The Truth Always Comes Out

I’m told that the first sign of madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I paraphrase a quote from Albert Einstein here, who passed away in 1955 yet 67-years later we still don’t take real notice of such a simple philosophy.

This rant is focused on a work culture and how despite always aiming to learn from lessons on past projects (good or bad) we rarely take notice. We actually conduct ‘lessons learned’ sessions at the start of projects to analyse where these ‘opportunities’ are and sometimes take them on board but far too often the same mistakes are made again and again. At the end of projects we also like ‘post-mortem’ sessions to dissect the ‘pros and cons’ of what worked and what didn’t. Not sure why we use such morbid language in my industry but I guess it all adds to the drama.

Without going into specifics, the project I’m currently working on has a schedule, which is driven primarily by the never ending global ‘escalation’ pandemic, which doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. Ultimately, ‘order by this date or we’re gonna drill your a**e to the wall!’ Deadlines are usually stressful but when the penalty for missing a deadline date (or ‘drop-dead’ dates as we prefer to call them - more drama) incurs huge financial costs, it definitely ups the ante and you don’t want to be the guy who is at fault for it. In short, the project I’ve been working on for 3-months has very quickly had the enjoyment removed and replaced with the overarching mantra to ‘cover your a**e at all times!’

Some will say this is how all projects are, and they’d be right, hence why it might be time to change something. We always like to look at the origins of issues and use buzz phrases like ‘route cause analysis’ (anyones whose done their PMP will probably be thinking of a ‘fishbone diagram’ now…P*** OFF!) You don’t actually need to waste your hard earned PM status on drawing a carp fossil, as usually it’s quite simple. Someone, somewhere has sold someone a story they want to hear so they can lock down a commitment (a budget or schedule for example), puff their chest out and move onto the next Billy Bulls****** on another project. It’s much like one of those one-time dates you have where you tell someone what they want to hear to get back to theirs before bailing early in the morning, never to be seen again. While they’re off bed-hopping, we’re left ‘holding the baby’ if you like trying to make that BS honest…in some cases it might actually be easier to walk across water…bet JC didn’t have these problems… That said, I’m sure someone will be nailed to a metaphorical cross at the end…

My point about this rant is, why can’t we just be more honest in industries and stop compromising the aforementioned ‘babysitters’ (who weren’t privy to that fairytale you told) who will have to live through the inevitable s*** storm that will prevail.

The finger pointing has already begun and everyone’s putting together their ‘narratives’ as to how we got here…without mentioning the actual reason (see above). This is how Politicians and spokespersons live their lives, dreaming up nice stories, which hopefully people will buy to protect the real culprit, who for political, financial or status reasons is protected from accountability. This could be a Client, President or a CEO.

In the meantime, the troops on the ground who are now accountable are left trying to make it work before the BS thrown at the wall starts to slide off and the truth is revealed. Ultimately, the troops, as it were are left stressed, over-worked, overwhelmed and spending their free time thinking about those nonsense deadlines and in my case ranting and dreaming about it.

Often we talk about mental health and peoples wellbeing yet people still create situations, time and time again, which will create very stressful environments and tension between people, as they work to avoid culpability once the ‘blame culture’, begins. We try to tell ourselves we can work through it by taking a ‘collaborative approach’ but having worked on so many projects where such an approach has crashed and burned, I can usually spot BS on day one now.

We do this time and time again to win work because if we claim unable to walk on water or have the ability to reverse the Earths rotation, then some bigger bulls****** down the street will. I understand the reality of living in a ‘dog-eat-dog’ world but when is enough enough?

Usually what happens is, you offer one story, get in the door and then the truth slowly trickles out and that price and timeframe you promised is exposed as utter BS. Someone once told me once you’re in bed with someone it’s very difficult to get out and this seems to be the logic on most projects, that once you’re in (the bed) you’re not getting kicked out.

In conclusion, I usually find if you’re open and honest from the get go, people respect you more for it, as people appreciate honesty. As the truth soon comes out and people realise they’ve been deceived, and more money and time is required, your reputation may be compromised as you become known as a late deliverer who incurs additional costs, which is something nobody wants.

Someone once told me that some people will run through a brick wall for you. However, it seems in life when there’s an unlocked door in said wall, we still choose to run through the wall…or of course at least commit to someone we will…