Dealing with poor work performance — in a friend

Reader: My friend “Alice” and I are co-managing a huge project at work, with lots of contributors. We work in academia, and the politics of the situation make it difficult to correct colleagues who aren’t pulling their weight. Even though we are “in charge,” these colleagues know they don’t answer to us. We had to appoint people to chair portions of this project, and I appointed another friend, “Dan,” who I honestly thought would do a good job. Alice is no fan of Dan, but she admitted he had the credentials.