The Importance Of Good Promises

The provider of the promise delivers as agreed. And the “customer” acknowledges

delivery. Craft promises carefully, and you enhance coordination and cooperation among

colleagues. Equally valuable, your company builds the agility required to seize new business

opportunities. Good promises share five qualities: They are public, active, voluntary, explicit,

and mission based (Sull, Spinosa).

As an effective leader, you know that you will only succeed, and the business objectives

will only be accomplished, if your team is successful. The leader, manager, and crew have to all

work together in order to keep this going effectively. Promises is what usually drives successful

execution (Sull, Spinosa). For an example I work at a company

Each offers the other

feedback on how to work together more effectively in the future. For another example: BRP

receives a weekly print out from our dealers of parts that were not received or damaged when

received. This is the feedback we get that will let us know which areas we need to improve in.

When doing business with the various dealers we are making a promise give them what they

want. Any mistakes we have to acknowledge them and work in that area to do better.

Companies with well-honed business processes usually do a good job of executing on

high volume, routine activities (Sull, Spinosa). Many managers attempt to rein in today’s

fragmented workforce by crating rigid processes that dampen employee’s initiative and

engagement (Sull, Spinosa). But organizations that engender well make, reliable promises create

a sense of community among workers that is, people promise to do things because they buy in to

the company’s overall mission and priorities and see their part in making things happen (Sull,

Spinosa). It is very important for the manager to explain what needs to be done. If there is

When the provider executes on the promise. When customers explain to providers

why their request is important, providers keep executing even when they encounter unforeseen

roadblocks. They also creatively address customers’ underlying concerns rather than blindly

fulfilling the letter of the request.

Promises that are made, monitored, and completed in public are more binding and

therefore more desirable than side deals hammered out in private. When employees make

promises out in the open in front of their peers and bosses, they can’t conveniently forget what

they said they would do, recall only a few conditions of a promise, or back out of an

uncomfortable commitment entirely (Sull, Spinosa). It seems that when a promise is made in

front of others or in writing many try to make good on the promise. According to Sull and

Spinosa a promise make in public should remain in public throughout the life of the

commitment.

I enjoyed learning about the bottom up process which is unlikely to work unless it is also

embedded in a top down learning process (Sull, Spinosa). A top down process creates