No one likes missed commitments.

Slipping timelines, rising costs, poor quality – they’re all bad. Particularly when we fail to meet the other party’s expectations.

The obvious answer is the old cliché, “under promise and over deliver.”

We can even take it a step further if we want. If we never make a firm commitment to deliver a certain thing at a certain time, there’s no way we can be late.

I guess you could say, “don’t promise and just deliver something.”

But obviously this misses the point. The more we fail to make legitimate promises, the less our customers care to engage with us.

Further, when we fail to define the terms of success, our customers will define the criteria in their own minds – often without consulting us.

It’s right that we shouldn’t fall short on our commitments, but avoiding commitment altogether isn’t the answer.

-Brandon