Failed projects, even if they are not directly your fault, can be detrimental to your career.

A client recently told me a story of big problems in the company’s new product rollout. Customer expectations and logistics were two big issues, among others. Although the quality assurance director didn’t have direct responsibility for those areas, he was responsible for the system as a whole, and he took some serious heat for it. At the end of the story he said, “We know there are going to be problems in big projects, but we just don’t know where they are going [to] come from.”

Not seeing your biggest problems in a project can be a career killer. I suggested that next time (luckily, there will be a next time) he use “Hindsight in Advance” to determine what his problems will be ahead of time.

What is Hindsight in Advance?

The higher up we go in an organization, the harder it becomes to know what issues will stop the success of projects and initiatives. Yet there are people on our teams who know exactly what problems will show up. This talent requires using the wisdom of the crowd to stamp out 80 percent of the problems that will arise.

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