Close escape hatches. Whenever you challenge your team to test its performance, you are likely to encounter resistance from some members. Quite frequently this resistance will not be presented directly at the start of a job assignment or project but will begin to emerge subtly only after a work effort is well under way and the performance pressure begins to build.
Closing escape hatches means anticipating the types of excuses and rationalizations you are likely to encounter for the team’s failure to achieve its goals and eliminating these excuses well before they have an opportunity to delay or derail a project.
One of the best methods for closing escape hatches is to have your team play the role of devil’s advocate and for each stage of anticipated project identify the following:
- • The types of problems or roadblocks it is likely to encounter.
- • How these roadblocks or problems might affect the success of the project.
- • The types of actions that could be taken to prevent these problems from occurring or to get around them after they’ve occurred.
- • An agreement regarding when and how you will alert each other to changes that could affect progress on a project.
