The Value of an Insight

“We did that again?!”

We had just repeated the exact same costly error on a 6-figure project that had happened on another project in our portfolio only 6 months earlier and would now put our current project over budget by 50%. Our team was overwhelmed by the volume of projects in our portfolio and it was showing with mistakes like these, which were killing us on budget, schedule and, most importantly, our reputation with clients.

Sound familiar?

Many project teams face these issues. Internal standards, project management best practices and a company’s ISO 9001 certification all call for a process to learn from past projects, but few company’s actually realize value from this. Many project teams treat their Lessons Learned process as a box-checking activity at best and slap partially formed insights into a spreadsheet, cross their fingers that they will pass an audit, and never look at them again.

Spreadsheets are where insights go to die

Insights in a spreadsheet are almost valueless. They are rarely checked and there is no way to find out if the company has experienced a past issue unless someone manually takes the time to dig into them.

In order to understand how to get value from insights, we need to recognize that there are different types of insights, each of which can generate value in different ways.

These insights generally fall into one of 4 types:

Opportunities for Improvement: When something positive or negative happens on a project, that item should be included in the project delivery process for future projects to ensure/prevent the situation from happening again.

For the situation above, had the project manager added that item to the project delivery process after the first time it happened, it would have prevented the next team from repeating the mistake and sending their project over budget. To maximize the value here, the action(s) that can be taken to address the issue at a systematic level need to be identified, assigned, completed, and communicated to those affected.

Risk to the Next Project: It isn’t always possible to action everything to include it into the project delivery process. Sometimes, an insight needs to be used to plan the next project in the form of a risk, such as how to deal with weather events that may impact construction. This connection is sometimes made by getting people with the right experience involved in the planning phase of a project, but in the highly mobile projects space, this doesn’t happen as often as we would like. In order to get value from these insights, issues that are relevant to your next project must be identified and converted into risks to be managed throughout the project.

Tips and Tricks: Sometimes the knowledge you have isn’t going to directly impact a future project or get actioned into a process. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t share it - use this information to help others performing similar tasks. Know the most efficient way to get something done? Let your colleagues know!

An example of this could be when a materials expediter identifies the most helpful individual at a particular supplier, who always ensures that critical parts get delivered on time. The value here is in ensuring the person in the same role on the next project gains this same knowledge so they can apply it the next time around.

Complaints: Complaints are often perceived as a bad thing but they can be useful if leveraged into an actionable task. When sharing a complaint, think of what could be done differently and include that as well. Complaints have little future value unless they can be used to change or improve upon existing processes.

So what is the dollar value of an insight then? Well, this can vary significantly. One of the primary determinants of an insight’s value is the industry in which the project is being executed. In the industrial and construction sector, the sheer cost of equipment, materials and salaries for hundreds or even thousands of tradespeople means that every mistake has the opportunity to be a costly one. In this sector, insights can be worth millions of dollars, and even more when the long-term value of a company’s reputation is considered.

Contact us to see how totaliQ can help your team unlock the value of your insights!