Download - Recoverying From Mistakes
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It's Not Personal: How to Recover from Mistakes and Keep the
Project Moving
www.opc-houston.com | P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
12520 Westheimer Road, Suite A1-142
Houston, TX, 77077
Carla Fair-Wright, PMP, MCTS, ASQ CSQE
P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
12520 Westheimer Road, Suite
A1-142, Houston, TX, 77077
www.opc-houston.com | Optimal Consulting LLC
Who Am I?
Carla Fair-Wright, PMP, CSQE, MCTS
• Project Manager
• Software Engineer
• Veteran
• Author
• Entrepreneur
• Volunteer
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12520 Westheimer Road, Suite
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www.opc-houston.com | Optimal Consulting LLC
Table of Contents
Section Section Name Slide No.
1. Why We Make Mistakes 4
2. Project Management – 10 Most Common Mistakes 6
3. Learning from Our Mistakes - Dialing Triple R 18
4. Thank You 26
Optimal Consulting LLC
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Why We Make Mistakes
Status Quo Bias
It's hard to change because it involves more
effort and we want to avoid regretting our
decision
Memory is unreliable....
Rosy retrospection
Mistakes are unavoidable.
Perception is Economical
.
French invasion of Russia
(Patriotic War of 1812)
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Mistakes Can Make You Smarter
The brain responds to mistakes in one of two
ways
“Wake Up Call"
The brain hones in on the negative outcome,
and treats it like a problem that needs solving.
“Shutting Down”
The brain reacts to the negative feedback itself
as a threat.
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Project Management – 10 Common Mistakes
20 Common Mistakes Made by New or Inexperienced Project Managers. By Harold Kerzner, Ph.D. http://www.iil.com/freeresources/downloads/white_papers/20_common_mistakes_HK_0310.pdf
1. Preparing an Ambitious Schedule
2. Pretending to Know More than You Actually Do
3. Ignoring Problems
4. Failing to Share Accountability with Functional Managers
5. Gold-plating the Deliverables
6. Failing to Understand What Stakeholders and Sponsors Want to Hear
7. Not Fully Understanding Requirements
8. Refusing to Ask for Help/Believing in Saviors and Miracles
9. Don’t Tell the Client They are Wrong/ Not Willing to Say “No”
10.Failing to Insulate the Team from Politics
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Mistakes #1 - Preparing an Ambitious Schedule
“Customers are never told that
the schedule is ambitious and
therefore believe the schedule
is realistic. The customers
then focus on the milestone
dates and now, when the
milestones slip from ambitious
to reality, you have an unhappy
customer who wonders what
other surprises will show up
next.” - Harold Kerzner, Ph.D.
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Mistakes #2 - Pretending to Know More than You
Actually Do
“…project managers today possess
an understanding of technology
rather than a command of
technology…” - Harold Kerzner, Ph.D.
©2010 Project Management Institute (PMI®) & International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA®)
Published as part of Proceedings PMI Global Congress 2010 – Washington, DC
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Mistakes #3 - Ignoring Problems
•Fear Of:
• Creating a bad impression.
• Being “found wanting”.
• Making the wrong decision.
• Failure.
The damaged roof of reactor No. 1 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after
an explosion that blew off the upper part of the structure is seen
Why Did Japan's Leaders Ignore the Problems?
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Mistakes #4 - Failing to Share Accountability with
Functional Managers
PMs should negotiate for deliverables
rather than people.
Both PMs and FMs have accountability
and responsibility for the project’s
success.
Executive support may be needed
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Mistakes #5 - Gold Plating the Deliverables
What is “Gold Plating”
Extra functionality
Higher-quality components,
Extra scope of work or better performance.
PMI does not recommend
No value to the project.
Additions based on the PM/FM impression of what the customer would like.
(, Exam Prep Guide, 2nd Edition, Beaver’s Pond Press, 2000, page 95)
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Mistakes #6 - Failing to Understand What
Stakeholders and Sponsors Want to Hear
Interview the stakeholders to
learn what information they
deem as important.
Tracking metrics or key
performance indicators (KPI).
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Mistakes #7 - Not Fully Understanding Requirements
Using your own interpretation of the
requirements
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Mistakes #8 - Refusing to Ask for Help/Believing in
Saviors and Miracles
Project Success
Schedule
Slippages
Cost
Overruns
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Mistakes #9 - Don’t Tell the Client They are Wrong/
Not Willing to Say “No”
It all in how You Say It
•Goal is not to alienate stakeholders
•Give a logical reason
•Offer an alternative if possible
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4 Types of Clients
12 Breeds of Clients and How to Work with Them - Jack Knight | Dealing with Clients | The Lighter Side | June 7th 2012
http://freelanceswitch.com/clients/12-breeds-of-client-and-how-to-work-with-them/
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Mistakes #10 - Failing to Insulate the Team from
Politics
Your team is the most important resource you have.
Team should operate as a unit.
A great way to gain the respect of your team is to protect it from
negative outside influences such as politics
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Learning from Our Mistakes
Acknowledge your mistake.
Giving Excuses is a signal.
Explain what happened and why.
“Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself; he must
act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him.”
Quoted from Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, (1749 to 1832), the great German writer, and playwright
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Three Steps to Acknowledging Your Mistakes
1. Say: "Here's what happened ...“
2. Summarize the faulty decision(s) and declare: "I'm accountable
for this."
3. Extract a lesson for the future - You might add, "I'm sharing this
with you so that we can all learn from my mistake."
Bette Price, president of the Price Group
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Learning from Our Mistakes - Dialing Triple R
‘Focused For Tennis’, Slaieu & Trogolo
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Learning from Our Mistakes - Release
‘Focused For Tennis’, Slaieu & Trogolo
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Learning from Our Mistakes - Review
‘Focused For Tennis’, Slaieu & Trogolo
Where are we?
Should we change our approach ?
Is this the right game plan?
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Learning from Our Mistakes - Reset
‘Focused For Tennis’, Slaieu & Trogolo
What is the next action.
Powerful cue word or cue phrase.
‘get up’, ‘focus’, ‘moving on’, and ‘fix it’.
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Can Mistakes Be Avoided?
Design products (or systems) to block the errors.
Why does a electrical plug have 3 prongs and why is one prong wider than
the other?
What is that hole in the center all about?
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In Conclusion…..
“I developed a mechanism so
that whatever mistakes I
made, I would bounce
straight back. Whatever was
happening off the pitch, I
could put it to one side
and maintain my form.
Call it mental resilience or
a strong mind, but that is what
we mean when we talk about
experience in a football
team.”
~Gary Alexander Neville
Gary Alexander Neville - England's most capped right-back
and was Manchester United's club captain for five years
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P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
12520 Westheimer Road, Suite A1-142
Houston, TX, 77077
Thank you
Optimal Consulting LLC