Failure is something that happens to us all and it can happen on a daily basis. It needs to become something that we’re comfortable with and learn from because resilience is an important quality required in projects.

Every year more than two-thirds of projects are considered failures, and most organisations would not be surprised by this statistic. In most cases, however, failure was the result of not making a hard decision.

In the project management world we are excellent at finding reasons for failure and dehumanising their root cause. For example, here are the 16 identified ‘Primary Causes of Project Failures’ from the PMI’s 2015 Pulse of the Profession report:

1. Change in organisation’s priorities
2. Change in project objectives
3. Inaccurate requirements gathering
4. Opportunities and risks were not defined
5. Inadequate vision or goal for the project
6. Inaccurate cost estimates
7. Inadequate/poor communication
8. Inadequate sponsor support
9. Poor change management
10. Inaccurate task time estimate
11. Resource dependency
12. Inadequate resource forecasting
13. Limited/taxed resources
14. Inexperienced project manager
15. Team member procrastination
16. Task dependency.

Remember, though, there are only two reasons for project failure: poor project sponsorship and poor project management. And given that the buck stops with you (see chapter 53), you could argue there’s only one reason for project failure.

Here’s the same list paired off with the person responsible for making sure the failure didn’t happen:

1. Change in organisation’s priorities (project sponsor)
2. Change in project objectives (project sponsor)
3. Inaccurate requirements gathering (project manager)
4. Opportunities and risks were not defined (project sponsor and manager)
5. Inadequate vision or goal for the project (project sponsor)
6. Inaccurate cost estimates (project manager)
7. Inadequate/poor communication (project sponsor and manager)
8. Inadequate sponsor support (project sponsor)
9. Poor change management (project manager)
10. Inaccurate task time estimate (project manager)
11. Resource dependency (project manager)
12. Inadequate resource forecasting (project manager)
13. Limited/taxed resources (project sponsor and manager)
14. Inexperienced project manager (project sponsor)
15. Team member procrastination (project manager)
16. Task dependency (project manager).

Every excuse we come up with in reports, reviews, post-mortems and investigations can be linked back to the person responsible. Every time I sit down to read the latest project management survey, I dread what new horror story lies within.

I noted in the Preface that The Standish Group’s 2016 Chaos Report identified three key success factors for projects as (1) executive sponsorship, (2) emotional maturity and (3) user involvement. My experience bears this out. Furthermore, it confirms that all three factors are within project sponsor and project manager control.

But how do we get to the point where we accept that the project isn’t going to either deliver what we expect or give us the return on investment we require, and ‘fail’ the project? What will it take? Put simply, we (by which I mean you as the project sponsor) need to be more courageous.

You need to get better at interpreting the data you are presented with, asking the project manager the right questions, getting feedback from the team on what’s working and what isn’t. With this information you can take appropriate action.

Part of the problem is that we take project failure personally, seeing it as a stain on our reputation. It’s worth remembering that while a project may fail, this doesn’t make you a failure as a leader. In fact, the research shows that those who embrace failure become much more resilient and make better decisions as a result, so in that sense failure can only be a good thing.

Yet we waste so much money on failed projects.

The License Application Mitigation project in the US State of Washington offers one example. The project, to automate the state’s vehicle registration and licence renewal system was originally estimated to cost US$15 million and take five years. Two years later the costs had risen to US$41.8 million; the following year they rose to US$51 million, and three years after that to US$67.5 million. At this point, it became obvious not only that the cost of the project was out of control, but that the cost to operate and maintain it would be six times more than the system being replaced. The project was stopped with US$40 million already spent.

We could find at least one such example in any country, in any year, and it just has to stop. The number one principle of the PRINCE2 project management methodology is that a project should have continued business justification. Yet this principle is forgotten time and time again.

Failing fast is a concept used in the software development industry and one we see used well in agile projects, where iterations of the software being produced are tested at regular intervals. When the tests fail, the project ‘fails’ and they go back to the drawing board.

Astro Teller, of Google X, shared in his TED talk that their engineers are so thirsty for a quick failure that they have developed a team whose sole purpose is to create adverse conditions for their ‘moonshot’ projects (the self-driving car being a good example) to fail.

In his book Failing Forward, John C. Maxwell argues that if we’re not failing (as individuals and organisations), then we’re not moving forward. In order to overcome the fear of failing, he offers up seven abilities that you, as the project sponsor, need to develop:

1. Reject rejection. Take responsibility for your actions, but don’t blame yourself.
2. See failure as temporary. Personalising failure can cause you to get stuck. As an achiever you will see problems as momentary events.
3. See failure as isolated. Failing is not a lifelong event. Smile, because you can’t win them all.
4. Keep expectations realistic. You have to mentally prepare for each obstacle you create. Each requires a unique expectation. Don’t give up.
5. Focus on your strengths. Concentrate always on what you can do and where you are successful.
6. Vary approaches to achievement. Don’t be shy about trying new approaches to problems, and don’t allow others to make you feel like a failure.
7. Bounce back. You can’t take failure personally — learn from it and move forward.

When a project is going to miss its targets, as the sponsor you have a choice to make: carry on as you are or stop and take stock. The latter is the right and courageous thing to do. Even though it may not feel like it at the time, you’ll be doing yourself, the team and the organisation as a whole a big favour.