A Game of Spin The Bottle

Today's entry, takes a look at my own experiences, with regard to project accountability, specifically when dealing with failures, opposed to successes of a project. What I have found, is that the idea of project accountability is often a game of spin the bottle, where one closes their eyes and chooses at random who is to blame for the latest hiccup in the success of a project.

Is it the Account Manager for not communicating the proper client needs at the start of the project? Is it the Information Designer for not detailing the proper structure for the project? Is it the Creative Designer for not designing according to the specified technical requirements? Is it the Technical Developer for not properly coding? Is the Quality Control for not testing correctly? Is it the Project Manager for not managing successfully?

As you can see the blame can fall on anyone who is involved in the project, from the very beginning of the RFP stage, all the way through to the final delivery of the project. The question I have, is does it really matter? When working on a project, you are not representing yourself, but rather you are a component of a greater team, like the cliché tells us "there's no I in TEAM". When I deliver a successful project, I never think "WOW, I'm a great PM, look at what I did", but rather I turn to my team and thank them for a job well done. Why? Because it was the team as a whole, that delivered the success. So too, when there is a failure, it is a reflection of the whole team.

So we've determined that failure, like success, is team dependent, opposed to individually specific, which means that the question of whose responsible is really irrelevant. What is important however, is what we do about it?

From my own experiences, I have found that the most common reaction to failure is to have meetings and discussions about process, communication, and documentation. What this does, is create an organized and rational approach to failure, it provides a paper trail as to what caused the failure and more importantly who to blame for it! Now if you've read today's entry you can see the dilemma, in that the solution to our problem is to point out an irrelevant fact, that provides no solution at all.

Do not misinterpret this blog, I believe that process, communication, and documentation are all very important factors in having a successful team and delivering successful projects, what I don't believe, is that these things will help when trying to address failure. These things identify responsibility, but do not address accountability. It is my opinion that the only true way to address accountability is through action. For whatever reason, we often jump at rewarding success, but are nervous or hesitant about addressing failure. But let's be honest, if there is never any repercussion for failure, what is there to prevent it from happening again?