Truth or Consequences!

Telling the Truth

I was sitting in a room full of senior executives as we listened to the product managers provide their monthly updates. We were about six months from the retail season, and all of these projects were critical to achieving that year's revenue goals.

Product Manager after Product Manager explained how they were still on track. This was my first time sitting in this meeting since joining the company, so I listened quietly and took copious notes. At about the halfway point, I started asking each presenter, “What is your level of confidence that you will meet your launch dates”?

The response in almost all cases was “Over 90%.”

This team had completed just a tiny fraction of the projects in the portfolio in time for the product launch the previous year. All projects had been “on-track” right until shortly before the launch date when suddenly, and seemingly without warning, most of the projects were off-track. Based on the answers to questions I had posed to the executive team, I knew that we were on the same trajectory as the year before.

“Honesty has a power that very few people can handle.” Steven Aitchison

Since very little had changed since the previous year, I saw no reason to expect this year's results to be different. This unrealistic and…