Despite all the inspirational quotes on the importance of failure, of learning from failure, of failure being a prerequisite to success, no one likes to fail. When it comes down to it, we may believe Thomas Edison when he said, “I failed my way to success,” but we don’t think it applies to us. The fear of failure often drives our decision-making processes, and this can be a huge impediment to success and can lower the ceiling for that success. Creating an environment in which decisions are made with positive results in mind shifts the focus and provides motivation in place of dread.

This is beginning to sound a bit optimistic, so let’s get it straight: positive thinking does not mean your project is going to be successful. Not by any stretch of the imagination. Nor does being a doom-and-gloomer necessarily mean it will fail. The point is that this type of thinking has an impact on decision-making.

Christopher Hsee, professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, found that, when project outcomes are emotionally charged (as they tend to be when you are responsible for a complex, expensive, and time-consuming process), people tend to display a particular pattern of behavior. They exaggerate small probabilities (such as the probability of a risk occurring) and underestimate the probability of gain. In other words, the 1 in a million chance of failure outweighs the 1 in 10 chance of achieving more than the expected ROI.

In this case, running from fear is going to impede your progress towards success; to shift the thought process, if you are aiming for success, you will be more likely to give the probability of gain greater weight in that same set of circumstances.

How do you create an environment in which you work with success in mind and not avoidance of failure? The Centre of Excellence approach facilitates this by:

• Creating high-performance project teams with individual accountability.
• Communicating expectations clearly.
• Defining what does success look like
• Creating a sound project governance project.
• Accurately assessing risk vs. benefit.
• Empowering fact-based decisions.

How do you win the race? Not by looking over your shoulder, but by focusing your attention on the finish line ahead.