We all like things to go as we plan. We tend to like perfection. It feels more certain, less stressful, and just easier. And yet, perfection is rarely, if ever, attained. Projects experience challenges, struggles, or just plain fail. Working in and on organisational and system change, this happens every. single. time.

It can be frustrating.

But here’s a thing. It can be frustrating when we only see or consider the project by itself. But when we take a step back and apply a learning lens, we see that all projects can help us on the journey of change.

Lose the battle not the war is another way of saying the same thing. Talk to any gardener and they will tell you about learning what plants grow where (no matter what the guidelines say).

Challenges and struggles within projects can be a metric for us. They help us see where we have ‘misread’ the context or see what makes others most anxious. But perhaps most of all, we can use them as reminders that the project is not in a vacuum and the change is a learning activity for everyone.

Take a step back and ask what can you learn in this moment.

Photo by Etienne Girardet