Set Expectations of Excellence

As a leader, you need more than a compelling mission for your organization. If you tolerate sloppy work or bad behaviors, your lack of action normalizes those behaviors.

Exceptional leaders are fearless in setting their expectations of excellence in clear language before and during a project, as well as in the way they handle deviations from the expectations they have set forth. If a leader sets forth an expectation that “Quality is job number one” but has no repercussions when there are constant quality problems, then that expectation is just something written on the wall.

Deviations must be handled with sound judgment, especially when you say that you actually want to go against your definition of good for a specific case. If an organization consistently makes a decision to go against its own definition of good, then one of two things is very wrong: the definition or the ability to judge.

The trick we face then is to be able to set our expectations wisely so we can have a much better chance of getting those true expectations met, or even exceeded. Also, we must ensure that the expectations do not limit leaders in their ability to apply judgment to specific circumstances without undercutting the expectations they have set forth.

The Case of Teams That Are Late with Quality Issues

You may have a friend whom you can always count on to be on time. You may have a friend whom you would be surprised if they were ever early. A division I’ll call TopShelf was the always-late kind of friend.

TopShelf was a division of a company located in San Diego, California. It created custom hardware-software applications for clients of the overall company. The division was composed of ten development teams with a total of 400 people.

TopShelf had a compelling vision of where it wanted to go. It knew what it wanted to create. Customers did eventually like and use what was created, but only after multiple problems were solved. Just because the customers liked the product did not mean they were happy with TopShelf management.

Customers were unhappy because they never knew when to expect a delivery and because when they received a delivery they knew that they would be spending at least a few days and sometimes longer sorting out quality problems before they could actually use the software.

TopShelf leadership realized that the company had a significant problem. The leaders saw that all their software development teams were delivering late with quality issues. If it was just one or two teams, it could be a problem with that specific software area, or with that team. However, because it was across the board, leadership knew that it was an issue that had to be solved at the leadership level. Somehow, they were at least part of the cause of the problems.

Leadership of the company needed to work with the leadership of the software teams to transform their mutual ability to deliver great software on time from troublesome to tremendous.

The key thing the executive leadership needed to figure out was how to properly define what guidance to give and what questions to ask to provide the proper expectations of excellence. They wanted to make sure that what they asked for was also what they really wanted and needed.

The TopShelf executives were faced with one of the most frustrating issues listed in the taxonomy of trouble. Yet, they were getting exactly what they were asking for.

The problem was that TopShelf’s ability to commit to and deliver high-quality content was dismal.

The leaders realized a very important point. If all teams are delivering well except for one team, the problem is likely within that team. If all teams are delivering inconsistently or poorly, as in this example, the trouble lies within the leadership.

TopShelf was not alone. Many leaders become frustrated by problems their own language creates. TopShelf suffered precisely from that problem. All its managers set expectations for project kickoffs with very similar language. The most common phrases were:

• I want the most aggressive plan you can build. What is the earliest date you can get this done?

• Hurry up and get this to test so we can start finding the defects!

When teams presented their plans, the management often told them that the plans were not aggressive enough, and they asked for earlier dates. The teams said “We will try.” When a team makes a plan that truly is “as aggressive as possible,” the only possible positive outcome is to deliver exactly on time. The likely outcome is to deliver late—which is what these teams did.

When managers asked about progress, they did not ask questions about quality. They just asked how close the teams were to delivering to test.

The teams did do what they were asked to do. They created what they called “happy plans.” If everything went perfectly well and there were no interruptions and no changes needed then they could maybe deliver to that date. They built a plan where they could never finish early.

The situation was made worse by the statement about hurrying the product into testing. The team did exactly what the leader asked for and skipped solid development practices and hurried it into test. The testing process took a long time because there were so many defects to find.

Using testing to find and fix problems is the slowest way to build a high-quality product. It is extraordinarily hard to predict how long testing quality will take. The other problem is that testing alone was absolutely insufficient. Quality issues always escaped.

The results were not what they wanted, not what they needed. They were, however, absolutely what they asked for.

The Carpenters Did What Was Asked of Them

TopShelf’s problem was very similar to the issues I had with the carpenters I hired many years ago.

