Published
I have almost completed my review of the Associations archive of reports; over 250 extremely detailed documents generated from the outputs of the speakers, the panelists and the delegates at our programme of seminars stretching back 40 years. Once I have reviewed the final 10 reports early next year, I will take a look at some of the common themes and the projects and programmes that the reports highlight. But for my final blog of 2022, I thought I’d pick up on an overall impression I have gained through this whole activity, which is that major projects, all come down to choice; informed choice or ill-informed choice, I’ll grant you, but ultimately, we choose to do what we believe in.
This sense was reinforced by some freelance work I undertook recently which involved finding and collating open access examples of strategic outline business cases on the internet. One of the great things about doing something like this is it forces me to look in a focused way at things that I may have previously simply taken for granted. The result was almost universally depressing since the majority of the documents I found talked a good talk and used all the ‘right’ language but ultimately signified nothing at all. The justification for the projects they described was a hotch-potch of technical and economic jargon that was mashed together to fill the space. Which led me to the conclusion that the people who were initiating these projects were choosing to do so because they believed in them, rather than because there was any overwhelming logic behind the justification.
Looked at through that perspective, I think there are a number of lessons, which are also generally born out by the findings of the reports.
- Since major projects are always a balance between different requirements and different stakeholders; the solution we adopt is never definitively right or wrong, it is just a matter of choice;
- Information and data of all kinds can be very useful (if we can synthesize it) in helping us to make an informed choice but no amount of data or analytics will ever replace the need to choose;
- Once you accept the premise that this is a choice, it makes it much easier to articulate and subsequently reflect on success. I drew this conclusion from my comparison of the two good outline business cases I found, with the many poor (and very poor) ones all expressing objectives in arcane, jargon rich terms, but which begged the question ‘but how will you know if you have achieved that.’
- A choice that is willingly made is empowering and a choice that is shared and embraced by stakeholders is motivating. If I believe in your project then it matters to me and it is shot through with purpose. Mark Wilde talked very engagingly about this idea of making your project matter, in our recent podcast on systems thinking.
- If choice is what lies behind the initiation of a major project (and our choice of how it is delivered) then, maybe our lack of dissatisfaction with the outcome of so many of them, is not a failure of delivery but rather a reflection either of a poor choice in the first instance, or perhaps a case of decision remorse.