Cracking the code of strategic misrepresentation: Revealing bias in project success webinar

Programme and project success rates are doggedly low. Transformative improvement is possible with data enabled investment decisions. This webinar presented on Monday 11 September, sought to identify methods and tools to prevent the seldom discussed topic of strategic misrepresentation (some would call it lying).

This was the third APM 2023 event in this "Effective governance, unlocking data and project success" series, where we will focus on the definition of strategic misrepresentation and its motivators. Our goal was to explore why people misrepresent, and define a language for discussing misrepresentation.

During event 1 in February 2023, we asked 180 attendees about strategic misrepresentation, and the results were concerning. Audience scores were the lowest of the day, with many investment committees not recognising strategic misrepresentation as a problem. The audience also lacked confidence in their ability to mitigate this issue.

Research shows that only 0.5% of programmes and projects deliver to time, cost, and benefits, with 50% of large projects failing due to strategic misrepresentation. With such a high failure rate, it's essential to understand the causes and drivers of this issue.

The goal for event three was to explore why people misrepresent, and define a language for discussing misrepresentation. The content covered:

Conceptualise project success problems
Understand strategic misrepresentation
Learn about the behavioural drivers of strategic misrepresentation.

It developed the audiences understanding of the leading cause of project failure, and contributed to the discussion on how effective governance can help organisations utilise data and enable successful projects.

Webinar resources

Mark and Greg have very kindly allowed their presented material to be made available for viewing. The slides including the audience polling data are below and the webinar recording on YouTube are now available in our APM resources area and also embedded below for reference.

An additional piece reading is the blog that launched the first event in this series ‘How to mitigate strategic misrepresentation and unlock data, a project management focus’, which we hope will help provide some ideas for what a code to crack strategic misrepresentation could look like.

The questions submitted from attendees during the webinar are being reviewed and answered.

This webinar content is suitable professionals with any level of experience.

Engage with the series

Speaker

Mark Vincent, Director, Applied Change
With 25 years’ experience delivering large and fast paced business change, Mark and his company Applied Change are pioneering ways to help business leaders implement the changes that matter to them more quickly, more easily and with less stress.

Host

Greg Krawczyk, Strategic PMO Manager with Age UK
Outside of his day job as a Strategic PMO Manager for Age UK, Greg is a volunteer with the APM’s Governance Specific Interest Group (SIG). Greg has a passion for project success and recognises governance as an enabler to data designed projects, a transformative solution.