My nineteenth-century house had a lot of character and of course required a lot of work as well. During this period I hired a number of carpenters. For some reason, they all were unable to meet the needs I had. All the carpenters had the same issues! This alone was a warning sign that I should have noticed.

They would often start the job and then disappear for days. My house would be in disarray for long periods while I waited for them to finish. I would hurry them up and sometimes that worked, but if I pushed too hard, they finished but left my house a mess that I needed to clean up.

One day I had the sudden realization that the problem was me.

I usually started the initial contracting session with language like this: “I want this job started as soon as possible. When can you start?” Their usual answer was that they could start tomorrow or next week. They were good to their word and did just that.

And the job would take weeks of them stopping in for a few hours here and there.

I realized that the problem was what I was asking for.

I changed my language and questions with the next project with a carpenter whom I had worked with before (and thus had had all those issues with). But this time I said, “I enjoy your company very much, but not the disruption to my house. I want you to start this job when you can be here without interruption. I want the job done well, but in fast contiguous days. Also, do a great quality job. I want the house to be better and cleaner than when you started. This is different from what I asked for before, and this is very important. Can you do this?”

This initially confused that carpenter, and subsequent carpenters and plumbers. They had not heard that language before. However, each subsequent contractor provided me with dates they could accomplish this amazing feat. They all delivered per my expectations. Although the “start date” was much further in the future, the actual work finished faster. Moreover, the disruption to my household was greatly reduced.

I was delighted that I finally figured out that I had been hiring the right contractors all along.

Thoughtful Creation of Expectations of Excellence

Whether you desire to reset expectations or you are forming a new organization or simply a new team, the creation of your expectations of excellence should be done in a thoughtful manner. The following are considerations in forming your expectations of excellence.

Consider the Context of Your Organization

What is the organization’s vision and mission? Are you leading a group in a risky new enterprise or is this a critical project building on existing technologies?

What things are most important for your organization to avoid? What are the most important values you want your employees to demonstrate?

For example, I worked closely with an organization whose mission was dedicated to connecting young people to the natural world. Its key interest was setting expectations around the skills and behaviors of the instructors who would be working with young people in outdoor wilderness programs. The results were very different from the times I worked to do this in high-technology development organizations. The outdoor wilderness group focused on personal energy, learning, high ethics, and extraordinary outdoor experiences. The high-tech companies’ expectations were focused on collaboration, high quality, and high performance standards related to customers and products.

Take a View from the Outside Looking In

Another important view of your context is to take a virtual step outside your organization and look at it as would your customers and the general public.

For example, looking at Apple from the outside, we know from the company’s marketing and actual products what it wants to be known for. It wants to be known for excellent design and high-quality products that work together well in a whole ecosystem. From all the books written about how Apple works, we know that those expectations of excellence are very well defined for the organization. The bar is set high.

What attributes would you like your organization to be known for? Consider what it may be known for right now. Are you happy or is a change needed? TopShelf executives did this exercise, and it was a humbling experience. This was a key driver for them in establishing a new set of expectations of excellence.

Engage Key Opinion Leaders in the Conversation

Whether you are doing this for the first time or trying to inject new energy into what you already have, it is vital to not do this alone. Seek a conversation with people you trust both inside and outside of your organization.

Inside your organization, you want to engage in a conversation that helps form and develop your ideas. Also, by engaging in the conversation you are setting the stage for your key internal opinion leaders to make your expectations of excellence be part of the fabric of how they think as well. They will own those expectations and help them come true.

Engage in conversations with people external to the organization. How do they view your organization now? Do they see you the way you see yourself? Engage them to make your relationship stronger. Also engage them to clarify your thinking and your confidence in what you believe.

Make Your Expectations Concise and Memorable

I was once asked by an organization to help get a project back on track that was very off track. I asked the executive in charge to make his expectations very clear to the team. I quickly found out what part of the problem was. He came into the team meeting and started to show a slide deck of 200 slides of his expectations for the initiative.

The team struggled through the next full day of planning.

I left the meeting, went back to the executive, explained the problem, and suggested that he return and write his top five expectations on the whiteboard. After we discussed this for an hour, he was ready.

He came back and wrote his expectations on the whiteboard. The team discussed those expectations with vigor. After he left the room, the team had multiple breakthroughs and developed a plan of attack that everyone, including the executive, was excited about.

