A recent client of ours finished a project worth well over $10 million, and when we asked about documenting lessons learned, we experienced a great deal of resistance. “We’re too busy planning the next project to do a post-mortem on the last one. Besides, who’s got time to spend a week navel-gazing?”
Far be it from us to suggest a week of navel-gazing after a project, but we would strongly recommend doing some form of review after a project so you know why things went well so you can repeat them, and document some things you might do differently next time. Amazingly you can likely do this in an hour or two, and your return on that investment can be exponential.
This week we discuss how to conduct Post Project Mortems as painlessly as possible.
Monday’s Tip: Make a conscious choice. For every project or initiative, no matter how big or small, make a decision as to what type of review to do. In some cases, the choice may be not to do one, but ensure that this is by design – not because you were too lazy to consider it
Tuesday’s Tip: Don’t let the review take on a life of its own. If your review of a project takes more time and effort than the project itself, you are doing it wrong. You get the most value from your first hour or two of a review, and then you hit the point of diminishing returns quickly.
Wednesday’s Tip: Use the information collected in future projects. The only thing worse than not reviewing projects and initiatives, is to do so, and then never refer to the information again.
Thursday’s Tip: Focus on the first 80%. You can very quickly become paralyzed by analysis. Be extremely selective in pursuing areas where you want to dive deep. In some cases, it may be well worth a closer look. In many others it will be a time killer.
Friday’s Tip: Focus on Team Learning. Individual performance issues should not be dealt with through a post project review. Do not assign blame, but rather look to uncover the causes of extraordinarily good or poor outcomes.