Last week I have been confronted with a very interesting situation.
It was presented to me a simple yet powerful list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) that was shared to a global team, regarding to transformational initiatives that are being deployed through all levels of their operations.
That, per se, is a big deal, and a FAQ is a must in these cases.
I received an email asking my thoughts around it in a table, right after receiving another notification of a news article mentioning the importance of this FAQ, and where to find it.
When I received both notifications and gone through the article and the file, an idea came to my mind. Why not use the same content using a better tool?
The table format is awesome to brainstorm, understand the problem and visualize the results at once, but it is not responsive enough to be used in every situation.
So I turned it into an online list that could provide different views of the same content at once, solving the responsiveness issue of the table.
Problem solved! Everything worked and I added one more ability to my skillset! Awesome, eh?
Not so much, I was so enthusiastic about what I did, that when I shared it with the person who provided the first table, I didn’t remember to send him a simple heads up mentioning what I was thinking, and asking what he really needed.
There were some next steps to this process, such as advertising this new formatted list to everyone, and settling that as a normal procedure when they need information about the transformation process.
Now I have this additional step: Understanding what was the expectation around it, and if what was done, as good as it is, matches this expectation.
We all go through this, we sometimes infer what’s to be done, and do it right away, without checking with our stakeholders what they think about it, to save some time.
Making it right the first time becomes a matter of luck in these cases. But it is uncommon, and we end up making it wrong, which makes us lose all the work done, or worse, work twice to correct it.
Doing something good is different than doing it right, because the right thing to do is what is expected, or even better, exceed expectations!