The Insider Lens is a weekly newsletter on leadership, risk, and delivery in public sector projects. Get practical insight every Friday — sign up here.
Earlier this week, my interview on the We Love PMO podcast dropped (which you can listen to on Spotify or Apple), and it really prompted some reflection.
We discussed lots of reasons why public sector projects encounter so many challenges, and why they so often fail to deliver what everyone wanted.
Some of those reasons are just the sheer size and complexity of the project – after all, it can’t be easy constructing a hydroelectric dam expected to generate power for millions of people!
And some reasons are due to the competing interests of the political leaders, citizens, community groups, and even different agencies within the government.
A huge part of it, though – I might even argue the biggest hindrance – is because leaders don’t even really think about what risk management is.
We Only Respect Risk When It Happens
When we step outside of the organization and the process and the templates and the methodologies and ask some pretty fundamental questions, no one treats them too seriously:
- “Why wear a seatbelt if we’re not planning on getting into an accident?”
- “Why lock our front door if we haven’t been robbed this week?”
- “Why plug in the refrigerator if we’re planning on cooking the food within a couple of hours?”
These questions sound ridiculous because they are ridiculous. We don’t take these preventive steps after the fact – because they’re preventive! They only work if we employ them before we encounter danger.
And yet…
Most Project-Ending Risks Don’t Dent the Timeline — They Total It
We don’t bring that same tactical approach to basic project knowledge. We check off all of the corporate risks, and we might throw in a few that seem to make sense.
But what kinds of “accidents” are really facing the project outcomes — the kind of project-ending risks we often fail to name directly?
Not in some generic, hypothetical sense – but what would be the equivalent of a project “car crash”?
It’s not a nice picture to drum up, but it’s a necessary one.
Because a project-ending risk is not something that inconveniences a project, or just delays.
It’s something that could absolutely total your objectives.
And unfortunately, there aren’t many types of insurance that cover that kind of damage.
Want to know if your project is heading for a crash? Take the Project Health Check — and find out if you’re seeing the real risks in time.
