Conducting Project Post-Mortems

No one likes a difficult conversation... These 8 reframes make them easier. The biggest myth in difficult conversations---that the right words will magically appear in the moment. They won't. But these practical swaps will help you navigate them with confidence: 1️⃣ Instead of: "We need to talk..." Say: "I'd like to share some observations and get your perspective." Why: Reduces immediate defensive reactions and shows you value two-way dialogue. 2️⃣ Instead of: "The problem is..." Say: "Here's the situation as I understand it..." Why: Creates space for different viewpoints without assigning blame. 3️⃣ Instead of: "You always/never..." Say: "I've noticed that recently..." Why: Focuses on specific instances rather than character judgments. 4️⃣ Instead of: Starting with complaints Say: "My goal for this conversation is..." Why: Sets a constructive tone and clear direction. 5️⃣ Instead of: "You made me feel..." Say: "When [situation happens], I feel..." Why: Takes ownership of your emotions while clearly linking them to specific actions. 6️⃣ Instead of: Avoiding silences Say: "Let's take a moment to consider this." or “Lets come back to this” Why: Gives both parties time to process and respond thoughtfully. 7️⃣ Instead of: Pushing for immediate solutions Say: "What options do you see for moving forward?" Why: Invites collaboration rather than forcing outcomes. 8️⃣ Instead of: Ending vaguely Say: "Let's agree on next steps and check in [specific time]." Why: Creates accountability and clear path forward. These phrases are particularly relevant where there is a power dynamic at play. Remember---difficult conversations become easier when you focus on clarity over comfort. ♻️ repost if this resonated and follow Scarlett McCabe for more communication tips!

𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒉𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒂𝒍. 𝑪𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅. 𝑴𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒏. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕. Sound familiar? A team closed a major deal. Leadership congratulated them. Everyone moved on to the next quarter. No one asked: “What made this work? What would we do differently?” Three months later, they tried to replicate the success — couldn’t. Because no one had captured what actually drove the win. McKinsey found that organizations with structured learning processes are 2.5× more likely to sustain performance, yet most skip the debrief and wonder why progress doesn’t stick. 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘴𝘯’t 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳 — 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘳. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑳𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑳𝒐𝒐𝒑 High-performing teams don’t just execute. They learn, capture, and apply. 1. Execute → Deliver the outcome 2. Reflect → Ask: What worked (and why)? What didn’t (facts, not blame)? What will we do differently next time? 3. Capture → Store lessons where people actually use them (not slides no one opens) 4. Apply → Embed learnings into the next cycle Most teams stop at Step 1. The best close the loop. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑹𝒉𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒎 𝒐𝒇 𝑰𝒎𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 Improvement isn’t a project. It’s a practice. Daily: 5-min huddles → “What’s working? What’s stuck?” Weekly: 15-min retros → “What did we learn this week?” Quarterly: Strategic debriefs → “What patterns are emerging?” If reflection only happens when things go wrong, you’re learning too late. 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 ❌ Celebrating wins without decoding success ❌ Repeating mistakes because no one reflected ❌ Treating improvement as a one-off project ❌ No feedback loops — teams flying blind 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 𝐃𝐨: ✓ Debrief every outcome — success and failure ✓ Make reflection part of weekly rhythm ✓ Capture insights in living systems, not cluttered docs ✓ Apply relentlessly 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒕𝒉: If you’re not getting better, you’re getting beaten. The fastest teams aren’t the busiest — they’re the most reflective. Reflect: → When did you last debrief a success to understand what made it work? → Do you have a weekly rhythm for learning — or only during crises? 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘴𝘯’t 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵. 𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘢 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦. P.S. To build this discipline into your leadership rhythm → 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑰𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒓 𝑬𝒅𝒈𝒆 https://lnkd.in/gi-u8ndJ #TheInnerEdge #ContinuousImprovement #ExecutionExcellence #LeadershipRhythm #StrategicLeadership

The way we engage in difficult conversations can either build bridges or shut them down entirely. If you want to spark meaningful dialogue, start with curiosity, not confrontation. Use questions like, “Tell me more about that,” or “I’m curious about your perspective—can you help me understand?” These phrases invite openness and allow for a strategic, effective discussion. The key? Be approachable and friendly, but hold your ground. Don’t let your questions come across as accusatory—once people feel they’re being judged, they’ll stop listening. Instead, engage with empathy while staying firm in your values. This balance of kindness and conviction can transform conversations, creating opportunities for deeper understanding and genuine change.

