Stop sensation tourism in your projects!

Stop sensation tourism in your projects!

It must have been 2006 or 2007. I was invited to a project kick-off meeting for the Airbus A380’s entry into service at Lufthansa. That was my first encounter with sensation tourism in projects!

Before the meeting, I naively imagined that the kick-off would introduce the scope, establish milestones, distribute key work packages among those present, discuss how we would collaborate and agree concrete next steps before the emerging project team’s next meeting. Yet entering the room revealed how naive my understanding of project realities was. Almost a hundred people were sitting there, eagerly awaiting the project leadership’s presentation. My first thought was: wow, but fair enough! The A380 is a very large aircraft, so it needs many work packages and plenty of people taking responsibility. By the meeting’s end, however, reality had replaced my naive expectations. Most people had not come to take responsibility. Lufthansa’s first A380 was a sensation! Naturally, project sensation tourists had to be there from the first minute. The project leaders did everything possible to satisfy that tourism. Instead of discussing timelines, work packages, responsibilities and collaboration, we saw colourful pictures, photos of the A380, its new cabin and technical features. Or, in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s words: “If you want to build a ship, don’t begin by gathering timber, cutting boards and dividing the work; awaken in people’s hearts the longing for the vast and beautiful sea.”

Looking back, it was a very well-crafted kick-off. The longing for the magnificent A380 was fully awakened by that meeting, at the latest.

Nevertheless, the term project sensation tourism, accompanied by the image of almost a hundred tourists, became firmly embedded in my mind. I could still describe the room very precisely. Since then, I have repeatedly encountered them in projects at many companies. The actual problem is often that this sensation tourism never subsides throughout the project. Project managers enjoy high and sometimes growing viewing figures, while completely forgetting to clarify roles and responsibilities and limit their hopefully regular, focused project meetings to the relevant people.

Instead, everyone meets regularly, talks endlessly and adds their opinion to every conceivable project event.

Much to the project managers’ frustration, audiences often grow when projects appear to be going off track. Managers from every direction join the sensation tourists to supposedly get the project back on course. The project sensation reaches its climax.

Does that sound familiar? Try a simple, almost disruptive question at the next project meeting: could we, exceptionally, discuss which people present are taking responsibility for what in this project?

The consequence could be that only half the people return for the next project meeting!