Managing Expectations

You take your car in for a new set of tyres, you choose the brand and model of tyres you want to have fitted and head home, expecting that you’ll get a call to pick the car up later that afternoon.

2 o’clock. No call.

4:30pm. Still no call.

You are becoming mildly agitated by this stage because you are heading out for dinner and you need your car. You call the tyre place at 5:00pm and they tell you the car won’t be ready until at least lunchtime in a couple of days.

But why are you getting upset? The tyre business knew that they had to order the tyres and that it was going to take three or four days before you got your car back. They didn’t bother to tell you because they knew and probably assumed you did too. They may even believe that they told you there would be a delay.

The reason you are getting upset is this – you set your own expectation and when the tyre business failed to meet your expectations, you got mad.

The problem was that there were no clear expectations set by the tyre company and so you invented your own. When your expectations weren’t met (because they didn’t match theirs), you got grumpy.

This happens all the time in change and transformation programs. Expectations are, at best, assumed. When that happens, we start working in the grey and THAT leads to confusion, mixed messaging and so on.

The best thing you can do set expectations, publish them and meet them. Job done.

==========

Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and/or Instagram as we work on changing change.