Why it matters
Stopping projects is hard, and teams often carry quiet grief or shame. Some organisations hold mock funerals for cancelled projects — burying the project, not the people. It makes stopping a respected decision rather than a failure.
How to run it
- Announce the funeral — it’s a celebration of effort, not an inquest.
- Eulogise the project. What it set out to do, what it achieved, what it taught us.
- Capture three lessons for future projects.
- Thank the team by name, and give them a clean start on what comes next.
Watch out for
- Mocking the people involved
- Skipping the lessons and only doing the jokes