Lessons From the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire (Part 1)

  Lessons Learned  

I have always hated history. That may sound like an odd statement from someone who is making a habit out of writing project management articles based on history (as readers of my series on Napoleon can attest to). But it's true--at least in the context that it has all too often been taught in schools.

All through school, the history classes I've taken were focused on dates and battles that we'd memorize by rote, and not on the circumstances or events that caused the conflict (the root cause), nor on the lessons to be learned from what happened. Therefore, the events were neither memorable nor relevant to me.

It was not until years later, after doing extensive travel to Europe, that I became interested in history out of sheer curiosity. And it was not until I began to study the principles of project management that I began to see the true value of history--that is to profit from the errors (and the successes) of the past.

Profiting from the past is a critical part of both project planning and risk management. It can also bring to light the full socio-economic implications of actions, which ties to the project management realm of professional ethics and responsibility.

If one were to force me to divulge my favorite word in the English vocabulary, it would have to be the word "why." I was never very concerned about the where or when of things, or even the details …

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