What if what they want is wrong?

What if what the business stakeholder wants is wrong?

Often strategy isn't clearly communicated across the org and so teams are working from different directives. Pulling in different directions. Operating on different assumptions.

Two possible approaches:

• Point to a shared goal: Sometimes you can talk it through with them, leverage the clearly identified goals from leadership, and perhaps end up in better alignment with your business stakeholders.

• Give them what they want, with caveats: Other times you might need to invest some time giving them what they want. But with a clear evaluation plan. Something like "We are willing to work toward delivering what you asked for, but before we do, can we define how we will know if it worked/was the right thing? That way we can revisit in a couple weeks/months and see if we hit the goals we wanted"

Who's right or wrong isn't the primary question.

Sometimes assumptions have to be tested.

Building trust through collaboration is often inefficient.

I'm here,

Sawyer

from ​The Data Shop