Barrier:
Face the facts because the solution might be sitting next to you.

Let's face it, the last thing we want to do in a meeting with all the bigwigs is to say that our department has a problem and it could derail the project.  In business today it seems all we want to do is focus on how good the project is going and ignore the sections of the project that could and in most cases will cause it to fail.  I try at every step to look for the reasons I can not do my job to expectation and I convey that information up the ladder to include what I think we need to do to insure we can solve it going forward.  In case after case I face the same problems and I have to work around the problem every time.  Now do not get me wrong, I have been doing what I do long enough to know that I do not always know why the process is the way it is.  I have as well been at this long enough to know that no one likes to admit that they are the problem and that a process they put in place is not working. 

So here is the Barrier:  How do we keep from becoming the Dallas Cowboys of business because the owner of the company and his chain of command does not want to hear the bad news?  When will we admit that we learn when things go wrong?  How I ask do we learn that the things that are going right will do us no good if problems are not addressed?  No matter how good things are going, it is the problems that will bring the project to its knees and if we can not learn from the problems first we are dead before we start.