Building Project Plans Ready for the Unexpected with Liz Hutson of EGH, LLC 2-22-26

Summary

Becker Business Podcast — Episode Summary

Episode: Building Project Plans Ready for the Unexpected with Liz Hutson of EGH, LLC
Host: Chanel Bunger (filling in for Scott Becker)
Guest: Liz Hutson, Principal Consultant and Owner, EGH, LLC
Date: February 21, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode delves into how to create project plans robust enough to withstand the unexpected. Liz Hutson, an experienced consultant in healthcare and private equity, shares her practical framework for project planning that doesn’t just aim for perfection but is “ready for anything.” The discussion centers around building plans with the right people, conducting thorough risk planning, and mastering communication to manage expectations and outcomes.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introduction to Liz Hutson and EGH, LLC

• [01:26-01:42]
  • Liz introduces herself as the founder and principal consultant of EGH, a firm focused on healthcare product and service change management, especially in the private equity space.

2. Effective Project Planning: Planning for the Worst While Aiming for the Best

• [01:48-04:27]
  • Liz emphasizes that excitement and clear outcomes at the onset often get disrupted by unforeseen events.
  • The true skill of a project manager is not just in making the “perfect plan,” but in prepping for unpredictable challenges.

Notable Quote:

“If something unexpected is going to happen, it’s when is that unexpected thing going to happen?”
— Liz Hutson [02:11]

Building Plans with the Right People

• Get both a “top down” (strategy, deadlines, priorities) and a “bottoms up” (execution detail) perspective.
• Involve cross-functional teams and subject matter experts early to avoid unrealistic expectations or timelines.

Example:

• Leadership may want a project done by a certain date, but subject experts (like microbiologists) have non-negotiable requirements—e.g., “the bugs need 10 days to grow”—that must be factored into the plan.
  [03:13]

Notable Quote:

“If you don’t include those experts really early on, you’re going to start to build unrealistic timelines that fall apart later.”
— Liz Hutson [03:29]

3. Conducting Thorough Risk Planning Sessions

• [04:33-06:12]
  • Risk planning shouldn’t be a checkbox at project initiation; it must be an ongoing, iterative process.
  • Let the team “imagine wildly” about what could go wrong—identify risks, assess how likely and severe they are, and develop mitigation plans.
  • Actively build buffers and practice contingency plan activation.

Notable Quote:

“A lot of times… we secretly hold, we assume everything’s going to go perfectly. But I can’t think of a single thing where something goes perfectly—it almost never does.”
— Liz Hutson [05:35]

• Teams that plan for risks “look calm in a crisis” because they’ve already rehearsed what to do.
  [06:01]

4. Managing Communication: Buffering the Message

• [06:23-08:41]
  • Separate your audience:
    • The internal team is focused on execution and knows all the contingency details.
    • Stakeholders/external leadership need a message with built-in buffer (not sandbagging, but not assuming perfection).
  • “Under commit, over deliver” is the axiom—don’t set expectations at the optimistic extreme; add realistic buffer to timelines and deliverables.

Notable Quote:

“You know, it’s not if, it’s when something unexpected is going to happen. You just don’t know what that thing is.”
— Liz Hutson [07:49]

• Over-promising and under-delivering risks credibility, but the reverse (“under commit, over deliver”) builds trust and reputation.

5. Key Takeaways & Liz’s Final Advice

• [08:48-09:21]
  • Three essentials for planning:
    1. Involve the right (cross-functional) team.
    2. Plan for the unplanned—build in cushion/buffer.
    3. Communicate with the right level of buffer—focus on under committing and over delivering.

Notable Quote:

“I don’t think that’s being pessimistic… I think that’s leadership.”
— Liz Hutson [09:19]

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

• “We always want to create very thoughtful, very meticulous plans, but surprises are going to happen—not if, but when.”
  — Liz Hutson [08:54]

• “No one’s going to complain if you’re done early, right? And you’re building credibility.”
  — Liz Hutson [08:13]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:26] — Liz Hutson’s background and EGH focus
• [01:48] — Intro to effective project planning
• [03:13] — Example: Timeline conflict between leadership and subject experts
• [04:33] — The role of risk planning in project management
• [06:23] — Managing communications and stakeholder expectations
• [08:48] — Summary of Liz’s project planning philosophy

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Conclusion

Liz Hutson offers clear, actionable advice for creating resilient project plans in any business, focusing on inclusive planning, realistic risk assessment, and savvy communication. Her practical examples and memorable maxims make this episode a valuable listen for anyone managing complex projects or leading cross-functional teams.

Transcript

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[Chanel Bunger]

Hello and welcome to the Becker Private Equity and the Becker Business Podcast. My name is Chanel Bunger. Today I'm excited to speak with Liz Hudson, principal consultant and owner at EGH llc, who joins us today to discuss how to create project plans that are ready for anything. Liz, thank you as always for joining me.

[Liz Hudson]

Great to talk with you, Chanel. Thanks for having me today.

[Chanel Bunger]

Of course. Well, could you get us started out by briefly introducing yourself to listeners that may not be acquainted with you yet?

[Liz Hudson]

Absolutely. So my name is Liz Hudson. I am the founder and the principal consultant of EGH llc. We focus on healthcare products and services. We're a consulting firm that focuses on change, mostly in the private equity space.

[Chanel Bunger]

Thank you so much for that introduction. Now, to start us off, can you give us a broad overview of what effective project planning looks like?

