Occasionally, jobs don’t go as well as we planned. I hope you have been there for your team …that you lived through the tough job with them and jumped in anywhere you could help get over the finish line.
There might be a desire to sweep the bad job under a rug and forget about it. You don’t grow by hiding the mistakes. You grow by talking through the issues and developing strategies to avoid them in the future. It is your responsibility as a leader to work through this with your team and share these lessons with others.
Be mindful that the project team just went through a traumatic experience and may not be ready or willing to talk through the issues. My experience says the more you showed up for your team throughout the project, the more willing they are to talk.
Some things to consider in these situations:
1) Be prepared to have difficult conversations with your team, your leadership, your client, and your trade contractors.
2) Discuss the necessity of candid conversations to build lessons you can share with other teams. Make sure everyone in the meeting is aware it is a safe space. Tensions might be high and you have to maintain your level head to keep the meeting focused on facts without hearsay or assumptions.
3) Be aware of the personalities in the room and how to navigate difficult conversations. Some will be open about mistakes and what they could have done different. Others will feel backed into a corner and lash out. Knowing how to talk to differing personalities is important.
4) Document the conversation and distill the meeting into actionable items. These items should be objective and tactical lessons you can share with others.
5) Meet with other project teams doing similar work or in similar circumstances to give them the best possible chance of avoiding the same mistakes.
6) Talk to your trade contractors. You will have some that go above and beyond to help and others leaning on your shoulder that you drag across the finish line. Acknowledge both. Have the hard conversation with the difficult trade and give accolades to those that helped you finish.
7) Talk to your client. This conversation may need to be different than all the others. It depends on your relationship both contractually and personally. Are they a new client or a repeat client? Develop your message, review with your leadership, and go from there. Don’t leave them to come up with their own story about the project.
douglas adams 