As discussed in a blog article last May, one of the consistent complaints I receive when I ask clients about their top 3 collaboration challenges, is “conflicting priorities.” In that blog, I introduced a tool to help identify incentives or benefits for collaborators. That’s only one solution to this complex challenge. Another aspect for resolving conflicting priorities is the influential role of the decision makers (notice that last word is plural) when securing a “Go decision.”
You may be saying, wait a minute you gave us a tool to help decision makers define collaborative success, isn’t that equivalent to the “go decision?” True, when collaboration is done well, the project, or collaborative effort’s, sponsor holds a kick-off meeting with all involved and clearly defines the success criteria, using our CSD tool (see blog dated July 7, 2015) as a guideline, along with posting the video of the kick-off meeting on the website, so that those who join the effort later can quickly get up-to-speed.
So, if the collaborative success is clearly defined with all parties, what causes the conflicting priorities? In a word, managers. I’m not blaming them as a collective group. I’m pointing out that the upper level executive sponsor is not the only Decision Maker (DM) in an influential role in a collaborative effort.
- Did you confirm a “Go” or green light decision at all levels?
- Did you ask what other priorities (daily work) or significant initiatives could possibly compete with the work you are requesting to be done by a certain date?
DMs appear in all roles of collaboration: Individual contributor (IC), Key Component, and Final deliverable owner (often, but not always, the Project Sponsor)
One of the most overlooked DMs is the manager of the IC, particularly when that IC doesn’t report to your manager. Have you ever experienced this situation?
- You send an email to an IC and ask: “Would you be able to do X for me by next Wednesday?”
- The response is “Sure, no problem.”
- Tuesday late afternoon, you send an email stating, “Looking forward to getting X from you tomorrow.”
- The response, “So sorry. I wasn’t able to get to this.”
Ouch! What happened? Two things:
- You didn’t ask the IC’s manager for the “go decision” that your work item would fit within the IC’s list of daily or upcoming work priorities to assess if your request was even feasible.
- Assuming the go decision was secured, you didn’t check with the IC once or twice (or more depending on the timeframe) before the work item was due to verify the item is on track and/or meeting your definition of success.
Action item: Review the significant work items you are requesting and lead a 15-30 minute meeting with the IC, his/her manager, and your manager or the DM of the Key Component that is dependent on this work item being completed successfully and on time, to discuss priorities and potential competing priorities.