Do you see the warning signs?
I was recently clearing out some old files and came across a list I made fifteen years ago.
It’s a collection of ‘warning signs’ – those subtle (or not-so-subtle) signals that the complexity in a project is getting out of hand.
I shared it with a few people, and it is telling how relevant the list still is:
Project team is hopeful but can’t explain why they are on track
No agreement on what defines done
Lots of reasonable excuses for why things can’t be delivered
Two camps, each complaining about the other
Continuously working long hours (not having ups and downs)
Level of negativity increases as you head towards a deadline
Lots of urgent and important things to do
Focusing on the contract while the world is changing
I ask questions and get answers I don’t understand
End date moves out as fast as you move through the project
Risks are not reducing or being removed from the risk register
Lots of surprises in a release
Project team not providing options, just requesting a time extension
More than 9 months between releases
Relying on ‘silver bullets’ to get everything back on track
They also added a few extras:
16. Executives doing all the thinking
17. Stakeholders are unclear on what is happening
This list isn’t just imagined, all of them come from lived experience.
Despite the passing of decades, we still seem to make the same mistakes. Even with all the amazing project frameworks like Praxis and books such as How Big Things Get Done and Creativity Inc, we still see similar modes of failure.
The point of this article isn’t to have a comprehensive ’15 signs your project is going bad’ list, but rather to point out that you probably already know when things aren’t going well. That gut feeling is your best indicator.
Why do we ignore what feels true?
If you have a project that goes off the rails, it’s often because our sensory system (our ability to see, hear, and feel the problems) isn't working well. It’s not necessarily a governance failure. It's often a failure to trust ourselves.
Can’t see the signs: Our system isn't designed to produce or pick up on those weak, early signals.
Continuation bias: It just feels too expensive to change course, so we continue, hoping things will magically get better.
Signals are muted: The bad news is being actively hidden. This usually comes from a lack of trust in the environment you’ve created.
Don’t recognise the significance: Most people can feel when things are off, but we don’t trust that intuition when the project team is saying everything will be okay.
If something in the project feels off, trust that you are probably on to something. A friend of mine would always say, “You know when the project is going bad, the numbers just tell you by how much”.
If you don’t know what to do about it, talk to someone. Find a trusted person for your journey and work through what you see. Don’t just rely on the normal governance process because there is every chance it could be complicit in the situation.
The warning signs that you feel come from your knowing. Trust your gut.
If it feels wrong, it probably is.
So, what else would you add to the list?
