July 2013

“If you ever feel frustrated because you’re not getting the results you’re expecting from your team, your vendors, or other people that you depend on, this session is for you.”

This is how I started a recent presentation on aligning expectations, behaviours, and outcomes that I gave to a branch of the Project Management Institute. The audience was experiencing familiar problems. Projects were in trouble. Clients were stressed because they weren’t getting what they wanted from their vendors. Work groups blamed each other for the problems.

In our experience, when problems like these occur, there’s almost always a disconnect in expectations, behaviours, and outcomes.

Why?

• Because expectations drive behaviours, and behaviours drive the outcomes.

What do we mean?

Let’s define the terms in this context:

• Outcomes are the end results: what you’re trying to achieve.
• Expectations are what you consider certain or likely to happen: what you expect will happen in order to achieve that outcome.
• Behaviours are people’s observable actions.

When you know what you want and have clearly defined the outcome, when everyone understands what they’re expected to do and people’s behaviours meet those expectations, you have alignment.

Why does alignment matter to me?

Things run more smoothly, there’s less stress, and people are happier. You get better results for less effort and you’re much more likely to achieve the outcome

Any misalignment – even a small lack of communication – can cause big problems.

How to prevent these disconnects?

• Clearly define what you want at the end. Be specific and make sure everyone involved understands this outcome and why it matters to the organization.  If you don’t know what you want, stop!  Take time to define what it is.
• Talk to your team, the vendors, and stakeholders to communicate your expectations.
• Ask questions to find out what they’re expecting from you and each other.  Don’t make assumptions!
• Monitor behaviours along the way to ensure people are doing the right things at the right time to get the right result.

When expectations, behaviours, and outcomes are aligned, you’ll reduce stress and get much better results for less effort.

Learn more about understanding stakeholder expectations from our video series “What PMBOK Doesn’t Teach You”.