- Overlooked obvious problems/ should have been detected earlier – and what could have been possible/ accused of being out of touch/ distracted.
- Management may not want to put in the work to correct the issues.
- May want solutions (eg. Proper training to do the job right/ what did or didn’t go right in the run-up to the issue being discovered) to prevent issues from reoccurring.
- May want to learn how the process may have failed (the what, where, how and why) and if more could have been done.
- May want to determine responsibility.
- May want to be seen as the project’s rescuer.
- May have been too focused on the project’s vision at the expense of day-to-day operations.
- May only care, now that a problem has surfaced.
- Might not understand the full scope of the problem.
- May want to “cherry-pick” select data/ spin/ control information/ sugar-coat responses to protect their opinions/ decisions/ try to offer hope regarding the project’s status.
- Company’s reputation could be at risk.
- Management’s integrity might be in question.
- May wish to protect its executives from any possible poor performance.
- May refuse to recognize/ concede errors/ mistakes promptly due to past reputations/ expertise
- May wish to restrict access to information
- May be reluctant to take corrective actions, if the initial decisions occurred under their watch
- May feel overwhelmed
- Exhibiting a sense of panic
- May have succumbed to groupthink
- May attempt to shift blame onto subordinates for the project’s poor performance
- May aggressively question the validity of your findings
- May request time to review the findings that are presented