Does this situation sound familiar? You’re in a conversation where you, as the leader of a team, process an idea, finding out only a few days later that someone has taken an initiative to start working on something that was only an idea. Or maybe you are the team member who thought something your leader shared was ready to be executed, only to find, after hours of hard work, that your leader had no intention of it to be completed. What happened?
What happened is a pervasive communication issue. On any team, certain personality types tend to live in the “what if?”, what could be, future tense. Other personalities are very comfortable, planted in the here, and now present tense. This gap can cause a breakdown in communication. Here is a simple tool that can help resolve this issue. It’s called Provisional, Plan, Promise.
Provisional
What’s being discussed is no more than verbal processing. It’s ideation and shaping how the future could look. However, nothing said is intended to be a final decision.
Plan
What’s being discussed is going to happen. Due diligence and
Promise
A guarantee that what’s decided is going to happen regardless of any circumstance. As it’s said, “come hell or high water,” it will happen.
By using Provisional, Plan, Promise, clarity comes to topics of discussion. As a leader, when discussing an idea, one could say, “This is only provisional. We are throwing ideas out there to see what sticks.” A leader could also state, “This is the plan. We are moving forward with this idea. And, unless something happens to derail the plan, we are moving forward.” Promise emphasizes the absolute certainty of the plan.
The Provisional, Plan, Promise tool allows for the verbal processors to speak openly without concern of being held to an idea. It also allows those who feel the weight of execution to relax and participate in ideation, knowing it will be evident when the plan is ready for implementation. Most importantly, it eliminates confusion and frustration that can happen when team members are operating on different assumptions.
I like the separation of language to describe the status of a project or plan. It could benefit many.
VERY helpful! Great read.