Let’s face it, obstacles happen. How you deal with and plan for those obstacles is what sets you or your business apart from the competition.
Imagine this scenario, you are having a great morning, all goes well at home and you sail through the morning commute and arrive at your office. You are greeted with this message, “Our supplier’s Asian facility burnt down last night and all of our prototypes are destroyed; I don’t have any additional information but will get back to you as soon as I know more.”
There are no back-up plans. Everything is gone. The components have a 6-month lead time and are the critical path for the new product being launched next month. Your blood pressure rises and it is difficult to breath. Finally, you start to come to your senses and begin assembling the team to tackle this extremely large obstacle.
Unfortunately, this was a very real situation several years ago. As I looked back at that and other challenges I realized that the same communication model worked consistently well at minimizing obstacles:
Early + Clear + Action-Plan + Time-line
Early: As soon as you are aware of the big issue, problem, disaster then pull the key people together and develop your plan.
Clearly: State the issue and implications as concisely as possible. List the team meeting plans and actions (including open questions) separately.
Action-Plan: Even if the actions are not yet clear, list actions to gain clarity. List one owner per action and be diligent about specific dates. Include a status of when more actions will be developed based upon more information.
Time-Line: Communicate the time line for resolution. If you need more information then at least give a time line of the planned team meeting and when a full time line will be developed based on the additional information.
Use this model when you need to communicate the impact of an obstacle to your customer, boss or other key stakeholders. It will minimize the pain and show them that you are taking clear actions to overcome the obstacle. Be prepared to update your plans based on their feedback but don’t make the mistake of not having a plan. It is much better to present a first draft than to drop the obstacle in their lap with no plan for removal.
Thankfully, the team worked hard to pull all the information together and we survived that supplier’s facility burning down. It was painful but it would have been a lot worse with out the team following this communication model to keep everyone informed and expedite the best solution.
What obstacles have you dealt with and how did you minimize the pain? Please share in a comment.
photo credit: Guillaume Lemoine