Success has many "owners"

Why is it? When there is a celebration of the success of a venture or project, you have to look for a very large room to acknowledge those who contributed greatly (or to some slight degree as well as those who think or claim they did). Every one wants a piece the glory no matter how small. I know I interviewed several people from a competitor who had a successful product. It seems that each person I spoke to was the chief contributor of this successful product (how can that be?). We all want to be part of a winning team and as years go by, we tend to exaggerate our management contributions.

However, when there is failure, one needs only a very small room to invite those to commemorate the defeat or to evaluate the lessons learned because many will shun the invitation or claim that they had little or no part in the decision or action. The main reasons for failure suggested by those involved:
- poor or unclear planning
- lack of sufficient authority or staffing
- lack of thorough, accurate, and timely information
- failure to decide or act decisively

While we can learn from successes, it is more important to learn from our failures (I know I sure have) because we probably analyze them much more and learn some valuable lessons.

Bottom line: A successful project involves many people (one that seems destined to fail has people jumping ship, so if you see people conveniently leaving the project, watch out). You can take your chances and try to the hero who singlehandedly tackled the issues rather than sharing the responsibility and glory. However, the odds are rather good you may be standing in that small room by yourself!