It is said that implementing a Business
Intelligence program is one of the most daunting journeys a company can embark
on. We all have heard the statistic that 8 out of 10 projects fail to meet at least
one (if not all three) of the success objectives: timeline, quality or scope.
Numerous articles have been written on the failures, and detailed analysis of
why programs fail abound in the internet. I would like to focus this blog on
the BI professionals who made the projects successful and take a deep dive into
what motivated them to continue to push for a successful delivery while many
others failed on the way.
After multiple interviews with
colleagues across different organizations, one factor emerged as a potential
explanation: most of the projects that succeeded, literally had been through
the effort of “organizational heroes” who continued to look for solutions even after
they had encountered significant obstacles. I was truly surprised that even
those projects which were considered very successful went through a period of
uncertainty in the event of one or multiple failures. The projects which were successful
were not the ones that did not face any problems, but the ones who were able to
quickly recover from failures and open other paths for success.
In fact, one of the phrases that
came out as a theme was “Do whatever you need to do, but fail fast”. If failure
is not an option, but a stepping stone for success, we come back to the core
issue that this blog is trying to explore: why some projects have organizational heroes
that are able to recover from whatever failures goes through? The answer
surprised even me: Ego.
Wikipedia defines ego as the realistic
part that mediates between the desires of the id (uncontrolled instincts) and
the super-ego (moralized rules). In practice, ego relates to how proud an
individual is of their professional work, mediating between perfection and
disdain. People with a healthy ego will recover
quickly from any and all failures as they have the desire to do well and don’t
get lost in the intricacies of trying to deliver a perfect product. People with
a strong id or a strong super ego will not be able to manage failure well,
either they will immediately give and will not care to try to again or will
spend an exorbitant amount of time examining what went wrong and how to avoid
another similar failure, effectively incurring in “paralysis by analysis”.
As such, it becomes of paramount
importance to consider ego as one of the primary criteria when selecting team
members for these projects. You need people who have already showcased the
ability to learn from their failures by internalizing the right amount feedback
and making the required change faster than the time it takes to declare the
project a failure. Further, as a manager you also have to be mindful of how you
are interacting with the team to help them focus their energies and ego! into solving
the project problems/issues rather than being worried about how they will be
perceived or larger issues like career progression (e.g. promotions or other
incentives)
ego is not something you are born
with, but something you learn through experiencing success and failures in
life. However, given the importance that
it plays in life (and projects!) it is something you definitively need to be aware
of and more importantly a character trait that you need to cultivate and protect
in the right way.
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