ “We’re already stretched thin. How are we supposed to support this massive project on top of everything else?”
Big ask, small core projects depend on business teams to provide knowledge, make decisions, test solutions, and prepare for change — but these people aren’t usually given extra time, resources, or budget. The result? Frustration, competing priorities, and often burnout risk.
And yet, without their involvement, the project simply can’t succeed.
The Theory: Where Tensions Arise
Drawing on Brenda Zimmerman’s wicked questions and Ralph Stacey’s Complex Responsive Processes, we can see why this feels so hard. These projects surface inherent tensions that can’t simply be solved — they have to be navigated:
⚡ How do you keep business as usual running while transforming how the business works?
⚡ How do you give the project enough energy without draining what keeps customers served and operations stable?
⚡ How do you ensure the people closest to the work have a voice — when they have the least spare capacity?
In small core projects, these tensions are amplified because there’s no large project team to soak up the work. The project’s success depends on how well the business embraces its role as both contributor and co-owner.
In big ask, small core projects (or highly leveraged or lean-run projects, as many businesspeople would call them), the tensions are also baked in. People are being asked to contribute to shaping the future while still delivering the present. That creates dilemmas at every turn:
🔹 Strategic priorities vs operational reality
👉 The project aims to standardise processes globally — but the sales team in one country is in the middle of a major customer bid and simply can’t spare time for workshops.
🔹 Efficiency vs inclusion
👉 A steering group wants fast decisions — but engaging all the right stakeholders takes time, and rushing risks overlooking critical voices.
🔹 Business-as-usual vs transformation work
👉 An HR leader is juggling a project workstream alongside annual salary review season — and both feel equally non-negotiable.
🔹 Formal plans vs human dynamics
👉 A detailed RACI chart shows who should do what — but in practice, no one speaks up in meetings because they’re unsure if their views will be valued.
🔹 Short-term deliverables vs long-term goodwill
👉 The project could hit a milestone by pushing local teams harder — but at what cost to trust and future collaboration?
These tensions don’t signal poor planning — they’re the natural product of complex systems, as Ralph Stacey’s complexity theory reminds us. What matters is how we work with the tensions, not wish them away.
Practical Strategies for the Business Perspective
Here’s what I’ve seen work — and not work — when the business faces these demands:
1️⃣ Acknowledge and Map the Real Load
👉 Too often, we pretend that business teams can “just absorb” project work. The reality? People have limited bandwidth.
✔ Tip: Map out the business workload honestly. Visualise BAU peaks (quarter-end, audit season, major customer events) and project needs. Make visible where support simply isn’t possible.
✔ Vignette: On one HRIS implementation, we worked with the business to create a shared timeline that highlighted both project milestones and local business busy periods. It forced tough but helpful conversations early — we rescheduled UAT so it didn’t clash with annual performance reviews.
2️⃣ Position Project Contribution as Value Creation, Not Extra Work
👉 If project tasks are framed as “on top” of people’s real jobs, they’ll always come last. But if positioned as how the business shapes its future, engagement improves.
✔ Tip: Work with local leaders to reframe participation:
“You’re not helping the project; the project is helping you shape what’s next.”
✔ Vignette: In a manufacturing firm, we shifted language in comms and meetings to emphasise how process owners were co-designing their future workflows. It turned reluctant participants into advocates.
3️⃣ Design “Minimum Viable Contribution”
👉 Not everyone in the business needs to attend every workshop, or provide detailed input on every decision.
✔ Tip: Identify where input is critical — and where “light touch” will do. Protect business teams from unnecessary asks.
✔ Vignette: On a global ERP rollout, we reduced a planned 12-country weekly steering meeting to a monthly strategic session plus bilateral working meetings. This cut meeting load by 50% — and increased actual decision speed.
4️⃣ Give Permission for Trade-offs
👉 Business teams often try to do everything — until something breaks. Leaders need to give explicit permission for what can pause, stop, or be delegated.
✔ Tip: Agree at the sponsor level what can give way when conflicts arise — and communicate this clearly to business teams.
✔ Vignette: During a complex digital transformation, a retail client formally deprioritised certain legacy reporting tasks for two quarters. The signal? The project matters — and we’ll adjust other expectations to reflect that.
5️⃣ Celebrate and Make Contribution Visible
👉 If supporting the project feels like thankless extra work, goodwill drains fast.
✔ Tip: Create visible moments of appreciation and credit for business contributions. Recognise individuals and teams who make the project possible.
✔ Vignette: A financial services firm we worked with created a “change champion” spotlight in their internal newsletter — not for the central team, but for people in branches and functions who went above and beyond.
What’s Next?
Someone has to make decisions in this space. Decisions that make sense and people understand. So, in our next article, we’ll turn to the Governance Perspective:
👉 How can sponsors and steering groups help these projects thrive — providing clarity and support rather than bureaucracy?
Watch this space — and in the meantime, I’d love to hear:
💬 How do you make project work feasible for the business when resources are tight?
About the author
I’m Frank Smits, a change and transformation consultant with over 25 years of international experience helping organisations navigate complex business and IT-driven change. I have particular expertise in setting up and managing global HR programmes, including the implementation of HRIS solutions such as SAP SuccessFactors.
I’ve worked with global teams across industries and cultures to deliver major transformations—balancing strategy, execution, and the human side of change. Based in Europe, I work in multiple languages and thrive on making change practical, collaborative, and real.
What I can offer:
I help you shape and manage the engagements to achieve your business outcomes. By bringing in my specialist programme management, change and transformation expertise. From initiation through to implementation. Or any part thereof. This includes leading large-scale business change initiatives, from digital transformation to complex HR programmes.
As executives, you may need a discrete partner to test your ideas. Or get fresh, new ones. I will act as your sparring partner. To having the right conversations. Helping you succeed. This applies to all areas of business leadership—including how to navigate and lead major HR change or transformation initiatives.
Expertise in designing and facilitating innovative and engaging interventions. And, if needed, I can convene a variety of experts from my extensive network (academics, peers, consultants, active retirees) to open up new thinking. In HR programme leadership, this means bringing together key stakeholders—HR, IT, business leaders, and external partners—to drive alignment and engagement.
Sometimes you would like your leaders to get dedicated, customised, specialist education. To enhance your capabilities. To possibly change the conversation. HR leaders facing major change or transformation also need the right tools and perspectives to guide their teams. I can help build that capability.
Find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/franksmits