On the Bright Side

Adriana Beal has spent the last 15 years helping Fortune 100 companies, innovation companies and startups build better software that solves the right problem and aligns with business strategy. Her current focus of work is customer development and product strategy for tech startups.

  Career Development   Change Management   Leadership   New Practitioners   ProjectsAtWork  

We’re good at scrutinizing problems, but many project managers and business analysts could do a better job of fostering positive change and improving future results by giving more attention to the “bright spots” on projects — those flashes of success that often go unnoticed when other things go wrong.

In 1950, Brazil hosted the fourth World Cup. Brazil's initial games earned the team an aura of invincibility. Sweden was demolished 7-1; Spain 6-1. When the team went into the final against Uruguay, Brazil's confidence was so high that victory was not only predicted but also confirmed in the press in the day before the final. Brazil scored the first goal, but lost 2-1, in what became known as the Fateful Final.

Brazil has never forgotten Ghiggia, the Uruguay player who scored the second goal. In his book “Futebol, the Brazilian way of life”, Alex Bellos tells the story of a visit Ghiggia made to Rio in 2000. At the airport's customs check, he handed over his passport to a female attendant in her early 20s. She took the passport and stared at it. Ghiggia asked if there was any problem. The young woman replied, “Are you the Ghiggia?” Ghiggia nodded, and said, “but 1950 was such a long time ago.” She put her hand on the chest and replied: “In Brazil we feel it in our hearts every day.”

In …

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