Red projects
What should you do when a project is red?
A red project is not a color on a slide. It means the current plan is not credible: time, scope, quality, or confidence has broken, and leadership needs a working view of what to do next.
Direct answer
In the first 72 hours, stop adding unowned work, name the blocked decisions, identify a single accountable owner for the critical path, and write down what will be true by the end of seven days.
Do not start a new governance theater. Do not wait for a perfect data room. Critical Project Rescue — Stabilize is built for this condition: a bounded recovery operating-system reset for one project when control is broken and a client leader can receive the reset.
Use Rescue when
Milestones are slipping
The critical path is no longer honest.
If the blockage is still unclear and the project is not yet under material pressure, use Project Clarity — Diagnose first.
Project Clarity — Diagnose
Executive scrutiny has started
Someone is asking for a recovery plan and the current status story will not survive the meeting.
Critical Project Rescue — Stabilize restores project control, decision cadence, ownership, and an executable recovery operating system. It does not guarantee recovery.
Critical Project Rescue — Stabilize
What it is not
It is not emergency operations coverage, not legal advice, and not a replacement for the client’s project manager.
Limitations
One clearly identified project per engagement. The client remains responsible for decisions and execution.
Next step
Discuss Stabilize if pressure is already material. Discuss Diagnose if the central blockage is still unclear.