Provide Detail

The slogan “Quality is Job #1” is concise, and in many ways it is memorable. That is important; however, without proper detail behind it, it is unlikely to make any difference. You must provide examples of what good is when you say quality is job #1. Leaders should be ready with examples of what they mean by quality, especially for the most important aspects of their organizations. They also should have examples of ways that quality can be measured.

TopShelf Defines What Good Means for Their Division

TopShelf’s leadership team followed the steps outlined in the previous section. The process was extremely valuable in establishing improved relationships with their customers and with TopShelf team members. No one likes delivering late. The team hated making a low-quality product just as much as the customers hated receiving it.

The work the TopShelf leadership team did was to get everyone aligned on what made good sense for the business and to set the foundation for how to follow up.

The following is a summary of excerpts from the key expectations that now formed the foundation of work everyone was expected to achieve.

“We will delight our customers.”

We want our customers to smile when any one of our employees walks into their offices. We expect our customers to know that when they receive a new release of software it will meet their expectations of content and quality.

Everything we do should focus on our customers’ experience. When a team is building the plans and designs for the customer, they repeatedly ask themselves, “Will this help the customer with its problems?” When we do designs we ask if this design will help our customers do better work. When we review and test our ideas, we will think about if our customers receive this, will they smile?

“Our focus is on speed to value.”

The whole world seems to be focused on going faster. Our speed has a purpose. That purpose is to give the best value we can at the fastest speed possible. When we examine how to pursue our objectives we will work to ensure that they look for the biggest value we can bring our customers. We will look at design alternatives that provide a focus on that value, but further focus on our ability to deliver with speed.

We will look at methods that enable our teams to focus and provide incremental releases with increasing value.

We will use data to ensure we understand where our bottlenecks are and know if we are addressing them. We have more than a need for speed. We have a creed for speed.

“Quality is our top key to speed.”

Quality problems lead to customer dissatisfaction. Speed doesn’t matter if we crash.

Also, quality problems lead to many of us being engaged in rework. Every time we engage in rework we lower productivity. We will consistently invest in training to develop our abilities in our domain, our methodologies, and our customer needs. We will use data to understand where any of our quality issues are and work to catch them earlier and easier in our process. We do not expect to be able to prevent all defects, but we do expect that we will all work to have a smart focus on quality such that it is a key for us in customer delight and key for us in maintaining our speed to value.

“The dates we provide to our customers are sacred commitments.”

Thus, the dates you provide to leadership must be credible! These dates must be commitments to yourself, to me, and, most of all, to our customers.

The message is simple: Make commitments you can keep.

This message does not contradict the need for speed. You must build smart, aggressive plans. Smart plans mean that we have pushed ourselves to look at every possible way to deliver value to our customers as soon as possible.

Once we have made a smart, aggressive approach to delivering value, we are focused on making a smart commitment. A smart commitment means we look at all the risks; we look at our historical data for how long things take. We take into consideration all the other commitments we have already made.

No surprises is a key element of this. Teams need to track their plans closely such that when the inevitable problems arise, they can address them early. If there are going to be problems with making a date, there is early warning.

If we make proper commitments, we should rarely be late. We should often be ready to deliver earlier than the commitment we made.

There are no benefits to delivering late. There are many benefits for delivering early.

TopShelf Transformed

TopShelf executives did two very important things. They began to ask for what they really wanted and needed. They became experts at setting their expectations of excellence. They also gave their teams expert help in raising their skills on both planning and quality practices. They made it clear what good would look like and followed up with detailed examples.

Since those changes, the teams have consistently delivered on-time, high-quality releases. Further, the client list for TopShelf has grown significantly.

Regardless of whether the culture matches what is written on the walls, what is important for you as a leader is to be very clear on your own expectations of excellence.

Good managers know what is written on the walls. They might even do a reasonable job of trying to ensure that those things are true.

Exceptional leaders stand out because they will go beyond the stated organizational values and make them their own. The examples provided so far in this chapter are from leaders who worked to get their own expectations clear. The expectations they set were personal. These leaders also ensured that everyone in the organization they were leading knew that those expectations were important.

Set the expectations you want from your organization. If you make it clear that you expect troublesome, you will get it. If you make it clear you expect tremendous, there is no guarantee, but you are much more likely to get tremendous.

The key is to make it personal and make it important.