How many of you have spent hours – maybe even weeks – on a project only to find the entire project changes, is set aside or is even canceled? Everyone. That’s what I thought.

Inevitably, tasks change and what was once a No. 1 priority at the office, gets bumped to No. 10 or falls off the list completely. In some cases it just can’t be helped. In other situations, better planning or management may have gotten the project back on track or recognized the problems earlier on. Employees often resent wasting time, energy and creativity on work that ends up on the cutting room floor. While they might tolerate that once or twice, repeatedly working on canned projects can cause anger, frustration and may cause some valuable employees to walk out the door.

This story from The Wall Street Journal and published in The (Myrtle Beach) Sun News offers this startling statistic: “A whopping 78 percent of 589 professionals and managers say they're now involved in at least one project they expect will fail to produce its advertised results, concludes a recent survey by VitalSmarts, a corporate-training firm in Provo, Utah. Another surprise finding: 61 percent say they knew an unsuccessful prior project would flop before its launch or soon after.”

Ouch.

How many failed projects has your office had? Is there a way to avoid wasting time on projects that either fail or are abandoned? How do you keep employees from feeling frustrated and undervalued in these situations?

Holly Fisher
Electronic Media Editor

Comments (1) >>

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
written by Teresa Cooper on June 08, 2007

Like many of the folks surveyed, I, too have spent hours burning the midnight oil, working on projects at the request of Board members or clients, only to have the project changed drastically or to have the results of the project completely ignored. As an employee, it is frustrating, and I counted the hours spent as "wasted". As a manager, I began to see that these situations are not completely avoidable. Life and business are dynamic - they change from moment to moment. In my experience, frequently work done on abandoned projects brought about new understanding or new processes that could later be used in the business cycle. What I learned as a manager is:

* to help employees see the positive applications of what they have done, even though the project itself may have failed or been abandoned,
* to promote open communication, appreciate everyone's perspective, and encourage employees to express their concerns and doubts about the viability or usefulness of a project, and
* to be aware of "self-fulfilling failure" mentality. If you think it's going to fail, it probably will fail. On the other hand, if you think it's going to succeed, it probably will!

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