The Network Garden

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how much time is spent in meetings, be they formal face-to-face, Zoom meetings, client meetings, impromptu Slack Huddles, etc.

But, what is even more amazing is how much is actually committed to in these conclaves that never gets written down, is never followed up on and never delivered.

Why spend all of that time and energy, only to have so much fall through the cracks?

My guidance to you is Be the Backstop.

Be the person that tracks the deliverable, the stakeholders, the dates, any caveats or qualifiers. Be clear on the subtext of the deliverable qualitatively.

Beyond that, make sure that you have a clear, codified process for tracking and followup.

It can be emails to self, chicken scratches on post it notes, Google Sheets, tech-driven or a combination of all of the above.

The right process is the process that works best for the way YOU work.

You will be amazed how many of your cohorts turn towards you as the source of truth, which is all about creating value.

A final thought. Don’t assume that AI will make this part of process management go away.

Why? If I’ve learned anything building workflow and process automation systems, it’s that people ALWAYS want more notifications and more workflow…until they get more notifications and workflow.

Be the Backstop.