For those of us who remember, or whose parents told them, Doris Day played the ‘bubbly blonde’ of the 1950’s and 60’s and was the effervescent optimist in feel good movies.  She also famously sang “Que Será, Será” in the Hitchcock film “The Man Who Knew Too Much“:

Que será, será

Whatever will be, will be

The future’s not ours to see

Que será, será

What will be, will be…

But, is the future just down to fate and if you reflect on your future is this merely worrying about the inevitable and a waste of precious time?  Or, can we manage our destiny and, in the business world, manage the outcome of our projects?

Projects start with success in mind and, unless you are depending on wild enthusiasm rather than a proper plan, the project team will need to be prepared for problems.  These day-to-day problems are part of any venture and people can generally handle them.  However, if problems become more serious the project team may have to manage their way out of a crisis.

If crises are not contained and mitigated a crisis may quickly become a calamity which, unless escalated and dealt with timeously, may well become a catastrophe.  Any Project can become a disaster which is either abandoned or remediated depending on its essentiality…but is its destiny predetermined?

Fatalism and Free Will

In the European Middle Ages people believed in fate and that one’s destiny had been predetermined by a supreme being; this was fatalism.  People were superstitious, ‘sore afraid’ and had no doubt as to the inevitability of the outcome of any situation.  Early seafarers would not sail out of sight of land for fear of either falling off the edge of the world or because of a mapmaker’s warning that ‘here be dragons’. This fuelled any pre-existing fears and created even more superstition and myth.

As people explored and discovered, and rationalised some individuals questioned the concept of fatalism, challenged the status quo, and exercised ‘free will’.  Galileo in the 1600’s was declared a heretic for discussing that the Sun orbited the Earth while, contemporaneously, Rene Descartes famously wrote “Cogito; ergo sum” (I think; therefore I am).

The European Renaissance of the 14^th to 17^th Centuries changed people’s views on fate and religion and a started the belief that destiny could be changed.  A person could then become the master of their own destiny by making choices based upon their own ‘free will’.  This will is based upon personal responsibility, beliefs, ethics and morals rather than those of society at large.

Critical Thinking

The Renaissance that ‘ended’ only 500 years ago may have brought about ‘free will’ but the concept of thinking critically has been around for millennia.  Some 2,500 years ago Socrates developed a method of questioning that probed and exposed ‘confident’ people who could not rationally justify their claims to knowledge.

These despots would be unable to provide evidence for their rhetoric and would use imprecise terminology conveying ambiguity and confusion.  Socrates established that “authority” cannot be depended upon to have sound knowledge and insight and that, although they may have legitimate power and high position, such ‘authorities’ can be deeply confused and irrational.

An important element of critical thinking is based on asking questions that, by being difficult to answer, probe profoundly into a person or a situation before we accept what we are being told to believe.  Critical thinking requires open analysis and looking at things logically rather than through the rose-tinted spectacles of optimism and “all’s well” or, just as bad, peering through the gloomy light of pessimism and “nothing is right”.

Crises, Calamities and Catastrophes

All projects have their ups and downs and crises are inevitable.  If things aren’t going well these crises need to be dealt with by the Project Team.  However, and all too often, the warning signs are not recognised and the crisis develops, or rather, has been allowed to develop.  Early realisation and acceptance are essential and thinking that a crisis will handle itself is a naive misconception.

Crises do happen and oftentimes the same mistakes are repeated.  As the 20^th Century philosopher George Santayana said, “Those who do not know history’s mistakes are doomed to repeat them”.  In project management our ‘history’ is based on the lessons learned from previous projects by both individuals and organisations alike.  According to Cicero “Any man is liable to err, only a fool persists in error” and learning helps prevent foolishness when managing crises, history is not repeated and, hopefully, calamities are obviated.

However, calamities can and do happen.  They must be addressed, not by knee-jerk reaction or falling into the grief cycle but by critical analysis of the situation.  This will mean probing the Project Team who may well be full of excuses and reasons for the problem happening coupled with a lengthy list of other people to blame.  This human reaction must be ignored, and a logical, critical approach adopted to reach an optimal decision and avoid catastrophe.

Unfortunately, project catastrophes also happen, and project proponents need to look at what must be changed.  After all, the previous steps leading to this catastrophe were wrong and, short of a miracle, human intervention is required to decide upon the project’s destiny.  Churchill said, ‘When you’re going through hell, keep going’ but in order to keep going things need to change.  ‘Keeping going’ can mean changing the nature of the project and persisting or, alternatively, its abandonment.  These are the two ‘logical’ outcomes when deciding if a project is destined for failure or success.

Conclusion

Doris Day sang ‘what will be, will be’ but we can change destiny if we think critically about what can be done to change our man-made situations.  This requires us to abandon the human trait of optimism and hoping for the best while also avoiding pessimism and seeing gloom-and-doom at every turn.

If we blindly go through the motions of managing a project and believe that crises are predetermined then we do nothing.  However, with inaction our crises may be destined to become calamities leading to catastrophes ending up in disasters.

It has been said that we can be “Masters of our own destiny” but if we don’t master a situation and think about it critically we may well be branded as “Fools in charge of our own fate!’

Bio:

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.