Strategic Misrepresentation?

I was doing some research today on project cost overruns. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of high-profile examples of massive project failures when it comes to cost.

I was particularly intrigued by an article entitled "Underestimating Costs in Public Works Projects: Error or Lie?" by Bent Flyvbjerg, Mette Skamris Holm, and Søren Buhl. Just the term underestimating instead of overrun caught my eye.

Yet even more interesting was a conclusion they put forward in their paper: "Cost underestimation cannot be explained by error and seems to be best explained by strategic misrepresentation, i.e. lying."

Strategic misrepresentation? That could be the most creative way of saying lying that I've heard in quite a while!

"In case after case, planners, engineers, and economists told Wachs that they had had to 'cook' forecasts in order to produce numbers that would satisfy their superiors and get projects started, whether or not the numbers could be justified on technical grounds...."

As we discuss in our project management workshops, reality has this annoying way of always winning. Bad news doesn't get better over time. If your project is struggling, rather than trying to find creative ways to cook up a batch of strategic misrepresentation, how about applying that creativity into innovative solutions to get back on schedule.

We-can-make-this-up: 5 of the most dangerous words in project management. It's not that you can't. It's just that hope is rarely a good strategy. And that's what we see way too often.

Check out our Lipstick on a Pig: How Illusion Leads to Crisis keynote. It's perfect for a company meeting, retreat, or association gathering. We can help your teams learn to lead and deliver.

Labels: accountability, crisis, denial, illusion, keynotes, risk management

posted by Andy at 10:25 PM