Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

People make mistakes. Some mistakes lead to a complete collapse of groups of people. When large, well connected groups fail, others suffer. This happens in national and international economies. It also happens on projects involving only a few persons. There are things that project managers can do to contain the damage from local failure. Nations may not be able to do such, but nations can provide lessons for project managers.

I like George Will’s editorial from last week on the power of the weak. He was discussing how GM and Greece, just two recent examples as there are many more, were “weak” economically. They were both at the point of collapse and financial default. In the weakness, however, they had great power. GM and Greece at least convinced others that they great power.

If GM were to go bankrupt, its employees would be out of jobs, stop paying taxes, and be a drain on government programs. Likewise, its assets would clog the market and reduce the value of similar property held by others. If the Federal government were to allow GM to fail, the government would suffer grave consequences. Current elected officials believed this story and gave GM tens of billions of dollars. In a similar manner, if the government of Greece were to default on its obligations, the Euro currency would drop and all nations using the Euro – almost all of Europe – would suffer. The current elected officials in the rest of Europe believed this story and gave Greece tens of billions of Euros.

I include the phrases “the current elected officials…believed this story and” because these are stories – not facts. They are estimates, and we often forget that estimates are merely our attempt to predict the future – an endeavor that routinely fails. What is more, these are economics stories, and economics is a “science” where all experiments have a sample size of one. No other science is allowed to practice with such a meager sampling.

Nevertheless, these weak organizations held power over the strong ones. There cry was simple,

If you let me fail, I will pull you down,

and

Oh by the way, you have more to lose through my failure than I.

In our current world, those who have give to those who are failing. At times, this seems to be a fanatical desire to keep another person from suffering the consequences of their mistakes. These suffering people are adults, but we don’t want to treat them like adults because, well because we find pleasure in treating them like children instead of adults.

Writing about this situation is difficult for me. I am a Christian, and one of the tenets of Christianity is to help those who are suffering. I give to those who have less than myself.  I do so privately and I do so at large rates via government redistribution. I wish government was more efficient at this redistribution, but waste and fraud seem to be an inherent part of the soul of government. Nevertheless, I give money and time and talent and so on privately.

Still, there are times that I have to ask myself,

Is giving a way to help someone or a way to prolong and encourage their suffering?

Mistakes leading to failure hurt. Mistakes can teach lessons that stay with a person for the remainder of his life. And, as we see today with GM, Greece, and many others, mistakes by one person can lead to pain in other persons nearby who through prudence have avoided the mistakes.

As a side note, I find humor in the efforts of some elected officials in America who craft laws that will make mistakes illegal.

This all leads back to the topic of project management. If one team on a large project makes plenty of mistakes, falls behind schedule, and runs over their budget, the failure of that team can damage the rest of the project. The other teams on the project are on track for success, but the weak team has the power to ruin everyone else. The cries from the failing team are:

If you let me fail, I will pull you down,

and

Oh by the way, you have more to lose through my failure than I.

If only the project leadership had mandated that mistakes were not allowed; if only the project leadership had written enough procedure, mistakes would not occur.

I believe that good procedures (documented, taught, and used) reduce the probability of project-ruining mistakes. I don’t believe that such procedures are sufficient. What is more powerful is personal oversight, mentoring, advice, reserves, and other things that come from a relationship of trust.

People make mistakes. Accept that. Try to create a situation in projects where the mistakes of some cannot negate the diligence of others. That is possible to do on projects.

Politics, national economies, and international economies are different situations. I don’t know if we can apply the same before-the-mistakes-are-made strategies. I do know that we can learn from the power of the weak.