Commitment

We all want commitment,
but what are we doing about it?

Have you ever heard people complaining about a lack of commitment? We all want commitment, from someone else. The project team wants upper management commitment. Management wants team commitment. The question is, what are they doing to get it? Are we expecting commitment to be automatic?


There are three key elements needed to get commitment:

• Understanding
• Agreement
• Personal interest

Let look at each of these. Understanding is where it all starts. If we don’t understand what is expected, it is impossible to be committed. The problem is, people don’t always like to admit it when they don’t understand. That’s why it is good ask for examples, fill in details, and dig deeper to determine the level of understanding. The opposite of understanding is assumption. We assume the client, management and the project team want something, but we don’t check it out. Getting everyone to understand sounds easy, but it is not and it takes time.

Agreement leads to action. Don’t confuse silence for agreement. If you assume agreement when it is not there, you will eventually have to deal with the truth. Agreement is hard to get. It may be tentative in the beginning and may take time to develop, especially if we are dealing with something new. Understanding is objective and easy to test. Agreement is more subjective. You cannot force it. You have to encourage, support and let it grow.

If you want true commitment, ask yourself if you are willing to invest the time and effort to develop understanding and agreement. If not, you are setting yourself up for phony commitment and failure when things get difficult…

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Copyright © 2003, Bill Kuehn and Steve Wille
Permission granted to copy provided copyright statement clearly appears, along with the web link, www.ToughTeams.com

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