Cancelled Project!?!? Now What???

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[Applause]

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if there's one thing we've learned about

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business and life is that people are the

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X Factor they constantly surprise us

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both in amazing ways and not so much

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we're Ben Andia and welcome to n this

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business bites podcast this show is all

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about real life things we all deal with

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every day how they relate to business

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and how to make some sense out of our

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daily chaos welcome to the

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[Music]

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show and welcome back to another episode

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of nonis business bites I'm Ben and this

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is

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CA so you shut down a project now

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what people spent time effort money

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personal

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reputation

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building teams building you know

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programs together buying

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software hundreds thousands millions of

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dollars have been

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spent and somebody pulled the

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plug and then you hear

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crickets no

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justification no

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communication know what did we learn

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from this know what's

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next know what do we expect from you

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going

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forward just

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crickets how does that make you

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feel see you let's know on this all

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right my friend I can't tell you how

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many projects have gotten cancelled on

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uh us when I was working at my company

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in technology technology projects get

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shelved faster than a teenage girl

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dating you know boys

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and teenage boys dating whomever

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whatever look like Johnny didn't dance

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with me I'm going to dance with someone

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else like that's how fast projects come

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and go in technology so uh me speaking

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anecdotally you know what that tells me

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when a project shuts down like that when

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there's money that has been spent two

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things are happening one it was always a

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vanity project of whatever executive

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leader that had the budget uh and then

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they suddenly disappear for whatever

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various reasons and therefore your

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biggest backer to your project went Mia

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yeah uh secondly is whomever is in

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charge of this project did not

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articulate the value of the project to

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the business well enough such that it

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got shut down because there was no

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longer a business requirement or the

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value was not accepted as being uh

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needed at that point in time uh and it's

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frustrating because us as vendors we're

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down the we're down the stream oh

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totally right often times we're down the

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stream and often we're a component of

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that overall project

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and so yes I can feel it I can see it

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and as a former salesperson you banked

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on it you put in the pipeline and said

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hey man everything's looking hunky dory

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hunky dory hunky dory and then someone

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in finance just goes

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Kash so how do I feel about it you're

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giving me hives because I'm freaking

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remembering so many times the

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conversations of like what the hell

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happened and it was oftentimes

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completely out of your control most of

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the time it is completely out of control

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and you know what there are times

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projects need to be shelved they you

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know there the business case that you

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thought was there wasn't there they're a

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million dollars over budget and with

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with no end in sight there's there's a

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hundred different reasons why projects

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get sheld the problem is we never talk

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about it we as organizations we just

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throw it in the corner throw it in a

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desk drawer and just go that didn't

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happen you know why the problem is as

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you

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said there's salespeople that have been

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talking about this project to customers

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customers are sitting there going so

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where is it vendors have have spent

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money gearing up because they're going

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to be supporting this program you know

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customer service teams have been been

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trained on this you know there everybody

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sitting there going okay what

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happened like serious L what

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happened and there's never that answer

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there's never there's never that that

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sense of closure there's never that

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sense of

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okay this is what we learned from this

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okay it didn't it didn't pan out we

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tried we live this we we we ran the

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business numbers we ran the we ran by

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our customers we couldn't get to a point

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where we could actually make this thing

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viable the technology we just don't have

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the technology today to be able to

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overcome whatever hurdle

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but none of that none of those

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conversations happen and individuals

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start sitting there going well was it me

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you know was it our team was it the fact

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there something that we did do or we

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didn't do you know was it was it our

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fault was it not our fault and people

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get get

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blamed and fingers get

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pointed but there's never the

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articulation of why things actually

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happened and as companies it's the why

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is so important because we can't learn

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unless we know the why we can't sit

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there and say what do we do next we're

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we're we're bound to make the same

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mistakes over and over again you know 10

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times more

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expensively if we don't understand why

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we we shut something down in the first

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place and I I just don't understand why

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we are so scared to

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articulate I don't want to call them

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failures but are but our our decisions

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to not move forward why are we so afraid

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as organizations to sit there say that

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didn't work this is why it didn't work

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this is what we were trying to do this

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is why that didn't happen let's do a

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postmortem on this thing figure out is

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there anything we can salvage from this

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can we move forward in a different

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way gidy up let's go no you know it

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won't 100% won't you know why because

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people are afraid of her job so if

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they're attached to a project that got

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defunct defunded de whatever uh there's

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there's stench there's smell that sticks

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to it right you don't want that smell

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Stuck on You of like oh wait you were

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spearhead of a project that ultimately

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failed or failed because we pulled the

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plug on it oh you wasted the company's

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times and resources you were the spear

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like no one wants that stink on them so

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no there's there's a lot of Unwritten

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stuff here

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that again I you're making me remember

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why I enjoyed leaving corporate which

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was politics internal corporate politics

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there are business units that will have

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priorities and objectives that they

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fight each other for resources on that

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ultimately the SE Suite has to determine

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okay is this in line with the overall

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direction of the business and okay if

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this project does move forward what

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which which projects because they're

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usually competing and when to say

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competing projects it's not that the

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projects are the same it's competing

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projects for time resources right and

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money right

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um so yeah often times it's like well

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I'm just going to keep staying with the

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winning team ain't no one going to want

