I tell him "twenty years in projects, I've had some success with about half." "What frustrates me is that I still haven't got a clue how to guarantee project success."

He smiles at me as if I have said something really stupid, but says nothing.

I continue. "I know that no one else has worked it out because they are all as surprised as I am whenever a project goes belly-up."

He smiles again and it makes me feel that I need to put forward my theory on projects, so that he will not think that I am completely dumb. I have a voice I usually reserve for presentations to senior management. I call it my 'confident-bullshit' voice. I use it. I say "Of course, projects go wrong because we don't push people hard enough."

That smile again, and then he asks, "So do you mean that you never have budget overruns from your team members claiming overtime?"

I want to listen to the Audio Version