You missed another deadline. Again …
Chris Beckers
Published at
It happens all the time. You look at the deadline in the action list, while one of your managers is explaining why the action hasn’t been completed. You hear arguments that you don’t want to hear, because they are simply irrelevant. Nothing can change the fact that the deadline has not been met. And again, it’s frustrating you. At least, I hope it is. So, how can you prevent this from occurring again?
Lean Six Sigma theory advises the following. Start by finding the underlying cause of your issue. Ask five times why, that kind of stuff. Then, solve your cause to make sure deadlines are met in the future. Although this sounds simple in theory, in daily practice it is not.
Why root cause analysis fails
You are psychologically programmed to look for the cause within the personal capabilities of your managers. At the same time, these managers are programmed to look outside themselves. Getting on the same page here is not all that easy. In social psychology, this effect is called the fundamental attribution error.
Here’s a real-life example. An obese man is trying to lose weight. However, there is little time to go to the gym. He has a lot of work, family responsibilities, etc. Also, eating healthy is difficult when the rest of the family is not participating. Therefore, he doesn’t succeed. From an outside perspective, these are excuses. One might say he is lacking willpower. With a little more effort, he probably would have succeeded.
If you now discuss the root cause, the chance of you getting annoyed is bigger than the chance of solving anything. So, what do you do? Indeed, look forward! And realise there is responsibility for both you as a leader and your people.
It takes two to tango
Obviously, the main responsibility is for the action holder. And he needs to prepare in time. I’ve worked in teams where the members looked at the action list for the first time during the team meeting. That is rather annoying. What also happens often is that actions are planned for the last moment. Then of course, something unexpected always comes up and another deadline is missed.
You can break through this culture of inactivity. Hold your people accountable for preparing in time:
- let them provide a planning for the bigger actions or projects;
- make sure they let you know well before the meeting if an action cannot be completed;
- let them provide options or alternatives to meet the deadline in case of setbacks.
You can’t always delegate actions and expect results to come automatically. The success depends on the time, passion and attention that you give in the process up to the deadline. In the end, it is quite simple: if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
Chris Beckers is Business Process Consultant at R&G Global Consultants in the Netherlands.
