The Productive Pessimist

  One of my personal frustrations is when people or companies say they want a slice of an absolutely huge pie, that's showing itself very well in just about every class - eg, a business sector that's romping all over the board, and bringing in profits with barely any effort - but then seem to find any and every reason to take as long as possible actually getting round to even picking up a plate! I go bodyboarding when I get the time. One of the key facts in that world is that, by the time EVERYONE is able to see a wave breaking, if you're not already riding it, it's too late. The same is true in business. Whether it's an individual or a company being a hesitant wallflower in the face of the ride of a lifetime, the motivation seems to be the same: they'll waste time on business cases, business plans, and, if they're an organisation, corporate governance. The prevailing attitude, certainly in the UK, often seems to be that business cases and business plans hav

  Negative is also a charge - and it may just be the power your business needs to get future-ready, and move forward at pace. Negativity can destroy a project - but, if it's applied before the project starts , pessimism can create  a project with so much momentum and collective will behind it, it genuinely is unstoppable. How many of your projects have been brought to a crashing halt by governance challenges? And hasn't that, if you're honest, made you hate governance, and seek to avoid it?  What if you could get the insight of a productive pessimist during scoping - someone who would help you 'fail fast', and work with you to destruction-test project plans in rapid succession, so that what you eventually submitted to governance was so spot-on, so aligned with your organisation's values, that it couldn't   fail? The Productive Pessimist   offers a three-day 'rapid response' consultancy for project teams, by the end of which you're guaranteed to h