I have always been a planner. I am the one who makes sure the bathroom is always stocked with toilet paper, that I have items I need for contingency plans and that my pantry always has the essentials in it so I don’t have to make a mad dash to the store. Today’s ezine deals with the situation where you have to work with someone who doesn’t plan–someone who blows through like a tornado causing last minute problems for all.
I must admit that wait, wait, rush atmosphere is, for me, very disruptive. But you will see below concrete ways to deal with it. There are ways to manage it so it doesn’t control you or throw you in to orbit.
It is a fine line we have to walk as leaders between being strategically planned and creatively flexible. My quick rule of thumb is to do an acid test–is this something that could have been prepared for? If the answer is yes in any format, I then move to looking at what is causing it to not get done? Then look for patterns–is it a priority issue? a tactical versus strategic thinking issue? a system that is broken or a system that is needed? Solve the pattern and you will solve the problem!
I hope you have a very Happy Thanksgiving! I know I will be eating lots of turkey and stuffing!
PS I am in charge of desserts, what are you in charge of for your holiday?
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How to hold a leader accountable to group project deadlines
by Anne Warfield
SITUATION: Our company is moving at a very fast pace. This requires us to constantly be working on new initiatives that need to be quickly turned around. This high pressure can be felt by all the groups as we work together.
The problem is not the pace, but rather one leader in the group that tends to look at project deadlines as not his concern but everyone else’s. So if a program is due to be released to the public 11/1 he assumes he and his team can change design, etc. right up until 10/30 and the rest of us should dance and still deliver it on 11/1.
This has caused endless problems to the other departments and at times means we go to market with inferior quality as we aren’t able to work the bugs out of things in advance. It creates a hectic pace that is causing the rest of us sleepless nights and ulcers.
How do I get him to hold to the group deadlines? Whenever I have tried talking to him about it he responds that “if we are going to do it we should do it right”. That is his justification for his team taking longer. Oh and he is one level higher up then me so it is a bit tricky.
OTHER PERSON’S PERSPECTIVE: Start with the positive premise that he wants the company to be successful, he wants to be successful and he wants to deliver a product that is well thought out.
He most likely is not thinking about how his delays are impacting others. He might even be thinking that he is doing you a favor but not having you work on it until he is sure he has his end done correctly.
THINKING IT THROUGH WITH OUTCOME THINKING®: This one is a bit tricky as a lot depends on this senior person’s ego, relationship with you and his reputation and relationship with others in the company. For today’s sake we are going to assume all of those are positive.
In that case what you are really dealing with is what you need to do in order to firmly plan out deadlines so all are in agreement UPFRONT on what the consequences if one aspect is delayed.
Currently he is not being held accountable to that as all the other teams are adjusting their schedule in order to meet the deadlines.
There are two ways you can deal with this:
1. Speak to your boss about what you can do to help “Jim” transition projects earlier so that your team can ensure that the high quality standards are always met. If your boss has a good relationship with Jim, that may be the way to go.
2. Go to Jim yourself, start with the positive premise that you want to see all his projects succeed with high quality and to that end have some ideas on how to improve the process to ensure high quality in delivery and that you want to brainstorm with him on how they might work.
HOW TO BEST HANDLE/PHRASE USING OUTCOME THINKING®: “Jim I realize that the company is moving at a fast pace and this often means we are all scrambling to get projects done. I see you giving a lot of thoughtful attention upfront to what needs to be done in a project in order to make sure it is right on the mark. Sometimes that thoughtful attention does alter the timing of when things flow down the pipeline and shortens that time for other departments to complete their work and meet the market deadline. At times this has caused us to bring things to market that have not been up to the quality level both you and I would like to see.
I wanted to brainstorm with you today on what would be some good ways to close that gap to ensure that we all get the accurate time on a project so we deliver a high end product to the market. One idea I had was to create a generic timeline we can all use for new products that are utilizing our current technology and then another one for customized projects that are using new technology. Then we could all agree upfront on how delays will be handled in the pipeline as well as what will be the new delivery date. What would we need to do to make that work?”
Then let him talk and keep the conversation focused on delivering high quality to the market and making sure all changes are filtered down so new deadlines can be agreed on.
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