Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting to get different results is a definition of madness. Large organisations do this over and over again so they must be super mad. They employ the same consultancies who have previously failed to deliver projects for them before. In fact the consultancies may be on a 'preferred suppliers list'. It is like a person would create a 'preferred muggers list' where you know there will be a painful outcome but they are local and you are familiar with them and like the gang leader.
Let us set the scene and try to understand why completing projects or 'delivering solutions' is so difficult, expensive and has a high failure rate. The failure rate remains frustratingly high regardless of methodology, technology and industry. Each year produces further eye-catching numbers of cost and time overruns on government projects, large infrastructure projects and software projects. Large projects are often abandoned with a waste of shareholders and taxpayers money.
There is no shortage of books, training and certifications so it cannot be a lack of knowledge. Is it too much knowledge? Are we trying to make the project activities into fine dining or something scientific when what we need are simple instructions that can be adapted as need. We need cooks and not chefs.
The failure rate indicates that we don't learn our lessons. How ironic. Each time I hear a public figure on television saying lessons should be learned then I know they are either lazy, a liar or stupid. I think that apart from very basic behaviour e.g. don't hit your colleague, don't take drugs at the desk, football shirts are inappropriate for client meetings - that 'lessons learned' are a waste of time and energy. The people who want to change and improve will copy role models, read books, go to the gym or quit drinking to be the version of themselves that they want to be next. There is no final version but a work in progress and there may be further changes in the pipeline.
From observation I have a suspicion that 'Lessons Learned Reviews' have a negative effect on future performance. They are a therapy session except the discussion of the issues results in the behaviours being reinforced and baked in to the psyche of the team. The team unconsciously do the same thing as they think they have been forgiven for the current mistakes they have made and are free to go and sin again. Sometimes they copy the mistakes of other people in the team and make new mistakes that they never would have made until they heard about them. Projects, towards the end, need the service of a Priest as well as a Project Manager. He can hear the confession and forgive them.
Organisations are looking for a repeatable process. Every time you see expressions like 'Project In A Box' or 'Bank In a Box' the idea behind it is that there is a basic framework that can do things quickly with no frills. However, things change. Every year there will be new tools, frameworks and techniques that are promoted as simpler, easier, faster and almost compatible with standards. It's not possible to repeat a process or a project unless the architecture, technology, the client and the team are identical. This does happen but even on small projects of less than 10 people it is a challenge because people don't want to do the same things over and over again. You can't step in the same river twice no matter how slowly it is flowing.
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