You’re not bad at hard conversations. You just lose composure when it matters most. It’s rarely your words that cost you credibility. It’s how you show up under pressure. When tension rises, your tone tightens, your pace speeds up, and your message gets lost in the noise. Here are 12 moves that change that fast 👇🏼 1️⃣ Regulate your nervous system first ↳ Take 3 deep exhales before the conversation starts ↳ A calm body reads as confidence and credibility 2️⃣ Start with the hard part ↳ Don’t warm up with small talk when tension is high ↳ Try: “I want to talk about the tension I’m noticing between us.” 3️⃣ Name what’s happening in the room ↳ “This feels uncomfortable, and that’s okay.” ↳ Acknowledging discomfort actually reduces it 4️⃣ Use “I notice” instead of “You always” ↳ “I notice we’ve had different interpretations of this deadline.” ↳ Removes blame, invites curiosity 5️⃣ Ask what they need, not what you think they need ↳ “What would make this situation better for you?” ↳ Let them tell you instead of guessing 6️⃣ Slow down when you feel defensive ↳ Your instinct is to speed up and explain ↳ Pause for 2 seconds before responding 7️⃣ Validate before you correct ↳ “I can see why you’d interpret it that way.” ↳ Validation isn’t agreement - it’s acknowledgment 8️⃣ Lower your voice instead of raising it ↳ Dropping tone creates instant composure and control ↳ It makes others lean in instead of fight back 9️⃣ Get curious about their position ↳ “Help me understand what you’re most concerned about.” ↳ Curiosity disarms defensiveness instantly 🔟 Own your part without over-apologizing ↳ “I see how I contributed to this misunderstanding.” ↳ One clear acknowledgment, then move forward 1️⃣1️⃣ Focus on the future, not the past ↳ “Here’s what I’d like to do differently going forward.” ↳ The past can’t change, the future can 1️⃣2️⃣ End with a clear next step ↳ “So we’re aligned on [specific action]?” ↳ Ambiguity creates tension later Difficult conversations aren’t about control. They’re about turning tension into trust. Which line would have helped you most in your last tough talk? -- 🔖 Save this post to revisit before your next high-stakes conversation ♻️ Repost to help your network handle tough conversations better 🔔 Follow Dr. Carolyn Frost for practical psychology for ambitious professionals

Three site problems repeat on every event you run. One conversation would have stopped all of them. Not because your team is bad. Because nobody captured what went wrong. No structured debrief. No feedback loop. No document that says "this is what happened, this is why, and this is what we're changing." I've watched this pattern play out on hundreds of events over 35 years. The event ends. Everyone scatters. The freelancers move to the next gig. The lessons walk out the door with them. Here's what that costs you on site. #1. The access road that floods every year. Someone knew about it. They left. Now your bump-in runs two hours late because nobody documented the drainage issue or the alternative route. #2. The supplier who always delivers late. Someone flagged it last time. Nobody wrote it down. You're standing on site at 6am watching the same truck miss the same window. #3. The staging sequence that causes a bottleneck every bump-in. Someone solved it at 2am on the last show. The fix lived in their head and nowhere else. This year, a different crew lead spends four hours rediscovering the same solution. Every one of those is a fifteen-minute conversation that didn't happen. Here's the fix. A debrief doesn't need to be a two-hour post-mortem. It needs six questions, asked before anyone leaves site. #1. What worked? Keep it. Write it down while you can still smell the site. #2. What didn't? Name it. "Comms were bad" is useless. "Radio channel 3 was overloaded by 2pm because catering and security shared a frequency" is a fix you can action. #3. What will we do differently? Commit to it. Not "we'll do better." Name the specific change. #4. Who owns each action? Assign it. If nobody owns it, nobody does it. #5. When will it be done? Deadline it. An action without a date is a wish. #6. Who checks before the next event? Close the loop. This is the step everyone skips. It's the only one that stops the cycle. The best event teams I've worked with do this in the production office before pack-down starts. Fifteen minutes. Six questions. One shared document that travels with the event, not the person. That's the difference between an event operation that gets better every year and one that keeps surviving the same problems. What's one lesson from your last event that never made it into a document? 📬 Master Event Scheduling teaches you how to build the operational systems that stop this cycle. A weekend course for event professionals who want structure, not chaos → https://lnkd.in/gfehmzWX 🔔 Follow Iain Morrison for event operations frameworks that actually work on a live site.

