Carole Hemmelgarn

The project was called Connecting for Health, and there was substantial enthusiasm for it. At least the ad campaign was enthusiastic.

But the train rolled on despite these potential problems. Connecting for health required a massive overhaul of hardware systems as well as software systems.

But the train rolled on despite these potential problems. Connecting for health required a massive overhaul of hardware systems as well as software systems.

But the train rolled on despite these potential problems. Connecting for health required a massive overhaul of hardware systems as well as software systems.

British Parliament ultimately called this attempted reform, quote, one of the worst and most expensive contracting fiascos ever. So what kind of lessons can be learned from this failure?

British Parliament ultimately called this attempted reform, quote, one of the worst and most expensive contracting fiascos ever. So what kind of lessons can be learned from this failure?

British Parliament ultimately called this attempted reform, quote, one of the worst and most expensive contracting fiascos ever. So what kind of lessons can be learned from this failure?

I've read that the haste, especially the haste of awarding contracts at the time, was considered a great thing because it was so atypical of how government worked. And it was hailed as, you know, a new way of the government doing business. In the end, that haste turned out to be a problem, though, correct?

I've read that the haste, especially the haste of awarding contracts at the time, was considered a great thing because it was so atypical of how government worked. And it was hailed as, you know, a new way of the government doing business. In the end, that haste turned out to be a problem, though, correct?

I've read that the haste, especially the haste of awarding contracts at the time, was considered a great thing because it was so atypical of how government worked. And it was hailed as, you know, a new way of the government doing business. In the end, that haste turned out to be a problem, though, correct?

If you are the kind of person who likes to understand and analyze failure in order to mitigate future failures, what might be useful here is to overlay the National Health Service's IT fiasco onto Amy Edmondson's spectrum of causes of failure. Reconfiguring a huge IT system certainly qualifies as a task challenge, but there were shades of inability and inattention at work here as well.

If you are the kind of person who likes to understand and analyze failure in order to mitigate future failures, what might be useful here is to overlay the National Health Service's IT fiasco onto Amy Edmondson's spectrum of causes of failure. Reconfiguring a huge IT system certainly qualifies as a task challenge, but there were shades of inability and inattention at work here as well.

If you are the kind of person who likes to understand and analyze failure in order to mitigate future failures, what might be useful here is to overlay the National Health Service's IT fiasco onto Amy Edmondson's spectrum of causes of failure. Reconfiguring a huge IT system certainly qualifies as a task challenge, but there were shades of inability and inattention at work here as well.

All of those causes reside toward the blameworthy end of the scale. As for the praiseworthy end of the spectrum, that's where experimentation can be found. The NHS project didn't incorporate much experimentation.

All of those causes reside toward the blameworthy end of the scale. As for the praiseworthy end of the spectrum, that's where experimentation can be found. The NHS project didn't incorporate much experimentation.

All of those causes reside toward the blameworthy end of the scale. As for the praiseworthy end of the spectrum, that's where experimentation can be found. The NHS project didn't incorporate much experimentation.

It was more command and control, top-down, with little room for adjustment and little opportunity to learn from the small failures that experimentation can produce and which can prevent big failures. Experimentation, if you think about it, is the foundation of just about all the learning we do as humans. And yet, we seem to constantly forget this.

It was more command and control, top-down, with little room for adjustment and little opportunity to learn from the small failures that experimentation can produce and which can prevent big failures. Experimentation, if you think about it, is the foundation of just about all the learning we do as humans. And yet, we seem to constantly forget this.

It was more command and control, top-down, with little room for adjustment and little opportunity to learn from the small failures that experimentation can produce and which can prevent big failures. Experimentation, if you think about it, is the foundation of just about all the learning we do as humans. And yet, we seem to constantly forget this.

Maybe that's because experimentation will inevitably produce a lot of failure. I mean, that's the point. And most of us just don't want to fail at all, even if it's in the service of long-term success. So let's see if we can't adjust our focus here. Let's talk about real experimentation.