Recoverying From Mistakes

Carla Fair-Wright, PMP, MCTS, ASQ CSQE

It's Not Personal:
How to Recover from Mistakes and Keep the
Project Moving
P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
12520 Westheimer Road, Suite A1-142 | www.opc-houston.com 12520 Westheimer Road, Suite
A1-142, Houston, TX, 77077
| www.opc-houston.com

Houston, TX, 77077
Optimal Consulting LLC

Who Am I?
Carla Fair-Wright, PMP, CSQE, MCTS

• Project Manager
• Software Engineer
• Veteran
• Author
• Entrepreneur
• Volunteer

P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
12520 Westheimer Road, Suite
A1-142, Houston, TX, 77077


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

P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908

A1-142, Houston, TX, 77077


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
French invasion of Russia
Memory is unreliable.... (Patriotic War of 1812)

Rosy retrospection

Mistakes are unavoidable.

Perception is Economical

.

P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
A1-142, Houston, TX, 77077


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.

P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
A1-142, Houston, TX, 77077


Project Management – 10 Common Mistakes
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

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

P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
A1-142, Houston, TX, 77077


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.

P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
A1-142, Houston, TX, 77077


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

P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
A1-142, Houston, TX, 77077


Mistakes #3 - Ignoring Problems

Why Did Japan's Leaders Ignore the 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

P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
A1-142, Houston, TX, 77077


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

P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
A1-142, Houston, TX, 77077


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)

P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
A1-142, Houston, TX, 77077


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).

P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
A1-142, Houston, TX, 77077


Mistakes #7 - Not Fully Understanding Requirements

Using your own interpretation of the
requirements

P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
A1-142, Houston, TX, 77077


Mistakes #8 - Refusing to Ask for Help/Believing in
Saviors and Miracles

Project Success

Schedule Cost
Slippages Overruns

P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
A1-142, Houston, TX, 77077


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

P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
A1-142, Houston, TX, 77077


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/

P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
A1-142, Houston, TX, 77077


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

P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
A1-142, Houston, TX, 77077


Learning from Our Mistakes
“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

Acknowledge your mistake.

Giving Excuses is a signal.

Explain what happened and why.

P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
A1-142, Houston, TX, 77077


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

P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
A1-142, Houston, TX, 77077


Learning from Our Mistakes - Dialing Triple R

‘Focused For Tennis’, Slaieu & Trogolo

P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
A1-142, Houston, TX, 77077


Learning from Our Mistakes - Release


P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
A1-142, Houston, TX, 77077


Learning from Our Mistakes - Review

Where are we?
Should we change our approach ?
Is this the right game plan?

P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
A1-142, Houston, TX, 77077


Learning from Our Mistakes - Reset

What is the next action.

Powerful cue word or cue phrase.

‘get up’, ‘focus’, ‘moving on’, and ‘fix it’.


P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
A1-142, Houston, TX, 77077


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?

P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
A1-142, Houston, TX, 77077


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 Gary Alexander Neville - England's most capped right-back
and was Manchester United's club captain for five years
we mean when we talk about
experience in a football
team.”
~Gary Alexander Neville

P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
A1-142, Houston, TX, 77077


Thank you

P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
Optimal Consulting LLC 12520 Westheimer Road, Suite | www.opc-houston.com
P:800.723.6120 F: 800.547.4908
A1-142, Houston, TX, 77077
12520 Westheimer Road, Suite A1-142
Houston, TX, 77077

Recoverying From Mistakes

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