Not all projects fail. Some simply ... linger.

They continue to generate meetings, reports and executive discussions while quietly consuming budget, leadership attention, employee time and organizational energy long after they've stopped delivering meaningful strategic value. 

These are the "zombie projects" — initiatives that survive, not because they're succeeding, but because no one is willing to make the difficult decision to let them go.

The financial cost of these projects can be significant, but the hidden opportunity cost is often even greater. Every dollar invested in an initiative that no longer advances the organization's goals is a dollar unavailable for innovation. Every hour leadership spends trying to revive yesterday's priorities is an hour not spent building tomorrow's growth. The challenge isn't simply identifying underperforming projects, but creating an organization that knows when to continue investing, when to adapt and when to move on.

How to spot a zombie project before it drains more value

One reason zombie projects survive is that organizations often mistake symptoms for root causes.

"It can be remarkably easy to diagnose a symptom as the disease and spend years chasing down the wrong problem," Haber said.

He offered a simple example. Imagine a company struggling to sell its blue travel mug. Leadership may conclude customers simply dislike the color and spend months redesigning the product. In reality, the manufacturing process may have produced a mug that doesn't fit in standard vehicle cupholders. Revenue reports alone would never reveal that insight.

That's why Haber argues executives need both quantitative and qualitative feedback before making strategic decisions. Financial performance tells leaders what is happening. Conversations with customers and employees often explain why.

He also points to another obstacle: Human nature.

"Sunk-cost bias, internal politics, executive ego — and I'd add overwhelm to that list — are all factors," he said. "Sometimes when we're not sure what to do, we do nothing."

What leaders should define before funding a new initiative

Rather than focusing on how organizations should shut down failing initiatives, Haber encourages leaders to ask a different question:

"What is your organizational framework for scoping new initiatives?"

In his view, every strategic initiative should begin with three fundamental questions.

First: What is the intended outcome?
Executives must clearly understand what success looks like and why achieving that outcome matters to the organization.

Second: What is the triage process?
If the initiative underperforms, how will leaders evaluate whether to adjust course, invest further or discontinue the effort?

Third: How will success be measured?
Metrics shouldn't be created after problems emerge. They should be agreed upon before work begins, giving everyone a common framework for decision-making.

By establishing those guardrails early, organizations remove much of the emotion that often surrounds difficult investment decisions.

Why executive attention is the scarcest resource in the business

When executives think about zombie projects, they often focus on wasted budget. Haber believes they're looking at the wrong resource.

"Attention," he said. "The one thing more valuable to executives than money is time."

Leadership attention is finite. Every hour spent trying to rescue an initiative with no viable path forward is an hour unavailable for customers, employees, innovation or future growth opportunities.

The true opportunity cost isn't just financial. It's strategic.

How to separate visible activity from strategic progress

Another trap executives frequently fall into is mistaking busyness for value.

"The tendency to conflate busyness with outcomes is universal," Haber said.

Marketing teams often refer to these as "vanity metrics" — numbers that create the appearance of success without demonstrating meaningful business impact. Organizations can generate reports, meetings, dashboards and status updates while making little measurable progress toward their strategic objectives. The solution, Haber argues, is to continually return to the original question: What outcome was this initiative designed to produce?

If the activity no longer contributes to that objective, it's time to reassess.

Where should organizations reinvest after shutting down a low-value initiative?

Once leaders decide to retire an initiative, another question quickly follows: What deserves investment instead?

Too often, organizations default to whichever opportunity appears most profitable in the short term.

Haber recommends a broader evaluation framework.

Profit potential certainly matters, he said, but so do the underlying drivers of sustainable growth: Customer advocacy, employee engagement, operational efficiency, brand sentiment and customer satisfaction.

Understanding which of those strategic levers an initiative strengthens provides a much more complete picture of its long-term value.

How can companies turn failed projects into better future decisions?

Perhaps Haber's strongest message is that organizations need to rethink how they view failure altogether.

"I tell my team almost weekly that everything I know, I learned from screwing it up at least once," he said with a laugh.

Failed initiatives shouldn't become organizational scarlet letters. Instead, they should become part of the organization's intellectual capital, capturing lessons that improve future decisions.

"Zombie projects come from the resistance to deprecate," Haber said. "That resistance comes from the fear of failure. When you stop making deprecation a failure story and start making it a learning story, it's a lot easier to iterate quickly to find the wins."

Ultimately, great leaders don't distinguish themselves by never making mistakes. They distinguish themselves by creating decision-making systems that make it easier to recognize when assumptions have changed, opportunities have shifted and resources need to move elsewhere.

Every dollar has a job to do. The organizations that continue growing are the ones disciplined enough to ask whether that dollar is still doing the right job, and courageous enough to reassign it when it isn't.