Promising on Delivery Vs Delivering on Promise

About 7 years back, one of the customers gave a T Shirt with the text in the front Delivering on Promise. Since we had only one T shirt, we put it in a photo frame and displayed it (my boss's idea...) in our work area. I kept on looking at that T shirt wondering how interchanging words delivery and promise can make signficant difference in the meaning. In reality it is a continuim - You promise on delivery and deliver on promised delivery. However more often, Indian way of workings stops at Promising on Delivery (this not a broad generalization, but my experiences over the past 8 years). The cultural difference between Western way of working against Indian way of working can be summarized with these interchanging of words.

When I returned to India 8 years back, after working for close to 6 years outside India, promising on delivery was my biggest challenge. Whenever we discussed on delivery dates on deliverables, team used to promise specific dates. Once the discussion is over, many a times, i used check on the delivery date whether work is completed or not. More often than not, i was in for a surprise , on the promised delivery date, delivery does not happen.

When I used to check with the team, typically i used to get three responses

1. Almost complete and will give in next couple of hours - interprete - i started working and the deliverable is close to 50% completion and will finish other part in next couple of hours or so. The good news here is that, there is no unexpected surprises from technical stand point
2. I will give tomorrow - interprete - Oh my god.. i forgot about this, i will work on this today and tomorrow and hopefully it will complete tomorrow subject to not finding any additional technical interruptions - You as a manager in a bad shape here for sure
3. Since you did not come back to me, i thought it is not important and hence did not work on this issue - interprete - You as a manager expected to do follow up to show the importance, you did not do your job and hence i did not do mine. At least i consider this as honest answer because you are certain that, nothing has been done.

A few such hiccups later, slowly adjusted to Indian way of working, and put together a process around follow up for Promising on delivery. More than follow up i started looking deeper into the deliverables to see whether there is any technical or process constraint that may come up in terms of delivery. Over a period of time, i built my own rules on follow up.

1. Follow ups are not done on weekly meetings, but daily routine checks with the team members to see how things are progressing. I realized the importance in this model, because meetings are only to discuss risks and issues and not for follow ups
2. Be sensitive to different styles of working. You will find a few team members do not like follow ups because they deliver on promise. Need to identify them and have a slightly different approach. Otherwise, they feel you are micro managing and it will have further negative impact.
3. Never pull up the team members in public or in meetings on failed deliveries. No one is happy for missing a deadline or delivery date. How you handle the situation would pave the way for future. From that perspective, i usually the support the team member to get back on track and work together with them.

Using this follow up approach as well as mentoring and coaching, over a period of time, the team moves from Promising on delivery to Promising on delivery and delivering on promised delivery. You as a manager need to see this transition and adapt slowly to a new way of working. In fact, suddenly you may find a lot of time in your hands and you need to find ways to fill them up. This is a welcome change and I am always happy when the team moves to a autopilot delivery mode.