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There’s a popular fallacy that encourages big-project managers to forge ahead as quickly as they can, on the basis that the payoffs will likely be bigger than they imagine. A careful empirical analysis of more than 2,000 big-project outcomes by the authors of this article, experts in project management and behavioral science, suggests that this is not the case — a Just-Do-It strategy ends badly 80% of the time. Case in point: the career of Ferdinand de Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal, who also attempted ta Panama Canal, a venture that ended in disaster – for its backers, the people working on the project, and de Lesseps’ own reputation.
Confidence is an essential condition of success. We all know that. Leaders who don’t feel they can succeed are unlikely to do so. But confidence is tricky stuff. It sometimes whispers in the ears of project leaders, “You can handle anything. Don’t waste time planning. Get going.”
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Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : Harvard Business – https://hbr.org/2023/10/when-confidence-helps-project-managers-and-when-it-gets-them-into-trouble