My friend Jeff Olsen wrote a really good piece on status updates, and it's been rattling around my head all week. His point is that "on track" describes a conversation, not a state. The words sound like progress. They can hide a month of sitting in someone else's queue.
I've worked with Jeff, and this is exactly how he thinks. He's always pushing to make himself and the people around him better. This post is a great example of that.
The line that got me: four weeks on the calendar, thirty minutes of actual work. The rest was waiting. And nobody could see it because "almost done" sounded fine.
A few things worth borrowing:
-
When someone says they're blocked, ask what would unblock it. Then ask who owns the next move. Two questions turn a vague update into something you can act on.
-
"Access takes a week" stops being a question and starts being an assumption. Once a wait has a shape, you can count how often it shows up. One slow approval is annoying. The same one twelve times a year has a price tag.
-
Keep it curious. Point the question at a person, and it becomes an accusation. Point it at the work, and people tell you the truth.
If you run projects or sit in status meetings, give this one ten minutes.