By Kevin L. Baker, MBA
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Ongoing Business and One-Off Projects
As the founder of a management consulting company focused on advising and training companies to engineer multiplier processes to drive results, I often see companies approaching one-off projects like they manage their ongoing day-to-day business. This approach to business is 80% likely to end up with frustrated teams not getting things done. Teams not producing results end up blaming others or each other, and generally feeling like failures. To avoid failure, teams will make the case for continuing to throw time and money at a project because there is already so much invested. This is called the “sunk cost bias.”
Avoid Sunk Cost Bias
What is sunk cost bias? Have you ever stayed the course with a business project or strategy primarily because of how heavily you’d invested in it when it was clearly not working?! Have you ever kept a pair of shoes that don’t fit right just because they were expensive or watched a movie all the way to the end just because you paid for it?
Our tendency to continue investing in a losing proposition because of what it’s already cost us can be avoided. I have a better idea. First, realise you do not manage projects like you manage your ongoing day-to-day work. Second, learn project management basics as an anchor point for creating a “winnable game.”
Play to Win. Don’t Play To Not Lose
Many businesses set themselves up to lose before they ever start a project or initiative. They do not plan properly. They bite off more than they can chew. They veer of course into scope creep because they do not have a process in place to select the best projects to work on, develop proper lead and lag measures, and keep score with constant communication and measurement.
Most often, sunk cost bias can be prevented. I found this video a great basic introduction to project management. Kevin Baker Consulting specialises in how to process strategic plans into realised results. We do not just tell you what to do, we do it with you and train your team from the Board room to the front lines . Our mission is delivering unprecedented results to our clients. When you do not have the internal capability, skill, time, or mental energy to get things you need done, our concierge consulting services connect our clients with outside resources for achieving your objectives.