managing the art of the possible

In scrambling to prepare deliverables that my team and I will be presenting to senior leadership, I learned the importance of “managing the art of the possible.” When the head of my project imparted this piece of wisdom, he meant that we should treat this presentation as a sales pitch, in which we creatively and effectively showcase our accomplishments. The idea of managing the art of the possible is ingrained in the notion that we can often meet and exceed the expectations of leadership and our clients if we simply learn how to under-promise and over-deliver.

Working in the extremely competitive environment of management consulting, I have found that we often try to do everything that our clients ask of us, simply because we feel we need to in order to maintain the strength of our relationship. We know very well that any misstep on our part can lead to the rapid termination of our project and the even quicker replacement of our team with one of our competitors. That’s why, in all that we do, our leadership expresses candor regarding the practicality of our client’s requests.

By being clear from the outset about our bandwidth and limitations, we always meet and exceed our client’s expectations. This is only achievable, however, if each team member – from the bottom to the top – is open and honest about their ability to adequately fulfill their responsibilities. I have seen far too many frazzled, stressed-out, and sleep-deprived teammates who have suffered tremendously because they failed to meet a difficult deadline.

Through maintaining total transparency, each of us can masterfully manage the art of the possible through under-promising and over-delivering.