5 Signs that Your Failed Team Merits More Time

By: Art Petty

1. An absence of finger-pointing and excuse-making. In my experience, there’s a direct inverse correlation with finger-pointing and the potential for team success.
2. Genuine group and authentic distress at the failure. While a judgement call, it’s not that hard for a leader to distinguish between embarrassment, fear or repercussions type distress versus genuine “We failed and it bugs the crap out of me/us,” distress.
3. “An emerging Apollo 13 mentality… “failure is not an option.” A sense of emergency, an intense focus on the goals of the initiative and extraordinary efforts to innovate are healthy signs that the team merits more time.
4. External validation that the initiative is (still) highly relevant. There’s a tendency for firms and teams to irrationally pursue failed objectives. Avoiding this sunk cost/escalation of commitment trap is difficult and important. The assumptions of and need for the project from an external customer or market perspective must still be valid before offering more time to the failed team.
5. A hunger for insights and knowledge from outside the team. Instead of turning inward and developing a bunker mentality, the team recognizes the need for help and pursues it. I’m particularly convinced of a team’s legitimacy, when they seek outside critical feedback on technical and performance issues.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

Sometimes, good performance is just a bit further down the road. Don’t discount how critical it is to give good people time to gel on big projects.

See this and other newsletter articles at http://amt-mep.org/files/9413/7883/1821/2013-09.pdf

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