The People, Process, & Progress Podcast - Don’t Sugarcoat the Briefing | FF24

Episode Date: July 2, 2021

Whether you are briefing a team to go into the field or a project team that’s deploying new software, let them know up front the reality of the situations they may face.

Hey everybody, welcome to Foundations Friday number 24, Don't Sugarcoat the Briefing. What does that mean? A briefing is, you know, giving people information about actions they're going to take, or the plan, or something like that, where you are telling folks what's expected, what resources they'll have, hours, that kind of thing. So, for the incident management folks, you know, what kind of deployment we're're gonna have, that operational period briefing, project management, which we've done recently, briefing the team on what your support plan is when you go live with a new system or product or things. And it pays to be really upfront and let folks know

this is gonna be long hours. You're gonna get frustrated, you're gonna be tired, we're gonna get through it, it's not gonna be perfect, it's okay, here's the food we're gonna provide, here's the food you know we're not gonna so be self-sufficient it helps people grow to have to be self-sufficient and to go through a little adversity you know whether it's out in the field or in an office or wherever you are so when I say and the thought of you know not sugarcoating the briefing is you need to give people the real expectations so that they're not blindsided by some things. And you can't predict everything.

As good as your plan is, as soon as you print it, as soon as you say it, it's out of date. It's wrong. It needs updated. And that's fine. But when you give your briefing, whether it's the ops period brief or you're in a conference room and you're briefing folks or on a Zoom call or whatever it is, be open and honest and do the same, you know, with your leadership and have them do the same thing so that everybody's on the same page. So your folks aren't upset when things don't go perfect or when maybe they, you know, have different hours and, you know, encourage them and lift them up and give them the support they need once you get rolling.

So I hope you all are rolling well on this Friday. You know, there's a lot of heat across the country. We're coming out of our collective cocoons of safety, quote, quote, safety, I guess I'll say, getting vaccinated, all that good stuff or not, whatever your choice is. But at any rate, the world's starting to feel a little bit more normal. So I thank you all so much for listening to the show, for getting in touch to me, in touch with me at peopleprocessprogress.com or peopleprocessprogress at gmail.com. Please stay safe out there. Certainly wash those hands and Godspeed.