Insights For Success

Strategy, Innovation, Leadership and Security

Your project teams may be hiding problems and negative information

Behavior, Management, Team buildingEdward Kiledjian

An interesting article was published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology Volume 41, Issue 2, pages 401 428, February 2011.

It is clearly demonstrated that as a project get's closer to completion, decision makers are more likely to conceale problems that may jeapordize it.

This interesting work was undertaken at George Washington University using undergraduate students.

The crux of the analysis is that a 90% complete project meant that 81% of decision makers were likely to hide nagative information or problems. In contrast, a 10% completed project only showed a 37.5% "information hiding" rate.

We all know that information is key to succeddfully delivering projects (on time, on budget and to specifications). How does knowing the above information change your view about project management? How can you mitigate this risk in your environment?