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to do a postmortem which is where I

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would give credit to military they

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always did a postmortem after every

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Mission absolutely and I think there's

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some strength in that but like I said

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unfortunately us civies us civilians

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don't understand that you can go over

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things to learn Take Lessons Learned and

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not have that stench of a failure stuck

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Associated to you yeah it's ego it comes

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down to Ego and it comes down to

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territory you know because are you going

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to be the person that's going to be

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green lit for the next project as you

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said if you're the person that stank up

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the last

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one and so a lot of people will quietly

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kill something before even the seite has

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a chance to even know

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it because it's better to just say Hey

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listen you know what let's just not move

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forward with this let's just you know

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don't worry about we just you know we

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try we try we're just we're just not

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going to invest any more time or effort

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on this and we're just going to move

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forward and you know that way it doesn't

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become a seweet decision it gets killed

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at a lower

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level because the those people sit there

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and say you know what I know this thing

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is going to come back down badly if if

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seawe has to kill this yeah I'm you know

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I'm going to be in you know it could be

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my head on the chopping block and it

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most likely will be if you're in that

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level of of that level of decision-

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making right where it is

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ultimately you wasted millions of

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dollars I don't know you know what's

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really crazy to me is how quickly a

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company is SC once you get to a certain

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size how million-dollar projects just

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suddenly Vapor turn into vapor I don't

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know how I could function as a human to

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like kiss off a mill Buck you know

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whatevers but it happens more often than

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not that's what's just mind-blowing to

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me here I just read this the other day

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that in companies of 100,000

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employees $62 million a year gets wasted

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due to in ineffective internal

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communication oh doesn't surprise me $62

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million on the average 100,000 employee

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company now if for a 100 person in

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company it's still

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$42,000 I mean you look at it for a

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small little company of a 100 employees

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which still is still is a decent sized

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company but to lose $42,000 after tax

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wow is because of negligence and because

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people don't learn and because they they

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didn't learn from their mistakes they

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didn't they didn't sit there and say

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okay let's do a postmortem let's take

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the time to figure out what went right

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what went wrong and how we can do better

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next time and therefore they do the same

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damn thing all over again over again

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then that's just

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negligence and I think as organizations

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we need to be able to

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go yeah we screwed up okay what did we

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learn from it what what what's the good

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that can come out of this what's the

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good listen wait a second what if we

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take that technology and we merge that

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with this hang on a second here that

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might work but if we just throw in the

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garbage can or in the

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drawer it's sunk

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costs and we have no opportunity to

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learn we have no opportunity to move

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forward we have no opportunity to be

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able to get people that feel good about

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themselves in any way shape or

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form all we do is leave bad taste and

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stench behind us yeah and that's not a

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great place to

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be it isn't a great place to be and

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that's where I

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think I'm glad that we I'm glad we're

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gnawing on this because I think it needs

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to be spoken and addressed right because

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it's almost like I think for me it's

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almost like giving even though it's a

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small nod but of respect for all the

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people's times I mean it's their human

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lives that they've just spent on a

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project that will go nowhere so now

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you're not only have you just thrown

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away that time and investment that

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knowledge transfer potential knowledge

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transfer that didn't even happen because

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it got cut off it is also that uh you

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know almost apology not apology but like

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uh not acceptance what's that word

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acknowledgment that you can't even give

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that those people who work so hard on

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this stuff the the attab boy because it

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got cancelled so the Assumption it was a

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failure so all your hard work it's like

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gay like you know I mean it feels like a

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how do you s how do you cheer a success

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of something that got cancelled away so

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job well done too bad we got canceled

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that sucks yeah but you also take a look

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at said they go okay what about those

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evenings and weekends that you worked

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and you were away from family or you

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know spouses or significant other or or

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you know parents birthday parties or

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whatever because you got put on the fast

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track on this on this

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project and you're expected to work all

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this extra time and then all of a sudden

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there's no payoff at the end of the time

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you can't even say hey look look what we

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did

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look what we

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accomplished because there's no way of

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sitting there going all right we didn't

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win this this didn't happen but at least

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we learned at least we learned and this

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is what we learned and this is what we

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can wait a second here we can adapt it

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to that hey that's a great

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idea and I think as organizations and

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this comes back to our culture

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conversation is that we need to build

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the cultures of innovations that

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celebrate both the wins and the

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failures and be able to sit there and

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figure out what are the lessons learned

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because if even if even if we've thrown

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five million 10 million $50 million do

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down the drain and sunk costs there's

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got to be something that we can we can

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get out of there there's got to be a

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technology that came out of that an

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innovation that came out of that a

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process that came out of that procedures

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that came out of that uh a new

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relationship that came out of that you

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know a a new vendor that was that was

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found yeah and we need to be able to sit

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there and say okay how can we utilize

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all

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that in a way that makes makes our lives

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better oh I

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agree so do you have anything to add

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damn it no damn it like seriously this

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we we've got to we got to you know after

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this our goal is to find a topic that we

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just are di diametrically opposed on

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because that was like preaching to the

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choir babe pre preaching to the

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choir so let's leave it there I'm Ben

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and I'm CA agree I'm Mis agreeing

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CA and we'll see you

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soon hey hey hey thanks for listening to

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