So far, we have seen Rome's rise to glory, and its gradual decline and fall. So what really was it that ultimately caused the fall of Rome? Was it bad leadership? The division of the Empire? Plague? Ineffective leaders? Civil war? Growth? Barbarians? Strategic mistakes? In a sense, it was all of the above.
Ineffective leadership certainly played a major role. Rome had always had its share of bad emperors (Caligula, Nero, and Commodus being good examples). Fortunately, there were usually good emperors to correct their errors. In the end, however, good leaders were at a premium. In fact, toward the end, great leaders were often killed, as they presented a threat to the emperor. This not only deprived Rome of good leadership, but depleted the army of good generals as well.
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Due to the ineffective leadership--and through ther shortsightedness of the emperors, who did not consider the will or the perspective of the people--there was a lack of loyalty or sense of purpose by the citizens of Rome. This was made worse by the poor economy and high taxes. As a result, Rome had to rely on foreign soldiers. No longer were Roman armies inspired or dedicated to a common goal. This was exacerbated by the fact that the Roman Empire itself was divided in half.
On top of that, plague was running rampant around this time. When you combine ineffective leadership, divisiveness, plague and lack of dedication, it does not make for a good, cohesive, motivated fighting force, and it's only a matter of time before complete and total breakdown occurs.
One may argue that the growth of Rome made all of this inevitable, but it's more likely that a lack of leadership and vision is to blame, especially in the later years. The basic leadership skills in terms of motivation, diplomacy, compassion and planning for scalability, all such a huge part of the success of prior leaders, was no longer there. Such thinking perhaps could have enabled Rome to remain stable.
So how does this apply to modern day project management? First, it reiterates our earlier point about insuring that your team is dedicated to the mission. Find out their concerns, their needs. Make sure their needs are being met, and at the same time, insure that your needs are met by properly selling and positioning the project.
We can use the loss of people and morale due to plague in ancient Rome as an analogy to the mental and physical health of your team. Don't burn out your people with excessive overtime. Encourage them to keep a balance in their life (which again takes us back to Stephen Covey's seventh habit of "sharpening the saw"). Take an interest in their family life and in their health.
Don't allow divisiveness to break up your team. Abraham Lincoln was right when he said, "A house divided cannot stand." Time and time again, history has shown that divided leadership inevitably leads to potential conflicts and ultimate failure. Likewise, there can only be one project manager. Certainly, as a project manager, you must confer with your stakeholders, but ultimately you are responsible for the outcome of the project. Like the team itself, all project leaders reporting to the project manager should be sold on the mission, have a clear understanding of the objectives and should be working in concert with the project manager.
Understand cultural differences and treat people fairly. The two major uprisings by the Visigoths were a result of being treated unfairly. Ultimately, the struggle between the Romans and the barbarians in general boiled down to a lack of tolerance and understanding for one another's cultural lifestyle. Augustus understood this and was able to maintain peace with the barbarians. If the later emperors were able to identify a win-win solution, they may have been able to not only coexist peacefully, but also work together to achieve common goals. In addition, conflict management skills would have enabled them to better settle conflicts when they did arise (for, what is war, if not conflict?).
Finally, be sure to plan for growth. That is, plan for the ongoing ease of use and maintenance of the product of your project. Consider the entire product lifecycle, not just the project lifecycle. Otherwise, later problems with the product can virtually undo all of the great efforts made during what appeared to be a highly successful project.
To summarize the lessons learned from the fall of Rome:
Up Next
In our next and last installment, we will summarize the lessons from our long journey, which will serve as both a review and hopefully as a tool to refer to on a regular basis.
Jerry Manas, PMP, is an IT professional with more than 25 years of consulting and employment experience with a focus on project management, team building, training and PMO development. He has managed and consulted on projects of all sizes, from small development projects to large global initiatives, for both small and Fortune 500 organizations. He is currently writing a book, titled Napoleon on Project Management: Timeless Lessons in Planning, Execution, and Leadership (expanding on his Napoleon series published in gantthead).
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