Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
Improving Your Project (After the Fact)
Tom's latest eBook has been released on Amazon: "The 7 Myths of IT Integrations". Tom is also a Program Director for a large Midwest corporation and has been an adjunct faculty member at Walsh College. He has managed global web initiatives, data center moves and large multi-million dollar programs.
“I’ll tell you why the project was late! Nobody did what I told them to, when I told them to do it.”
Chances are this meeting is off to a bad start. It seems very few organizations today take the time to properly go through some type of a structured assessment exercise after a project is complete. In some companies, this is considered to be of little value, hardly worth spending time on after the face. “Besides,” they say, “There are 57 other urgent projects waiting to get started while the project team takes its time waltzing down memory lane congratulating itself. We have work to do!”
However, if you twist your perspective you just might be able to make project post-mortems an eagerly anticipated part of the project (okay, maybe at least a not-feared part).
A Public Hanging? Why Post-Mortems Fail
Project post-mortems/lessons-learned exercises can contribute incalculable benefits to a project and an organization. Not just the usual “How did things go so wrong?” drama, but from an incremental learning opportunity.
If you as a project manager intend to run the meeting for the sole purpose of smoking out the weakest link and to deal out a healthy dose of retribution on the spot (and publicly as a warning to others), then don’t send the invitation. Your team members are naturally …
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"Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself." - Charlie Chaplin |