It's crucial to address overcommitment from external partners pragmatically. To steer this situation toward a realistic outcome:
- Establish clear, quantifiable benchmarks for progress and success.
- Engage in open dialogue about capabilities and constraints.
- Document all commitments and revisit them regularly for accountability.
How do you ensure promises from partners are kept realistic and achievable? Feel free to share your approach.
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When an external partner is promising the moon, it's important to bring things back down to earth with some practicality. Start by openly discussing their promises, asking them to break down exactly how they plan to achieve these lofty goals. It’s a good idea to set realistic, measurable objectives together, ensuring both sides are on the same page about what’s feasible within the given timelines and resources. Encourage a dialog that focuses on data and past performance as a baseline for setting future targets. This not only helps temper their expectations but also ensures that any commitments made can be met, maintaining trust and credibility in the partnership.
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Encourage the partner to come up with as granualar plan as possible. That helps to gauge if the complexity is properly understood or not, and there is contingency time in the plan or not.
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Navigating unrealistic expectations from an external partner can be challenging, but it is essential to maintaining a healthy and productive partnership. A number of approaches can help build a more balanced partnership and avoid frustration on both sides, including: clear and transparent communication, managing expectations, setting realistic goals, offering alternatives, formal documentation, ongoing monitoring, and negotiating with empathy.
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Expectations are poison on both sides. Promising the moon is common among newbies, those focused on end goals no matter how unrealistic, or the worst case - someone making it up as they go along. First thing is don't make them defensive, and ask them about their experience to back up those numbers. Ask for the source of the expectations - often it is management passing down a task that may/may not be reasonable. In both of those cases, explore why they have those numbers, and share your experience, to find a middle ground. Be the partner who grounds this project in practical reality. If they have no experience to back up those expectations, be careful. They are making it up, and share this politely as possible.
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Push them to walk you through the SMART framework: -Specifically what will be achieved -How will it be Measured -Why is it Attainable -Explain why its Relevant to both parties -Clarify on when it will come to fruition This helps restate accountabilities and reality of expectations
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