The Suez Canal Events, Human Error and Reflective Lessons for Modern Day Project Managers

Over 400 cargo ships and their crew were relieved of suspense on March 29th, 2021. Six days earlier, a massive ship, EverGiven, was trapped at the Suez Canal; bringing 12% of global trade to a standstill.

Ever Given became stuck after running aground and wedged sideways across the Canal; cutting off traffic indefinitely. While traffic (ship) jams are not so rare on this route, this incident is special considering the timing and the size of the vessel involved. The Ever Given runs the length of four football pitches. Although the ship carries a max cap of 20,000 containers, it had 18,300 containers at the time of the incident.

According to the Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, Osama Rabie, the blockage cost the Egyptian government between $14 million – $15 million daily, for six days.

This disaster would’ve been easily forgotten except for the lessons involved. For one, analysts were quick to blame strong winds and the size of the ship. But as new investigations revealed, these were valid factors but not entirely true. Strong winds are common on the canal and bigger ships have sailed that route before. What seemed impossible to rule out was the human error factor.

This incident reminds me as a Project Manager of the fragility of projects. The technical nature of our work can trick us into majoring on tools and systems while we neglect the human angle of project success.

Also, the main vulnerability of our project environment today lies in the fact that too many factors can bring a project to its knees. When one canal to our project success gets blocked, the whole monolith may crumble. This revives the conversation on the crucial nature of multiple alternatives in our day-to-day project management processes.

Since almost no system is fail safe, the benefits of maintaining multiple options far outweighs the costs.