How to Avoid Mistakes in Action Items and Project Deadlines
How many times have you met with your boss and thought you knew exactly what was supposed to be done and by when? It’s easy to assume you heard things correctly, but what if you didn’t? What if you misunderstood and got the deadline and scope wrong? What if you not only got the deadline and scope wrong, but were responsible for getting other knowledge workers to hit a deadline too?
Misunderstandings or making assumptions are confidence killers for a knowledge workers. How can you avoid mistakes and improve productivity?
Moving Too Fast, Possibly Impacting Others
Misunderstandings by knowledge workers happen in companies that have to move fast, as they try to do a lot with little people resources. Everyone’s stretched to the limit. Everyone’s trying to get their part of the puzzle done because someone asked them to meet a deadline. But, the deadline is wrong. An urgency was created because of a failure to clarify exactly what the scope and deadlines were for a complex project with many knowledge workers. Everyone worked their tails off when they didn’t have to.
Breathe, Take Five Minutes to Summarize, Repeat, and Clarify
We all have to work at the speed of light sometimes. But just before you blast off into orbit to meet aggressive deadlines, take five minutes to sum up what you heard the scope, action items, and deadlines to be. Validate them to ensure you know exactly what’s expected of you and/or your project team members. It will save you time, stress, and team relationships by summarizing, repeating, and clarifying these three important things when you’re managing your work and/or a project. We’re only human and have to learn from our mistakes. But before you have to learn this one, take that extra five minutes.
