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Hi everyone, here is Ricardo Vargas, and this is the 5 Minutes Podcast. And today I want to discuss a characteristic of projects that is right in front of us but rarely receives the attention it deserves. Projects are promises made by people who may not be there to fulfill them. Every project begins with a promise about the future. We promise to reduce costs, to increase efficiency, to transform an organization, to improve the life of a community, or to provide customers with a better experience. And to get approval, we need to convince people that this future is possible, desirable, and valuable. The problem is that many of these results can only be verified months or even years later, and when the future finally arrives. Many of the people responsible for the promise may have begun. The executive may have moved to another position. The sponsor may be working for another company. Consultants may have completed their contract. The supplier may have concluded its participation. And the project team will probably be working on another initiative. But someone will remain. Someone will have to operate the solution, sustain the results, and live with the consequences of the decisions made in the past. It's very easy to promise a future when someone else will have to live in it. And I'm not saying that people make these promises in bad faith. Not at all. I'm not even considering that. Most of the time, the system itself encourages exaggerated promises. To secure approval and funding, the project needs to look extraordinary. The benefits are presented with enthusiasm. Long-term costs are minimized. Assumptions are treated as certainties. And side effects, all the side effects, they rarely appear in the executive presentation. And after approval, all the attention shifts to delivery. We control schedule, we control costs. We make sure the scope is fine-tuned to deliver. But finally, when the project is completed, the deliverable is accepted, and everyone just celebrates. But there is one question that almost nobody asks. Was the promise actually fulfilled? Did the new platform produce the expected benefits? Or did it simply create years of expensive maintenance? Did the reorganization improve efficiency? Or did it destroy important knowledge and relationships? Will the newly inaugurated infrastructure have enough resources to continue operating properly? Success is celebrated in the present, but the bill almost always arrives in the future. The distance creates a significant imbalance. The person who makes the promise receives visibility. The people who execute receive pressure. And the people who operate it receive the problems. And the people affected by it, they need to live with the consequences. Therefore, I want to share three quick reflections. The first is to identify who will inherit the project. Before approving an initiative, ask who will have to live every day with what is being created. These people need to participate in the decision from the beginning. They cannot be invited only at the end to receive training and take responsibility. The second reflection is to document the promises, not only the deliverables. The schedule showed that will be produced and when it will be delivered. But we also need to record which benefit was promised, to whom, by when, and under which circumstances. We must also make it clear who will verify whether that benefit actually materialized. The third reflection is to extend accountability. Responsibility for the project should not end with the delivery of the acceptance document. Someone needs to monitor the benefits, the sustainability of the solution, and the unintended consequences. This does not mean persecuting or punishing the person who made the decision. It means preserving the memory of the choices and connecting those promises to their real results. And for me, there is a crucial ethical issue here. We should not consider a project responsible simply because it delivers what was written in the contract. We must ask, did it produce the future that was used to justify its existence? Projects are not only schedules, budgets, and deliverables. Projects interfere with people's lives. They distribute benefits, costs, opportunities, and sacrifices. And very often, the people who receive the benefits are not the same ones who pay the price. So the next time someone presents a great promise to justify a project, ask one simple question. Who will be here to fulfill this promise? Then ask a second and even more important question. Who will have to live with it? A project may end when the deliverable is accepted, but that is precisely when the consequences begin. So, think about that. I hope you enjoyed this episode, and see you next week with another 5 Minutes podcast.
