What do you do when, despite all your good actions, you aren’t met with success? Pout? Complain? Give up? Whine? What is it you typically do? And if your response to those reactions is ineffective … Then what? One reality we should always remember is that we may not always be successful in what we do – for a variety of reasons, and that not all are within our ability to direct/control. This is not an excuse – fact.
But, you – what do you do when you aren’t successful? Obviously, I’d like to consider myself a most logical, rational person who takes a proactive approach in all situations… not. However, I do come around sooner than later to look at the situation as dispassionately as possible. Sometimes I discovered that I missed a critical step, other times that the results were truly out of my control, and myriad of other discoveries. The point is if we don’t analyze the what and why (and this is when success occurs as well) of the results, we limit our learning and understanding.
There is the ‘myth’ that we learn more from our mistakes than our victories. Probably, but that’s also the result of not analyzing our successes. It is critical to analyze our unsuccesses (not a word, but should be) to know what we can learn about preparing and being attentive to any ‘spanner in the works’. Once we put our plan into the action step, we really should never leave it to its own devices. If we are attentive as the plan plays out, then we can adjust as we continue the process rather than doing an autopsy at the end.
One of our primary learnings is this last point – being attentive to any force or influence that occurs as we progress. Common sense. The other critical point, in my opinion, is that unless your project is a solo situation you need to include those who are involved in the project. I know I’ve discussed this before, but it bears repeating – those who are involved and are responsible for the success of (fill in the blank) need to have ownership as well. If they are only going through their paces, you won’t have the dedication to detail you need.
Success and unsuccess are equally important to our learning… when we take the time. It is true that some projects are doomed from the start but if we are coupling analysis with development, then we can correct issues prior to them being the ‘telling of the tale’.
