Sometimes We Win, Sometimes We Learn-Project Manager’s Learning from Project Failures

Abstract: Project failures are a reality that most project managers face several times in their careers, but even more significant than the failure itself, is what these individuals learn after experiencing it. Studies do exist within the entrepreneurship literature which analyze failure of entrepreneurial projects. But these are not particularly focused on projects executed within organizations and the experiences of entrepreneurs would be different to those of project managers within firms, after a failure occurs. The authors have made a research from a sample of 6 project managers over such project failures. Using Kolb's experiential Theory to understand the learning that occurs after project failures helped the authors to create a model which the project managers can use in their process of learning after failures. This study also elaborates about the project management literature in association with project failures and also the various aspects of learning that can be achieved in an organization.