Alignment

I had a great conversation with a key client yesterday. We realized that
we had been talking about a product release strategy for almost three
months, without being aligned. Yet for three months we agreed with each
other.

When we realized that we did not understand the same things from our
discussion, we had a better release strategy discussion. Each of us heard
the other more clearly – once we stopped talking “at angles”.

It is truly important in our conversation to “square off”. To make sure
that all are thinking the same way. We both realized that we had missed
signals, and overlooked things in e-mail, presentation decks, and documents
that were obvious. Each of our own viewpoints allowed us to overlook facts
that clearly showed that we did not understand the same thing.

Unfortunately this happens frequently because of the imprecise nature of
human communication.

Fortunately, this time we revealed it before any real negative impact was
realized – either to the project or our relationship, which is now stronger
because we solve another issue together!