There’s usually a moment in a project, a few weeks or months in, when you’re sitting on a call or in a meeting and you realise that a couple of key individuals are carrying two well-developed, but entirely different, mental pictures of the subject under discussion.
If there’s one single thing that almost guarantees the failure of a project to deliver in full, on time and in spec, it’s a lack of common understanding – of language, of facts, of rules, of goals, of drivers, of expectations – in fact anything that might be considered knowledge essential to the success of the project.
That’s not to say that a project won’t eventually deliver. It will just take longer and pain and frustration will dog its progress at every step and yes, it may ultimately fail as it runs out of time or money or the sponsor simply runs out of patience.
In the battle between divergence and convergence of understanding, the enemies are ambiguity and assumption and their respective weapons are interpretation and complacency.
Some of the causes of divergence can be quite obvious – for example, failing to routinely and actively validate understanding as you go. Some causes are behavioural – for example, an unwillingness to admit in front of your peers that you don’t understand something.
So how do you defeat these enemies?
Just have the will to do it. It takes time but that is paid back many times over. Make it known that there is no such thing as a “stupid” question and create channels for people to ask questions without judgement. Disambiguate language – define abbreviations (so many organisations fail to define these or even double- or triple-up definitions), maintain one glossary of standard terms, always express facts using terms in the glossary, always express rules using terms in the glossary, always maintain a clear line-of-sight between strategy and execution…
It’s not just a case of making sure everyone has their light-bulb moment right at the start. You have to keep the lights on.