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You would think that becoming exponentially better at measuring and anticipating risks is something most organizations would spend time and money on. Especially since it is the core of making sure we create value from our work and to manage our financials as an organization.

Just as we as a society benefit from learning from history so we can avoid wars and cultural destruction as well as genocide, surely we as organizations would emphasize on preventing disasters, both long term and short term?

Yet, many organizations put zero effort into long time learnings or even document neither triumphs nor disasters. Instead, we run as fast as we can and any learnings we make along the way have the stickiness of Teflon.

While the definition of insanity really has nothing to do with repeating the same bad thing over and over as the term is a legal one and not a medical one, I would argue that constantly ignoring lessons from your failures or successes is stupid to the point of negligent.

If you don't make estimates in measurements that can actually be evaluated and learned from, then you are robbing yourself and your organization of that learning experience. You are hindering your own growth as a professional, and you are most likely hurting your organization by repeatedly failing to produce the right value at the right time.

It is not enough to produce value after all. You have to create the right value at the right time, and you need to continuously improve your competence in making those estimations.

You either learn from your experiences, or you are doomed to repeat them.

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