Your Second Deliverable: Attention

Emily, a Software Development Manager, faces a conflict. She has an upcoming release that must go out on schedule without compromising quality. She also has a meeting with a customer team on the day of the release deadline. It took a lot of schedule coordination to set up the customer team meeting, so she does not want to reschedule it.

The release deadline day comes. Emily directs her lead developer to contact her only for an urgent crisis while she participates in the customer meeting. She sets up her phone to alert her only if the lead developer calls. She trusts this precaution and goes into the meeting fully focused.

Emily asks each member of the team what outcomes they expect from the project. She asks about their role in achieving the outcome. She pays as much attention to an end user as she does to an executive. This surprises some team members. They expected her to state her goals in the project, without paying so much attention to their goals. When they noticed that Emily cared about their goals, they paid more attention to her. She explained how her company's product would enable the outcomes they wanted. She put her goals for their project only in the context of the team's goals.

After the meeting, a few managers compliment Emily on her attention to the team members and the team's goals. One manager also comments that Emily never looked at her phone during the meeting. Emily replied that she needed to give them her undivided attention. When she confirmed the team's goals and how they would achieve them with her product, she gave everyone clarity about the scope of the project's goals.

Paying close attention to a customer's needs and goals shows stakeholders how undivided attention benefits everyone.

Paying attention to customer needs defies Solution Gravity.

Please share your story where paying attention delivered a good outcome. Feel free to share a story where lack of attention resulted in a bad outcome. We also welcome your questions, suggestions and challenges in the comments below.