This is about a lack of resilience in your team. Really, this needs to be addressed proactively so you don't rely solely on key people. Identify the people in your teams people who hold significant expertise and work with them to share their knowledge, upskill, shadow, and train others. Overtime, your key individuals will no longer be a blocker to progress. You should aim to have no single points of failure.

Identify Critical Features: Focus on essential features that drive project success. Evaluate Remaining Resources: Assess available resources to realign project priorities. Identify Root Cause: Determine why resources vanished and take action to retain remaining resources. Communicate with Stakeholders: Promptly update stakeholders, assuring them of a structured plan. Implement with Available Resources: Use remaining resources to cover high-priority tasks. Plan for Gaps: If gaps persist, realign timelines and seek additional resources. Propose Flexible Solutions: Present multiple paths forward, maintaining progress while adapting to change.

Adapt, improvise and overcome, important ways of dealing with unexpected challenges. The United States Marine Corps taught me these 3 fundamentals for leadership.

An alternative approach is to plan for risks early by identifying potential resource issues and having backup materials or methods ready. Set up a clear communication system to quickly update stakeholders and make adjustments as needed. This way, you can keep the project on track and handle challenges more smoothly.

When dealing with unanticipated obstacles, resourcefulness is essential. When vital resources evaporate in the middle of a project, it presents a chance for innovation. We must immediately evaluate alternatives, drawing on our team's total expertise to seek substitute materials or creative approaches. This adaptability not only keeps projects on track, but it also results in more efficient solutions. Accepting such challenges promotes a culture of resilience and inventiveness, which strengthens our engineering and leadership abilities.

To handle the loss of key resources, I’d quickly assess remaining team capabilities, reprioritize tasks, and identify critical skill gaps. Then, I’d leverage internal cross-training, bring in temporary resources, or reassign tasks to keep the project moving forward. Transparent communication with stakeholders would ensure alignment on revised timelines and goals.

Don't panic. Instead, take a breath and look at who can step up. These moments test your team’s grit and often reveal hidden talent you might've overlooked. Losing someone important isn't just a setback—it’s a chance to make the team stronger and more resilient. Instead of just plugging the gap, reorganize smartly. See if someone can expand their role, even if it’s temporary. By pushing others to fill in, you're not only covering the immediate need but also building depth so that the next time a crisis hits, it barely shakes the team.

One boss I was privileged to support spoke often about the “independent variable”. It must always factor into an equation, the critical method path, a design or prototype. It would be assigned a value so when problems/probabilities were calculated it becomes predictive in strength. The “independent variable”maintains a constant level of communication between teams in a strategic position not a reactive position. Finally no job is completely successful. Success is a state in time, most often it births the next contradiction be that conflict is negative or positive. Thus to state that all projects are fluid is a constant.