Opening up demonstration projects to full view

Earlier this week the Movement for Innovation announced that the 31 Egan demonstration projects completed so far had met all their improvement targets for design, costs, defects and safety.

The figures are certainly very encouraging, with some projects apparently achieving stunning success. But there are some reservations. For a start, the projects represent only one sixth of the total number of 186. The rest are either long finished, are finished - but have not supplied figures - or are at too early a stage.

Secondly, what do the figures supplied by the 31 projects tell us? Well, not as much as they might as no figures for individual projects are revealed, instead the results have been averaged out across all 31 projects.

A third cause for concern is that some projects have not returned figures at all and possible failures are being hidden.

This contradicts one of the core values espoused by the demonstration projects, which is to share information openly on both successes and failures. After all, the demonstration projects are all about trialling new processes and innovations. Not everything will work, but failures often teach more than successes.

It is perfectly understandable that M4I and other organisations like it should want to focus on the successes. If the industry is to change, it badly needs hard evidence that change works. But it may not do the credibility of the demonstration projects any good in the long run if the negative aspects are glossed over or not revealed at all for serious scrutiny.

It is only human nature that people should want to hide failure. But if we don't encourage openness on the more negative aspects of the projects and other initiatives like them, we may be losing out, both in terms of credibility and useful information.