Seth Godin wrote a little post this morning about digging holes for ourselves. And he’s quite right – we do!

In a project management context we dig holes when;

  1. We don’t address project issues as they arise in a timely manner.
  2. We don’t have a closed project scope.
  3. We havn’t relayed to the customer correctly what they will be getting out of the project.
  4. We under-quoted to get the job and are now trying to do things on the cheap.
  5. We havn’t the right resources on the project.
  6. We don’t apply lessons learned from previous projects to the latest ones.

We all have the things we don’t address when we encounter them before, during or after a project implementation.

But why don’t we address project management issues quickly?

Personally, I feel that this is mostly about fear.

  • Fear of not getting the job in the first place.
  • Fear of displeasing the customer if we don’t jump over ourselves to deliver the world.
  • Fear of creating a bad impression with the boss.
  • Fear of being “found wanting”.
  • Fear of making the wrong decision.
  • Fear of failure.

This is human nature. It’s natural to fear what can and does go wrong.

But fear simply makes a small hole bigger.. and bigger….

Better to stick your head above the parapet and make the touch calls when they are necessary. Hiding issues is simply delaying the inevitable and in the longer term can actually make them much larger.

Protect against fear within the project team by ensuring that they have;

  • A feeling of openness and the ability to express themselves without fear of retribution.
  • Iron tight processes for delivering a project.
  • A “people orientated” project manager who can handle team, customer and senior management alike.

There are, I’m sure, lots more ways of ensuring that issues get dealt with quickly so those big holes don’t get dug.

What would you add to the list?