“Lessons learned” are only valuable if we actually learn from them. Too often, the lessons learned process is treated like a box ticking exercise at the end of the project. A quick debrief, a document saved in a forgotten folder, and… nothing changes. But if done properly, lessons learned can be a powerful engine for continuous improvement. In fact, there are three essential elements to make the process work, and most organisations only get one or two right. 1. Gather the right lessons from the right people at the right time. Don’t wait until the end of the project when everyone’s mentally checked out. Collect insights throughout delivery, after key milestones, major meetings, and whenever things go right or wrong. Ask good questions. And don’t just focus on what went badly. Many teams assume that avoiding past mistakes or doing the opposite of bad things = success. That’s flawed logic. Understanding what went well is just as important (so you can repeat it!). 2. Store the lessons in a central, accessible, and searchable place. If your lessons are saved in the project folder, they might as well be buried in a time capsule. Instead, store them in a database or platform that’s searchable by: • Project type • Size • Keywords • Industry • Risk profile Make it easy to find relevant insights when starting a new project, not a scavenger hunt. 3. Actually use the lessons to improve future projects. This is the bit most often missed. There must be an expectation, and a system, that makes people consult the lessons before starting a new project. An easy and effective way? Add a section to your initiation documents (project charter, business case, mandate, PID—whatever you use) that asks: “What have you learned from recent, similar projects and how have you applied that to this one?” Make it mandatory. Make it visible. Make it meaningful. Because if organisations truly committed to all three stages of the lessons learned process - capture, store, apply - they’d get smarter, faster, and more successful with every project. And who wouldn’t want that? #ProjectManagement #LessonsLearned #ContinuousImprovement #KnowledgeManagement #PMP

A developer’s coding error once caused a 4-hour outage for 10M users. Instead of firing them, the CTO shared the post-mortem company-wide. Next quarter, that dev built a tool preventing 92% of similar bugs—saving $500K. Mistakes Aren’t Failures. They’re Mentors. – 74% of professionals hide errors, escalating $15K issues into $150K crises (Salesforce). – Teams that normalize mistakes fix problems 5x faster (Gallup). – Employees who “fail forward” report 68% higher job satisfaction (MIT). 𝗧𝘂𝗿𝗻 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀 → Host “blameless post-mortems” • Google’s template: “What happened? Why? How do we ensure it never recurs?” • Reward transparency: Offer a “Best Lesson” award monthly. → Gamify growth • Track “Lessons Learned” like sales targets. Example: “50 bugs caught = team lunch.” • Amazon managers share “Failure CVs” to destigmatize missteps. → Measure progress, not perfection • Count resolved errors, not error counts. • Benchmark quarterly: “How much faster did we recover from setbacks?” 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗥𝗢𝗜 • Teams that share mistakes innovate 42% faster (Harvard). • 89% of employees stay loyal to leaders who support risk-taking (Deloitte). • Companies with “learning cultures” see 31% higher margins (McKinsey). The only true mistake? Wasting the lesson. #GrowthMindset #Leadership #Resilience

Navigating difficult conversations…we know the terrain well in supply chain and sustainability —complex stakeholder relationships, competing priorities, and tough tradeoffs that demand honest dialogue. The first quarter of 2025 has been challenging for some clients and colleagues. Behind every successful initiative lies countless challenging conversations.I wanted to share this list that captures what I've learned (often the hard way) about handling challenging discussions: 1. Lead with empathy - acknowledge feelings before diving into issues 2. Stay calm - pause and breathe when tensions rise. Cooler heads prevail. 3. Prepare but remain flexible - rigid scripts rarely survive contact with reality 4. Ask genuine questions - "help me understand your perspective" 5. Give authentic appreciation - recognize effort before suggesting changes 6. Own your emotions - acknowledge feelings without manipulation 7. Respect others' viewpoints - validation doesn't require agreement. You can disagree and still find a happy path. 8. Be specific - vague criticisms like "you always" rarely help 9. Collaborate on solutions - problem-dumping without brainstorming fixes nothing 10. Set clear boundaries - know what you can and cannot commit to 11. Listen actively - not just waiting for your turn to speak. Read this again… 12. Apologize sincerely when needed - take responsibility, not half-measures. Accountability helps build trust. 13. End with concrete next steps - clarity prevents misunderstandings. Playing back throughout tough conversations with key points and actions shows active listening and understanding. 14. Reflect afterward - what worked? what could improve? In my experience leading global teams, the conversations I've handled poorly weren't failures of strategy—they were failures of approach and understanding context. For example, a recent negotiation with a supplier facing severe capacity constraints could have deteriorated into finger-pointing. Instead, by focusing on understanding their challenges first (point #4) and collaborating on creative solutions (point #9), we found a path forward and workable compromise. Staying calm helped too ;) What's your experience? Which of these principles has been most valuable in your leadership journey? Or is there a 15th point you'd add to this list? ___________ 👍🏽 Like this? ♻️ Repost to help someone ✅ Follow me Sheri R. Hinish 🔔 Click my name → Hit the bell → See my posts. #SupplyChain #leadership #sustainability