Managers need to begin thinking
more about their businesses as ongoing
experiments and less about executing the same recipe day in and
day out. Even within strategy
execution, as parts of the strategy are
executed, the results are drawn on
to make adjustments of the strategy.
We call the second phase of
promise based management 'making
it happen. The performer organizes
his team by making requests of
them, collecting promises from them
and then checking in daily on how
they are doing with their promises.
He does not check in task by task,
but rather on their confidence on
fulfilling their promises. He insists
on honest reports and probes on the
basis of the statement of confidence.
Too much confidence draws as
much probing as too little. The main
performer probes for the lessons that
his performers are learning in
fulfilling their promises. The main
performer regularly checks in as
well with his customer to learn if
her situation has changed or to
report changes he recommends
based on the work his team is doing.
The phase ends when the performer
informs the customer that he
believes he has fulfilled his promise.
In todays business environment,
many managers see themselves as
rolling up their sleeves and fulfilling
the terms of a promise. Since
promise-based management focuses
on satisfying the customer, not just
fulfilling terms, and on
conversation, performers and
customers constantly meet to say
what they are learning and to
collaborate in making adjustments.
The customer says what she is
learning about the companys overall
adjustments to the markets. The
performer reports on what he is
learning about what his team can do.
There are program plans and critical
paths to be watched, but promisebased
managers monitor by asking
about lessons. Making it happen
transforms status meetings into
brainstorming sessions.
The last phase is closing the loop.
Because the goal of promise based
management is satisfying the
customers ultimate concern, no
promise is fulfilled until the
customer declares her satisfaction or
dissatisfaction and offers feedback.
Completion is never a matter of
finishing off a task list and handing
the work off. Both internal and
external customers frequently shirk
their responsibility of assessing
work done. No one likes giving
negative feedback. Under promisebased
management, customers give
feedback most often before the same
team present at the promise.
Managers who are accustomed to
perfunctory feedback or annual
reviews usually need to learn to
make strong thoughtful assessments
in order to become promise based
managers.
What are the five qualities of a
good promise? How relevant are
they for todays complex business
environments?
There are five basic qualities of a
good promise, which is a promise
with a strong sense of obligation and
shared understanding. Promises
are:
Public. They are best when made
before a relevant team of equals,
for instance, the chief executives
team. Others know and honor
what each other is doing. Public
promises also put identities at
stake. There is some fear of losing
face for failing to fulfill. But more
importantly when a performer
takes ownership of a promise,
that defines how colleagues see
him. Public promises become the
means to building an identity.
Active. Promises must be actively
vetted and negotiated by the customer,
performer, and colleagues.
Otherwise, performers will tend
to make more promises than they
can fulfill. Even worse customers
will evade their responsibility to monitor and assess. In another reversal
of our legal intuition, in
promise based management, a
customer who accepts a weak,
unvetted promise is at fault, not
the performer.
Voluntary. Generally performers
feel a personal duty to fulfill
promises made voluntarily. Customers
need to work to create the
space for a performer to decline.
Promise based management puts
a premium on honest communication
on all sides.
Explicit. Though the goal of
promise based management is to
satisfy customers general concerns,
promises need explicit
terms around which performers
can organize teams to begin both
learning and executing. Without
explicit terms, there is no learning
that can lead to taking care of a
customers ultimate concern.
Mission based. Customers and
performers should see themselves
asmembers of a single team
to accomplish a broad goalmattering
to both. Making requests and
fulfilling promises is not just a
job; it is forming a temporary partnership.
It actively builds a relationship
of shared matter and intention.
All actions are understood
in terms of the ultimate
shared goal.
Most people think that the best way
to handle complexity is with
streamlined, recipe like business
processes. That does not work.
Within any process, managers
constantly look for ways to excel.
Teams develop loyalty to their
managers and organizations and try
to make them look good. Markets,
competitors, and technologies shift.
With all this happening, managers
make alterations in roles and
activities that favor their insights.
Old equipment, old marketing
techniques, old reports remain in
place because one group wants them. Consequently, processes fall
out of alignment. Managers then
develop add on processes for
handling the misalignment. We see
this all the time. Managers typically
develop their own internal IT and
marketing staffs for this reason.
Promise-based management
simplifies complexity without
restrictive recipes. Business lines are
organized around their ultimate
promise to the end customer. The
network of recurrent promises is
generally as clear as the promises of
a small start-up teams promises.
When one promise holder wants to
change the promise, she coordinates
with the others. If she fails to do
that, the feedback will quickly catch
her. Simplicity is the hallmark of
promise based management. Senior
and middle managers seldom need
to manage more than eight recurrent
critical promises. Ask, What is the
basic promise I hold to my boss and
company? The answer should
provide some simplification right
now. Finally, with the emphasis on
the external customer, promisebased
managements tend to have
higher customer responsiveness and
loyalty than their competitors.
