Why the right failure, failure you can learn and build from,
should be supported in the pursuit of progress
A notion I keep reading about and hearing at
IT industry events is that failure, in service
of achieving objectives, is OK. In certain
cases, such as in the pursuit of innovation, failure is encouraged, because
logic and experience tells us we can’t expect to know everything from the start
and we will glean valuable insights from failure. Terms such as “fail fast” and “iterate and adapt”
in the IT world are almost cliché today. I agree in the virtue of failure as part of
the pursuit of excellence. Because we learn from our failures, it makes sense
to include failure as part of the equation for execution on objectives. But here’s the rub - while it’s clearly part
of the equation related to project execution, allowing and accounting for failure has not gained a foothold as part of the
equation in project finance.
I was recently at a CFO technology roundtable
in Boston where the idea of allowing for failures in IT initiative delivery was
mentioned more than once. For example,
because Big Data is a relatively new competency, experimentation (trial and
error) often means that firms start in the wrong place, such as targeting analysis
before the data set has been defined and effectively architected. CFOs, for their part, are expected to be
efficient and never waste a dollar, if at all possible. Our finance brothers and sisters are working
without a net, so to speak. I’m sure they would find it more than a challenge
to share the story with their C-suite peers that, “Our discretionary technology
budget is 20% over forecast because we failed, and that’s OK.” Colleagues around the table would be shooting
daggers with their eyes and may be wondering if the messenger had lost their
marbles. Yet, it’s exactly the message
that I believe needs to be delivered, assuming there are meaningful learnings
and growth in execution that come from that failure.
Over the decades in IT, frameworks and best
practices have been developed, countless books have been published and the IT discipline
has evolved. Despite all of this, projects in today’s world continue to fail by
some serious measures (http://www.informationweek.com/it-leadership/why-tech-projects-fail-5-unspoken-reasons/d/d-id/1109399?). Why?
Because projects are difficult to deliver.
Team dynamics, location and individual personalities, along with complex
technology, lofty objectives and tight timelines, make project delivery challenging.
I’d hazard a guess that most firms live somewhere between “so-so” and “adept” on the Success Spectrum (above) and I’m sure we all fall short of “perfection.” Maybe I’m the only one not in on the joke. But assuming I’m not, I feel that the right to fail is often more words than actions. It sounds righteous in a speech or as part of an event panelist response, but the words are empty because very few who hold leadership roles have built to bridge connecting execution expectations to financial expectations. I submit it’s time to build some measure of failure into projects’ financial expectations.
I’d hazard a guess that most firms live somewhere between “so-so” and “adept” on the Success Spectrum (above) and I’m sure we all fall short of “perfection.” Maybe I’m the only one not in on the joke. But assuming I’m not, I feel that the right to fail is often more words than actions. It sounds righteous in a speech or as part of an event panelist response, but the words are empty because very few who hold leadership roles have built to bridge connecting execution expectations to financial expectations. I submit it’s time to build some measure of failure into projects’ financial expectations.
Of course, every firm’s leadership team is
free to chart the course of their organization.
My goal is not to say that every firm needs to adopt the notion of
allowing for failure in execution. But when
it comes to project delivery, since often times we are blind to many variables,
the right failure, which you can learn and build from, should continue to be
encouraged in the pursuit of progress. This
idea needs to be carried throughout the entire organization to reap the real
benefits of the virtue of failure. That
includes accounting for failure in project finance. Establishing exactly how to account for
failure within a firm should be based on some aspects of how the firm operates. But some simple ingredients may include:
·
Performing and up
front, honest assessment across the people, process, and technology aspects being
applied for the particular project
o
Are people
over-allocated? Do they have the experience within the project domain? Do they
understand the technologies involved?
o
Does the firm do well
within certain processes, for example product management, but not as well with others
like compliance initiatives?
o
Is the technology new:
To the firm? To the industry? Will the
firm will be early adopters?
·
With that, there could
be a unique failure quotient
established for every project and that could be used as a measure to apply a percentage
to quantify how much spend can be reasonably
applied in the pursuit of excellence that I mention above
What do you think?
Further
Insight:
·
For a more
comprehensive summary of the CFO Roundtable event, check out this article from
Nicole Laskowski from Tech Target: http://searchcio.techtarget.com/opinion/CFOs-get-schooled-on-hope-and-hype-of-big-data-analytics
·
Also, there are several
perspectives out there on the virtues of failure. Here are a few highlights:
o
“Encourage senior
leaders to support some risk and failure from employees as a way to foster more
innovative ideas. Executives also should ensure that workers are clear about
the rules and processes already in place to drive collaboration.” http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/columnist/bruzzese/2014/01/05/on-the-job-encourage-innovation/4285947/
o
“Instead, innovation
should follow a more scientific process. ‘It's about having a hypothesis, and
testing it,’ he says. ‘If the results don't match your hypothesis, you've
got data. If the results do match your hypothesis, then you have a discovery.’ A lot of the time, businesses don't stumble on the right path until
they've gone down a few wrong ones. Figuring out what works means you have
to shut a lot of ideas and projects down. That can demoralize people. The best
way to soften the blow is to have everyone in the right state of mind.” http://www.businessinsider.com/why-fail-fast-isnt-good-advice-2013-11
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