This article is about something very simple that I learned recently. In all fairness, its not really a new and novell concept. Rather, its always something I’ve known after running many projects but something I find that I tend to forget from time to time. What is it you ask? Well, its the concept of that’s discussed in the book by Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler, Stephen R. Covey in the book Crucical Conversations.
The concept is really simple. As a leader, when you make a decision, how do you make sure that it carries through? Well, according to the authors you need to make sure you determine “Who, Does What, By When and How will you follow up?“. This concept is so simple yet I see so many managers and project managers neglect this concept that forget about this (including myself) that I think it warrents a post for effective management.
Why is this important? Well, it is important to make sure the team knows what’s expected after you make a decision.
Key Take Aways
Who: Entails who will be doing the task? You need to appoint a name or several names to a given task. Otherwise, your team will not know they were expected to do something until its already too late.
Does What: After you make a decision, your team will depend on you to articulate what you want them to do. The more precise you can be the better the outcomes. If you are not clear about what you expect of your team and communicate it as such, you can count on your team not delivering exactly what you wanted. So the key is to be clear in what you expect of the individual(s).
By When: After you clarify what you want the identified team members to do (and clearly describe it as such), you need to make sure that you identify a timeline and capture this on a schedule or project plan (if you have one). The key is to make sure the people assigned the task is aware of when you expect something done. If you don’t specify a date, you can be sure that your team will likely not finish a given task .
And How will you Follow Up: After you determine Who, Does What, By When, you need to determine how you will follow up. This is simply just a way to get status updates from time to time. As a manager or leader, how will you remember to follow up on a decision that you’ve made to make sure there is a follow through by your assigned team members? The answer lies in technology. For me, I rely a lot on Microsoft Outlook to set off reminders for me to follow up on something. Immediately after assigning a task to a team member, I will add a new appointment in my Microsoft Outlook calendar like “Check on status of Sales Report assigned to John to be completed by Monday July 12″. Once the date comes up, I will remember to check in on the status of the action item.
Voila, that is a really good lesson learned from the book “Crucial Conversations”. How do you make sure your decision making is effective?
