Project Success Comes from Knowing Who to Nudge

I recently read that a surprising amount of project success comes from knowing who to nudge, not what the process says.

That’s a sharp observation—and a lot of experienced project managers eventually discover the same thing.

Formal processes (plans, RACI charts, ticket systems, approval flows) describe how work should move, but in practice work moves through people. A few dynamics explain why “knowing who to nudge” matters so much:

1. Informal Networks Beat Formal Org Charts

Organizations have two structures:

• Formal structure: org charts, processes, workflows
• Informal structure: trust, influence, reputation, and relationships

Projects often accelerate when you tap the informal network—the engineer everyone respects, the ops lead who can unblock things quickly, or the PM who knows how to get leadership attention.

2. Bottlenecks Are Human, Not Procedural

Processes assume everyone responds at the same speed. In reality:

• Some stakeholders ignore tickets but respond to a quick DM.
• Some teams prioritize work only when a known person asks.
• Some approvals happen instantly if the right person frames the request.

So, success becomes partly about identifying the real bottleneck person and nudging them.

3. Prioritization Is Social

Every team has more work than capacity. When you nudge the right person:

• Your project moves up their mental priority queue.
• Context gets clarified faster.
• Ambiguity gets resolved informally instead of through weeks of process.

4. The Best PMs Map Influence

Strong project leaders quietly build a mental map of influence:

• Who actually makes decisions vs. who signs them
• Who people listen to in meetings
• Who can unblock things quickly
• Who needs advanced context before a decision

Once you know that map, nudges become strategic instead of random.

5. “Soft Power” Prevents Escalation

A well-timed message like:

“Hey, quick heads-up—this dependency might block launch next week. Any chance you could take a look today?”

often works better than:

• escalation emails
• process enforcement
• status meeting pressure

Conclusion

A short way people summarize this:

Projects run on relationships; process just documents them.

Or even more bluntly:

Org charts show authority. Influence maps show reality.