This morning, my eight year old daughter had a bit of a meltdown. This isn’t our usual family experience in the morning before school. It started with my husband waking her up and went downhill from there. One of her favorite things in the morning is getting into my side of the bed (after I get out) to curl up for a couple of minutes before getting in the shower. But every time she tried to do this today, one of us called her to do something else. By round three, she broke down (not enough sleep is definitely a factor) and cried.
Expectations (missed and misunderstood), communication and lack of sleep created a rough go of things. We figured out what the problem was and fixed it, no worries there, but it reminded me about how critical it is to understand expectations well and thoroughly at the outset of a project. All the key stakeholders need to have 1:1 interviews by the project leader. It’s time consuming but critical. Understanding what they need and want out of the project and what they think the output will be like are so important. Getting a sense for their level of engagement and support will come out of these interviews as well.
Often we are eager to “get down to work” but this is a big part of the project work as well and if left undone, I think it can cause the whole project to fail or at the least cause it to miss the mark of true success. What do you think? Do you encounter this in your work (or personal life) as well?
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