We all know the importance of developing a plan, and the even greater importance of executing it. Execution of a sound plan is a large part of what separates successful, productive teams from others.
A crucial part of this simple-to-articulate but difficult-to-achieve process is the communication of the plan. I’m not referring to communication with the direct participants of the plan. That falls under execution. What I’m talking about is communication of the plan to the wider team, those who don’t have a task or a deliverable in the plan.
Muster all your resources
This is yet another thing that I’ve struggled with over my career. (Yes, I’m aware that the majority of my source material is my list of greatest screw-ups, but what better topics to discuss than those that you wish someone taught you about earlier?) My natural inclination is towards simplicity in all things. The simplest plan, the simplest changes, the simplest team necessary will lead to the lowest likelihood of introducing new issues that have to be fixed later. The least effort for the most impact is the very definition of efficiency, and in a world of finite time and resources, efficiency has always been one of my main decision drivers.
Where this breaks down is that simplicity in communication dictates that only the members of the team that need to know should be told. The more people you bring into an email chain, the slower and less efficient the execution might become. We also live in a world where our inboxes are constantly flooded with notifications that we don’t really need, and don’t pay much attention to. Why would I spam a co-worker’s email with information irrelevant to them and to our plan?
The reason is that, and you’ll see me revisit this theme over and over, people are not robots. Robots should know only what they need to in order to do their job, and more than that is a waste of time and effort. People, on the other hand, sometimes have information that members of your team don’t. They may be able to point out a better way to execute on your plan, or let you know why it won’t work in the first place.
Finding out why your plan is stupid and taking the time to devise a better solution before wasting any time on it is WAY more efficient than executing a stupid plan very well. Be honest, how many times have you been nearing completion of a long, difficult project when someone from a different team hears what you’ve been working on for the first time and comments “we implemented something like that last year, would you like to know how we did it?” or “we tried that before, how did you overcome [some obscure issue that you hadn’t even thought of yet]?” How much effort would a little communication have saved?
Send it up the chain
Just as important as taking advantage of the knowledge and experience of people outside your team, can be the confidence of leadership. Sometimes, simplicity of communication leads us to tell management “we are addressing problem X, and it will take Y amount of time.” This is exactly what they need to know, and no more. The problem is this leads to Hopeful Leadership (something I hope to address further in a future post), where they trust that there is a plan and that it is being executed, but they really don’t know.
Management may accept that it will take Y amount of time to fix X, but without the details of the plan, and regular status updates, are they going to be confident in your plan or your ability to deliver? Management’s confidence in the plan and its execution is critical to the plan’s success. If management doesn’t know the plan, how can they support you? Are they going to sit back and wait until the delivery date, or are they going to ping you for status updates, and try to “help”? It is in your best interest to not only make management aware of the plan, but keep them apprised of progress towards completing the plan.
In short, simplicity is a worthy goal, but not necessarily with regards to communication. Let people know what you’re team is working on, the obstacles you’re facing, and deliver continual updates to management. When everyone knows the plan, confidence and support go way up. If you want your plan to succeed, talk about it!
