“Do you really think it’s luck?” I asked.
“I know, it’s not luck,” Vicki replied. “But it seems that every project is different. And the reason that a project goes south, seems to be different every time.”
“So, when projects are predictable, they are more likely to be profitable?”
“Yes, but there is always some variable on the project that drains the schedule, or adds cost,” Vicki pondered.
“So, if you could remove the variability, anticipate the variability or at least have a well planned contingency when things don’t go right, profit might not be as affected?” I pressed.
“But there is always that unanticipated wingnut that comes in sideways and screws things up. If we could just do a better job, seeing into the future, imagining what could go wrong. If we could just figure out what the problems might be.”
“So, you think the problem is a what? You are going about this asking, what’s the problem?”
Vicki stopped talking, so she could think. “Are you suggesting the problem may not be a what, that the problem might be a who?”
In my experience, this almost never happens. In fact, the opposite is true–the moment something goes wrong, people start pointing fingers, whether at themselves or others or both, and fail to look for the root cause of the issue if they can find someone to satisfactorily blame. No?