Wasn't there some phrase about learning history's lessons?

Let's put that one behind us . . .

A “real stinker”, “total disaster”, “flop” . . . Yep, we’ve all had bad experiences that we wanted to erase from our memory banks. It makes sense - we like pleasure, we loathe pain.

But what is it that makes us better going forward? . . . It’s the ability to look back and evaluate on negative experiences to determine, what went wrong, why it went wrong, and how to correct it, so that it doesn’t happen the next time.

And is that the way it usually works in business? Here’s a good example of the real world. . .

I did an extended tour of duty in the construction industry. Take it from me, because of the uniqueness and open-ended nature of each project, there is no type of business that will create ulcers like large-scale construction. When looking at the backlog, there’s the eternal optimism of the “bluebird” job that blissfully “makes the year”, or conversely, the hateful anxiety that lurking somewhere is a “job from hell” that will suck you down like quicksand into the bowels of bankruptcy with unending losses.

In my past, I worked at a company where, as part of our standard processes, we were to generate a "job summary report" at the completion or closure of each project. The report included key data such as billings, costs, manhours, estimate vs. actual, change orders, assessment of results, etc. If one took the time to look, embedded in these reports were the secrets and stories of “what happened” on each project. This was also back in the day when everything had to be generated manually, and because of workloads, limited manpower, and challenges to keep recordkeeping current on active projects, the job summary reports were usually given low priority and produced very late.

It was at one strategic meeting of the management team, when haggling over priorities/scarce resources/information needs/etc., that the topic of untimely job summary reports surfaced. We discussed it and its importance, as well as other pressing topics. And at the end of the session, we emerged with a long action item list that contained among others, “generate timely job summary reports”. Immediately, we launched a “special project”, enlisting temporary help to bring the job summary report preparation current, with the ultimate goal of maintaining them that way going forward.

Sounds good, so what happened?

We did it, and once completed, we proudly distributed stacks of summary job reports, and waited for kudos and positive feedback. Unfortunately, the response throughout the company to our reports was less than enthusiastic. It quickly became apparent that the Estimating and Production Departments had very little interest/time to devote in reviewing our reports or the information contained therein, especially the “over-estimate” projects (i.e., likening it to someone who endures through a painful root canal with no desire to take home a souvenir video of the procedure to watch it again). All told, the feeling within Estimating and Production was generally, “let’s put that one behind us”. And of course, it was capped off with the upbeat, “let’s focus our efforts on landing the next big job”.

There is a lesson –

Sure, it’s hard to relive our mistakes and errors, and we should never dwell on them. However, buried in our personal history, and of those of our organizations, is key data/information from past experiences, within which there’s a wealth of knowledge to be garnered.

Take a look at the 2015/16 Golden State Warrior’s 73-win, non-championship season. Do you think they ever revisited and reassessed their 2016 playoff performance? It was probably tough, but you can rest assured, those games were replayed in minds many times over. And looking at the results of the 2016/17 season, something good must have come out of the retrospection.

We just need to possess the gumption and willingness to reopen and revisit past experiences, to see if there’s any hidden lessons that we learn to help us move forward. And it doesn’t have to be confined to our personal experience, we can learn from others, too. Because as they say - it’s good to learn from one’s mistakes, but it’s GREAT to learn from someone else’s. It’s also a lot less painful!