“How will we know when we are done?”

When I meet prospective clients, this question immediately follows those focused on objectives. I want to know exactly what my clients hope to accomplish and then I need to be sure we are in complete agreement as to what we would see if we were making progress and how we would know we were finished. Since I don’t simply deliver prepackaged content and since I am totally outcome focused, I can’t operate any other way.

What I don’t understand is why anyone would want to operate any other way.

When you launch a big employee engagement program, how will you know when you are done? And don’t tell me you will survey all employees, scrutinize the results, and identify needed changes. Those are tasks and inputs, not outcomes. Will attrition decrease? Will employees volunteer for greater responsibility or encourage their friends to join the company? Will you be called in to fewer low level decisions? What would constitute real evidence that you have engaged your employees?

When you send employees to training, how will you know it was effective? What do you expect to see as evidence of success? Where will you expect to see them demonstrating their new skills?

When you hold a meeting, how will you know when you are finished? Do you know what must be different when it ends or do you rely on the clock to tell you it is over?

When you sit alone at your desk to work on your biggest project, do you know what success will look like in one hour, one day, and one week? If not, you may spend the hour, day or week mostly wandering and trying to find your path.

My clients don’t pay me to wander and the company isn’t paying you to wander. Whether you are looking out an hour, a day, a week, a month or a year, you have to know what success looks like if you hope to achieve it effectively and efficiently.

Increase your clarity with this question, the second most important question to ask regularly:

• How will we know when we are done?

What is the most important question?

• What are we trying to accomplish?

Two critical questions. Fourteen words. Memorize them. Use them frequently!