There are many articles on failed projects and why they ‘fail’ but one can only define failure if we know what is meant by success. Typically, project success is about meeting the triple constraint of completion on time, in budget and to quality. But is that all…just surviving is success but only the fittest survive!
A Financial Ratio?
Objective analysis tells us that success is about meeting the business case and can be quantified through the accurate forecast and subsequent validation of Return on Investment, Payback Period, and Net Present Value.
Success can also be measured in different ways when time and persistence pay off. Sydney Opera House was a ‘failure’ being very late and well over-budget but is now a world icon and nothing short a resounding success. The Lisa Computer was the predecessor to Apple’s Mac and ‘failed’ in the marketplace; but without that technological step there would be no Mac.
A Perception?
Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder and risk is in the profit margin of the perceiver, success can be an opinion. It is the opinions of the numerous stakeholders who range from the end users, observers and participants, aficionados and opponents, and politicians that count.
For the architect it may be aesthetics, for the engineer it’s technical goals, for the CEO it’s stock price. However, for others, merely finishing is success no matter what the result and we can hear sighs of “it’s finally over” or “we can stop throwing good money after bad”.
Success can be a bitter pill to swallow but people will carry on and try again. But how many times will they try? WC Fields once declared “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it“. Just ‘trying again’ ad nauseam with the perception that the next project will be better is probably foolish.
Enthusiasm & Optimism?
Mandela and Edison never failed, Mandela either “won or gained experience” and Edison “just found 10,000 ways that won’t work” and in doing so they both learned. Lessons in life aren’t free but they are the best lessons learned, and if you’ve never failed you never really learn.
Churchill summed it up when he said, “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm” but this should be tempered against not doing the same thing again in the same way, that’s just plain insanity.
A project may have ‘failed’ but there is business investment in experiencing that failure and recovering from that failure. From a leadership perspective the learning from that experience is essential.
Plain enthusiasm and trying again will not go down well with business liquidity. Repeated attempts must be tempered against the lessons learned or the business will go bust when it should have just quit.
Success is Learning
“Winners write the history” goes the saying and ‘the history’ of failure must be explained, and why, and what has been learned, and what mitigation will need to be put in place. These messengers who bring candour shouldn’t be shot as they have learned directly – if they are ‘shot’ some hard-earned knowledge will have been lost.
But messengers who blame others, provide ‘good news’ reporting with a politically correct positive spin, and vow that it won’t happen again are providing excuses rather than learning. The investment in your failure has also been lost.
Learning from failure will mean a change in attitudes, processes and, inevitably people when they realise that risk is not just something that happens to others.
Success is a State of Mind
So, what is success – it’s a matter of opinion and an attitude as to how your failures will be put to good use.
Failures are a way of finding out how not to do something and success is ensuring that you learn from those failures and, more importantly, not repeating them. The investment made in failure and any resultant losses is the cost of learning experience – education is expensive and dropping out is a waste of money.
If your project is not finished on time and in budget, then success is learning from that experience (failure). And, if you don’t learn then you may have to plead insanity the next time…
Bio:
A UK Chartered Engineer & Chartered Geologist with over thirty-five years’ international experience in multicultural environments on large multidisciplinary infrastructure projects including rail, metro, hydro, airports, tunnels, roads and bridges. Skills include project management, contract administration & procurement, and design & construction management skills as Client, Consultant, and Contractor.
Provision of incisive, focused and effective technical and managerial solutions for all project phases; identifying and dealing with troubled projects, and leading project recovery and change through hands-on interaction.