Commitment is shown after the promise.
In many workshops and meetings, we make commitments. From taking on an action to agreeing on changing a policy or producing a piece of code. We call that commitment, but the real commitment comes after the promise of doing something.
Commitment is shown in delivering on the promise.
Many teams suffer from sheer overwhelm of tasks and commitments, and many managers have a list of open items to improve processes and develop their teams which resemble a strategy portfolio more than a to-do-list because each item is a project in itself that requires a multitude of steps and involves many people over a lengthy period of time.
Making sure to deliver on all these promises is key to #collaboration, otherwise we aren’t seen as trustworthy and reliable.
This becomes most pressing when we are doing internal development work, such as workshops to define and improve the collaboration between teams or departments. It is a natural phenomenon that a large action list is produced during such workshops.
The positive impact of the #workshop reaches from increased understanding and respect for colleagues or clients to better communication and concrete agreements about behaviour at critical interfaces or specific situations.
All of this impact can evaporate if the agreed actions aren’t taken care of. It’s like any other relationship. If you cannot hold your promise, tell them. No-one will expect you to do everything at once. But not hearing about something will lead to the impression that it is forgotten. Or worse, that you don’t care. So tell your people/team/group/client what’s happening with your open items.
That will show your #commitment.
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