When I hear CEOs talk about ‘successful projects’, I am always curious as to how they define success – and failure. Too often, a project is considered successful merely if it’s completed – regardless of the value it delivers to the organisation. Conversely, projects that don’t get completed are deemed failures. No distinction is made between those projects that fail due to poor management or lack of resources and those that are stopped or postponed because of shifts in strategy and organisational priorities, changed market conditions, or the realisation that there won’t be sufficient return on investment.

Changing circumstances
One of our priorities at the Project Management Institute is helping organisations achieve greater success with their portfolio of strategic initiatives – the collection of projects and programmes that drive change. And we believe a critical component of that is helping organisations understand that success should not be defined or measured strictly by how many projects and programmes are completed. Success is also determined by what you choose to stop or postpone, and what you learn from those projects that don’t deliver expected results.

Knowing when to hit the pause or stop button is a critical aspect of success, and distinguishes leaders in high-performing organisations from their less successful peers.
Two things are needed to redefine success in this way

Projects and programmes get initiated with the best of intentions, but situations change, internally and externally. A new competitor may emerge; loss of key personnel could affect your ability to resource the project properly; or your board of directors may recommend deemphasising a market. Completing projects and programmes that don’t make strategic sense isn’t a mark of success, nor is it good leadership – it’s just a waste of resources. Knowing when to hit the pause or stop button is a critical aspect of success, and distinguishes leaders in high-performing organisations from their less successful peers. Two things are needed to redefine success in this way.

The first is a system for regular review to ensure projects that won’t deliver or no longer make strategic sense don’t move forward. Project portfolio management – the internal system for managing your organisation’s key initiatives – is effective because it ensures that you review programmes and projects and subject them to clearly established criteria that are consistently applied across the organisation. You not only get the chance to question whether you should proceed with or halt initiatives, but also to ensure that the truly important ones are properly resourced.

Leading the way
The pharmaceutical industry has long applied incentives to kill a doomed project sooner rather than later. When it is clear that a drug isn’t going to deliver results – either financially or clinically – they pull the plug. There is a lot the rest of us can learn from that kind of disciplined approach.

Just as important is a culture that makes what is traditionally considered ‘failure’ acceptable. Indian carmaker Tata Motors has a programme that rewards project teams that take their failures and turn them into organisational learning opportunities. That may be an extreme example, but it also shows how an organisation can make the most of what might otherwise be considered wasted effort.

Does your organisation encourage business owners and those who may be closest to a project to share their insights? If people feel like they won’t be listened to or that the company is focused on the wrong metrics or a rigid definition of success, you may find that you are still completing projects and programmes – just maybe the wrong ones.

Management is about making decisions; leadership is about creating a culture that ensures the right decisions get made. Success comes when both ensure you’re following through on the projects that remain aligned with your strategy. A sound, structured, standardised portfolio management approach can help.