25.10. THE EXIT CHAMPION

Project champions do everything possible to make their project successful. But what if the project champions, as well as the project team, have blind faith in the success of the project? What happens if the strongly held convictions and the collective belief disregard the early warning signs of imminent danger? What happens if the collective belief drowns out dissent?

In such cases, an exit champion must be assigned. The exit champion sometimes needs to have some direct involvement in the project in order to have credibility. Exit champions must be willing to put their reputation on the line and possibly face the likelihood of being cast out from the project team. According to Isabelle Royer^[]:

^[] Isabelle Royer, "Why Bad Projects Are So Hard to Kill," Harvard Business Review, February 2003, p. 11. Copyright © 2003 by the Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.