It’s Not Just A Phase

I spent part of my career in product development working on projects for a fashion retailer you would know. We’d get an exciting assignment, come back with trend-right products that told a story. Samples were made. They moved through layer after layer of approvals.

Weeks of work.

And then they landed on the CMO’s desk and came right back to ours. Just like that.

It wasn’t what he had in mind.

The clock for overseas production had run out. Whatever we could pull together now would cost more, take longer, and wouldn’t be what anyone actually wanted. We’d do it. But everyone in that room knew we were solving a problem that didn’t have to exist.

The CMO hadn’t made time for a conversation to align on what he had in mind before the work began.

I’ve seen versions of that moment in nearly every organization I’ve worked with since.

Your team shows up. They work hard, do what they’re asked and put in the hours.

And then somewhere along the way, the finish line moves.

Some people push back. Some go quiet. Good people who used to bring their best ideas start doing just enough because caring too much stopped feeling worth it.

I’ll bet you’ve seen it too.

Here’s what I’ve come to believe after years of working with leaders and their teams.

Rework is rarely a performance problem. It almost always traces back to one place…

The work started before everyone agreed on what ‘done’ looked like.

Where Good Projects Go Wrong

There’s a progression that every successful project moves through and #2 is often overlooked.

Phase One: It starts with ideation. Someone sees a problem, spots an opportunity, generates an idea worth pursuing. This phase has a lot of energy. People get excited. The possibilities feel real.

Phase Three: It ends with implementation. The team gets to work. Progress gets made in pursuit of an excellent finish.

Phase Two: The phase in the middle that often gets forgotten, is activation. And it is the one that makes or breaks everything.

Activation is where the idea gets pressure tested.

Where the right people weigh in before the work begins. Where the team gets genuinely aligned on why they are doing this, what exactly they are building, and what done looks like before anyone lifts a finger.

It sounds straightforward, but it rarely gets the time it deserves.

Because when the energy is high and everyone is ready to move, slowing down to align feels like a momentum killer.

So the conversation gets skipped.

The team gets a direction. But not a destination.

And those are not the same thing.

What It Costs

There is a specific kind of tired that comes from rework.

(It is not the good kind.)

It’s the tired that comes from working hard, doing what you were asked, and ending up back where you started.

Team members with tenacity push through. But they remember.

The next time a project kicks off, something in them holds back just a little. They still show up. They still do the work. They just stop bringing everything.

Their hesitation to be all-in is a loss that doesn’t show up on a budget report, but you feel it.

One Conversation Before the Work Starts

The fix doesn’t require a new process or a longer meeting.

It requires one honest conversation before work begins that answers three questions:

Why are we doing this?

What exactly are we building?

What does done look like ?

Most teams can answer the first two without breaking a sweat. The third one is where things come apart.

When the picture of success isn’t shared and implementers have to guess at what the invention people had in mind, you don’t get rework at the end. You guarantee it at the start.

💡Try This

Before your next project kicks off, ask those 3 questions out loud. Make sure everyone can answer them the same way.

Clear direction at the start is the most respectful thing you can give people about to give you their all.

To teams that get it done the first time,

Laurie