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Why don’t more project managers sound an alarm when they’re going to blow past their deadlines? Because most of them have no earthly idea when they’ll finish the job. They don’t even think it’s possible to know. Too many variables. Too much that’s out of their control. That’s the dirty little secret of project management. As the lead developer on one big software project put it: “Everybody knows the schedule is a joke, and we pay no attention to it. It will be done when it’s done.” It’s funny, though. Big, successful companies that manage huge projects like highways and …

Projects fail at a spectacular rate. One reason is that too many people are reluctant to speak up about their reservations during the all-important planning phase. By making it safe for dissenters who are knowledgeable about the undertaking and worried about its weaknesses to speak up, you can improve a project’s chances of success. Research conducted in 1989 by Deborah J. Mitchell, of the Wharton School; Jay Russo, of Cornell; and Nancy Pennington, of the University of Colorado, found that prospective hindsight—imagining that an event has already occurred—increases the ability to correctly identify reasons for future outcomes by 30%. We …

We all have good ideas. The hard part is making them happen. HR departments love handing out worksheets on how to plan your time. Management gurus have written hundreds of pages of advice on how to better manage your week, your day, and your hour. But what happens when you try and apply that advice to your team or organization? How do you deliver complex, multi-level, multi-year programs of work across teams and business units that may be, quite honestly, in chaos? I sat down with three senior executives leading major projects at complex, fast-moving organizations  and asked them what they …