[Liz Hudson]

Absolutely. So in specific, I mean, there's lots to cover with regards to project planning, but today I want to focus in on planning for the worst case scenario, but aiming for the best. So when you're working on any kind of a project, both the team and the project manager, they always want good things to happen. They're very excited, the team starts excited, the outcome looks clear, the path looks very obvious, very clean as to what we need to do. But experienced project leaders, they know something very important and that is if something unexpected is going to happen, it's when is that unexpected thing going to happen? So strategic planning that Project manager that knows what they're doing isn't just building a perfect plan, they certainly aim to do that. But they're not just doing that. They're building the plan for when the crazy thing inevitably happens. So today, Chanel, I thought we'd talk about three areas to consider when setting up that plan. First things first, we want to build a plan with the right people. That's really important and it's not something to be brushed over. And you don't want to include just leadership, not just the project manager, but you want to involve the entire cross functional team and the subject matter experts. You want to get both a top down view and a bottoms up view of this. A top down view that's looking at strategy and deadlines and business priorities. Something that maybe the CEO or the business unit leader is looking at. Right, that's the top down view. But you also really need to look at the bottoms up view of what does it actually take to execute this and you marry those two things up together. So an example of that might be you have a leader that is laser focused on that ending. Gotta have this done by May 15th. But you have a conversation with your microbio subject matter experts and says, hey, the bugs need 10 days to grow and that's just what it's going to take for that to happen. And so we can't make that may the team state happen. Science is going to win in that. You just can't compress that timeline. So you don't expect include those experts really early on. You're going to start to build unrealistic timelines that fall apart later. So you want to think about the clearest path to go from here to there and then pressure test the timeline with the people that are actually doing the work. And that's, that's how you're going to build in to your plan, how you avoid preventable chaos.

[Chanel Bunger]

Absolutely. And now that we've built out the plan with the right people, where do we go from here?

[Liz Hudson]

Yeah, I think important here is something that gets brushed over quite a lot and that is conducting risk planning sessions. And you know, sometimes we think about risk as sort of an aside or we're like, oh yeah, we'll pull that out when something bad happens. But no, you want to do this not just once at the beginning of the project, but throughout the entire project. You want to think about, you know, what could go wrong. You want to think about where the detours might be. And a lot of times when I'm working with teams on this, I'LL say, let your imagination go wild. Ask like, you know, what could delay us? What are some of the external forces that could hit us? Where are we very vulnerable? And then after we kind of identify these are the potential risks, these are some of the problem areas, then we want to think back. How likely is it that that's going to happen? And if it does happen, how severe would that be? And when you have those two things, what the thing is, how likely is it, what's the severity? Then you want to start to build out your mitigation plan. What would you do if that thing happens? If that crazy thing happens, what would we do? And then you want to add that cushion to absorb the deviations. Because here's the thing, if we do always say we should plan for risk, that's a good idea. But a lot of times, myself included, we secretly hold. We assume everything's going to go perfectly. But I can't think of a single thing where something goes perfectly. It almost never does. But the teams that do make those plans, that they do have those risk planning sessions, they're going to look calm in a crisis because they've already rehearsed, they've already planned for that response.

[Chanel Bunger]

Perfect. So we've got our plan laid out, we've surrounded ourselves with the right people, we've conducted risk planning sessions. Now how do we bring it all home to make sure our project is ready for anything?

[Liz Hudson]

Yeah, this is where I think it's important to really just make sure that you manage communication. Manage communications. And I always think of this in terms of two audiences, two segments here. The first segment, or the first audience is the team. They're the ones that help build the project plan. They know the risk, they know the mitigation plan. And we're going to focus there on pushing towards the best case scenario. We're going to do everything we can to execute aggressively, but we're going to keep our eyes open. If there are some things that start to bubble up, early warning signs, and if everything goes great, smoothly, then wonderful. But a surprise hits the Then we basically activate the risk mitigation plan or the contingency plan. There's no panic. We just move into execution mode. So that's the first group, that's the internal team that kind of knows all the bottoms up of this. The second audience or the second segment is the outside the team folks. So this is your leadership, this is your stakeholders. These are teams that are dependent on the work that you're doing and a phrase that I use all the time. With my team, with my clients, just across the board is this phrase that is under commit, over deliver, under commit and over deliver. And I'm not talking about sandbagging, right? I'm not talking about, you know, put something crazy out there and significantly beat that. It's really about managing your buffer, right? You want to add cushion to things like your timelines, your deliverables, your resource estimates, etc. Because you know, it's not if, it's when something unexpected is going to happen. You just don't know what that thing is. So if you present the perfect no issue scenario to the outside team, to leadership, to stakeholders, et cetera, and you keep missing them, even if it's for reasons, for things that are outside your control, you're going to lose credibility. But if instead you build in a realistic cushion and you deliver ahead of that commitment, and no one's going to complain if you're done early, right? And you're building credibility. So that third one, managing communication, under commit, over deliver, I think is a really important thing to incorporate into project planning.

[Chanel Bunger]

Got it, Got it. Thank you so much for walking us through that. Now, Liz, before I let you go, is there anything else that listeners should know?

[Liz Hudson]

Yeah, no. Just to sum it up, I guess, in project planning, you know, we always want to create very thoughtful, very meticulous plans, but surprises are going to happen. Not if, but when. So the three things, just to sum that up is one, you know, plan with the right team, that cross functional team. Two, plan for the unplanned and build that cushion into the project plan. And then three, communicate with the right level of buffer, under commit, over deliver. And I don't think that's being pessimistic. And I don't think that's sandbagging. I think that's leadership.

[Chanel Bunger]

I love it. Well, Liz, I want to thank you as always, for joining me today and for sharing your insights on the Becker Private equity and the Becker business podcast. Thank you so much.

[Liz Hudson]

Thanks, Chanel. Good to talk with you.

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