No Such thing as “can’t”

Originally posted on the ProjExc Project Excellence Blog on 29-Sep-08

Parents are constantly enabling the beliefs of their youngsters, by helping them to understand that they can achieve their goals and aspirations, they just may not yet have learnt how to.

As one gets older this remains true, whilst there is another block to success that grows. We start to choose not to do the things that can help us to achieve our goals. We make conscious choices in our lives that become obstacles to our own success. This is something that we see again and again in business, and it is all too often encountered in project management.

At a global level we see far too much evidence of the “can’t do culture“. For example we see this in the government reported statistics on project failures which have remained at the ludicrously high levels (65%+). Why as a business community is this accepted?

There is an argument individual failures have been accepted in the last decade as a result of it being masked by the continuing growth of business. Of course if that growth is challenged (say in times of a credit crunch or worse) customer satisfaction; operational efficiency; profitability; return on investment, and cash flow become increasingly important. We are talking to clients now who at very senior levels are seeing or demanding much more pressure on project success – i.e. meeting their objectives.

This is also true in broader programme management where there is increasing pressure to ensure that individual project deliverables are combined to create business capability and ultimately realise benefits from those capabilities. We must believe that a programme can succeed when we commence. As we move from belief to delivery, it is critical that basic elements for success are considered and defined at the outset, and then monitored. These elements include business strategy, benefits, risks, issues, resourcing, scope control as well as timeframes.

At ProjExc we have the systems, skills and experience to help. We can support your success by guiding your organisation in how you can do it for yourself, or by providing 1st class programme and project managers on a full or part-time basis. Whether you need an independent view on a plan, support in facilitating and defining your business strategy, someone to quickly create a best of breed PMO, or the help of a project troubleshooter, ProjExc are the team that CAN!