#projectreporting

Kicking off the next term with purpose and progress ✨

Glad to be part of the Special Meeting – Project Reporting, organized by the Leo Club of Colombo Centennial on April 27, 2026, as we gear up for the upcoming term 🚀

Project reporting has never been more sophisticated — and rarely more misleading.

Dashboards glow green. Metrics are tracked weekly. Status updates circulate with reassuring regularity. And yet projects still drift, stall, and unravel in ways that seem to surprise everyone involved.

The problem isn’t a lack of information. It’s that reporting has slowly replaced decision-making.

Most project reports are designed to describe activity, not expose risk. They summarise what has already happened, rather than forcing a conversation about what must happen next. Over time, this creates a false sense of control — one where effort is visible, but direction is not.

Green status is the most dangerous colour in project management.

When reports are consistently positive, it usually means one of two things: either the project is genuinely under control — or uncomfortable issues are being deferred until they become unavoidable. In practice, it’s far more often the latter.

Modern reporting frameworks encourage optimism. Risks are softened into “watch items.” Delays are reframed as “re-sequencing.” Decisions that haven’t been made are parked under vague headings like ongoing discussion. None of this is dishonest in isolation. Collectively, it creates blindness.

The real failure of reporting is not technical. It’s behavioural.

Teams quickly learn what kind of reporting is rewarded. If escalation leads to scrutiny or blame, people stop escalating. If optimism is praised, realism disappears. Over time, reporting becomes performative — an exercise in maintaining confidence rather than confronting reality.

Good project reporting should make people uncomfortable.

Not because it’s negative, but because it demands clarity. A useful report doesn’t ask “How are things going?” It asks:

What decision is required now?

Who owns it?

What happens if it isn’t made?

If a report can be read without triggering a decision, it isn’t management — it’s documentation.

This is why some of the most tightly governed projects still fail. Governance structures grow heavier while authority becomes more diffuse. Reports pass through layers of review, but no one feels empowered to act on what they contain. Information moves upward. Decisions do not.

The irony is that most leaders don’t want more reporting. They want fewer surprises.

Surprises happen when reporting focuses on compliance instead of control. When success is measured by whether a template was completed, rather than whether a risk was neutralised. When teams believe that submitting a report is the same as managing a problem.

Strong projects use reporting as a forcing function.

A good report shortens conversations. It clarifies trade-offs. It creates a moment where someone must say yes, no, or stop. The format matters far less than the behaviour it drives.

This is why the best project leaders spend less time perfecting dashboards and more time interrogating what sits behind them. They ask what’s missing. They ask what people are reluctant to say. And they treat reporting not as a comfort blanket, but as a tool for disciplined action.

Projects don’t fail because the data wasn’t there. They fail because the data didn’t lead to decisions.

Need to see your entire project at a glance? The Project Management Dashboard Template is your visual command center—tracking tasks, timelines, KPIs, risks, and more in one streamlined Excel sheet.

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Website: www.glms.com.au

Email Id: [email protected]