How many of us have built a home, planned a holiday or planned an event? Is there something common that you find in all these? Yes, you got it right, all these require a constant validation and revalidation of the inputs for the right output to come.
Why this is so critical? Simple, for no one wants anything to be left to chance. If one start assuming things that this will be done without asking someone to do it or checking that it has been done the right way, chances are that you are in for some unpleasant surprises.
Move this to your day at business, what leads to most failures in business projects? It’s not the idea but the implementation, and most of the times because of assumptions about execution of idea.
A classic case of a lending business leader. The business leader would always talk about we need to increase the business; however, the business did not move an inch for four consecutive months. Multiple new products were launched, new teams added but no increase in business. Speak to leader he would say we have everything available and are well positioned to succeed. Talk to people on ground they were not sure if anything had changed for business to improve. Why there was so much of gap? Because the leader assumed his thought process is getting implemented and there is no reason for it to not get done. In reality the product, process and other interventions required were not being carried out on ground leading to business not growing rather led to increase in effort to do current business than what was required earlier.
Assumption that everyone is aligned, everyone is committed and everything is perfect leads to such things. Leader needs to remind and review with rigour to give a responsible delivery. Assumptive leaders don’t build great businesses. This assumptive trait is a perfect recipe for a disaster waiting to happen.
Some of the things that you hear from such leaders are “it should have been done!”, “I thought that this is basic”, “why I was not informed?”, “I can’t go through mails”, “don’t come to me for these issues”, and may more such things which signify that there is an assumption to things getting done. Some leaders argue that I have delegated it and cannot be involved in everything but they forget the basic principle of being a manager, which is to review what has been delegated as delegation without review leads nowhere. The failure of the biggest projects in any organisation is because of this. Are you able to relate it to some of the projects where as the time line of completion approached, there was a blame game happening as to why its delayed. Often this is Leader or Managers fault as they have been living in their own dreamland.
Do take a note of it, and if are you hearing these phrases too often then leader will be failing to hold things together for success. You may see a lot of execution failures in such an organisation. Best way to overcome this is to consciously make effort to move away from presumptions or to bring in a layer of professional who can stitch it together. Optimum results will come in only when this happens. It is a good idea to proactively and periodically review the progress, keep a check if the things are moving in the right direction. A great business requires a strong check and control mechanism. The execution excellence demonstrated by some organisations is because they have mastered the art of throwing assumptions out of the equation.
