Beating the ‘dream team’ paradox

‘If only we had the team we had back then!’ I expect we’ve all said that, recalling a project when everything just clicked and outcomes beat expectations.

If people are so critical, why don’t great teams stay together?

First, great PMs are hard to hang onto. Large projects often mean long periods away, with work that’s all-consuming, stressful, and tiring. Second, the reward for success is…another big project. Good people soon realize promotion will pass them by.

Third, even when companies view a meaty PM role as a stepping-stone for rising stars, it can backfire. ‘Remember them? Their project was a disaster!’ Often, a false perception of how things played out, rather than a factual historic account. But stories travel. Fourth, people just move on.

Due to an industry downturn in 2002, my own stretch as a PM ended. It’s one reason I founded Epeus. When my ex-employer did restart, they called us in to augment their capability, project by project.

By nature, projects are temporary. If they aren’t your core business, it’s expensive and wasteful to try to build robust project management measures.  

Seek ‘project resilience’ over ‘organizational resilience’. For that, you need a more mature approach to risk and occasional expert support.