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Chapter Five
Closure Conversations:
Create Endings
When Ed Koch was mayor of New York, he was concerned about the number of accidents resulting from bikers darting in and out of traffic. Determined to solve the problem, he had “bike lanes” painted on the sides of city streets. But instead of making things better, the bike lanes actually made things worse. Drivers, undeterred by the double yellow lines identifying bike lanes, crossed them so frequently that police could not write enough tickets, and accidents involving bikers increased. As a result, Mayor Koch had the bike lanes removed, ending a futile exercise that cost the city millions of dollars.
Plenty of editorial space was given to criticizing the blunder and Koch’s poor judgment. Reporters, looking for blood, sought interviews with the beleaguered mayor. In one television interview he agreed to, which was scheduled to last thirty minutes, the host was armed with a list of questions that were sure to make Koch look bad. The host began by asking, “Mayor Koch, you spent millions of taxpayer dollars to paint those bike lanes only to remove them. That tax money could have gone to valuable social services. What do you have to say for yourself?”
Pausing, Mayor Koch replied, “You’re absolutely right. It was a huge mistake. I made the wrong decision, and I apologize.” The host, stunned by the mayor’s response, gathered herself and proceeded through her list of questions, each of which was an accusation of some kind. To each accusation, Mayor Koch gave a similar response, admitting the mistake and apologizing for it. The interview lasted for only five of the scheduled thirty minutes after which the topic was dropped, never to be raised again.1
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Mayor Koch’s success in this interview demonstrates the power of Closure Conversations. By acknowledging the facts that New Yorkers already knew—that the bike lanes were an idea that didn’t work—and then apologizing for it, Mayor Koch completely disarmed the issue and brought it to a close. In the process, he restored some of the confidence that New Yorkers had lost in his stewardship of the city.
Closure Conversations can restore credibility and confidence, reduce resentment, build accomplishment and accountability, add velocity, and increase the engagement of participants and potential participants.
An Incomplete Past Can
Prevent a New Future
The purpose of a Closure Conversation is to bring parts of the past to a conclusion, thus making room to start something new or to restart something that has become bogged down. Incomplete items such as tasks not done or communications not delivered at the end of a day, a week, or a project, can keep people stuck or prevent them from moving swiftly or confidently into their next actions. Closure Conversations acknowledge the facts, determine what will complete something that is unfinished, and allow people to move ahead.
The implementation of a new document tracking system in a city department was on hold for several months because no one was willing to make a decision. Should the department put out a request for proposals to get input from document management vendors? Or should staff members talk with officials in another department to see if they could develop a shared system? These two questions cycled back and forth, and eventually mushroomed into dozens of other, smaller questions. The document management committee worked to answer each one as it arose.
Rather than face the urgency of making a decision before the budget deadline, people on the committee held their meetings and discussed the same issues, asking and answering the same questions again and again. They were stuck in a struggle with familiar Understanding Conversations, and they were hoping some breakthrough idea would arise on its own. Everyone wanted to arrive at the decision by understanding all issues, and did not want to “put pressure on” the two senior people of the committee who would ultimately have to make the decision.
The committee eventually missed the budget deadline, disbanded its meetings, and the document tracking system was never implemented.
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Incomplete items are a source of distress for many people, and can lead to distortions in our communications with others. Hans Christian Andersen’s story The Princess and the Pea tells of the princess who endured a sleepless night because of a pea buried beneath her twenty feather mattresses. Although it was only a very small pea, it disrupted her sleep. Incomplete items are like the pea, taking our attention away from the goal and putting it on a nagging piece of unfinished work or undelivered communications.
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Laura had just completed a mandatory training period and was assigned to a new work section. She did not know that the people in the section she was joining had a reputation within the organization of being jokers because they liked to play pranks and make fun of each other. During an informal gathering around the copy machine, one of the regular employees played a practical joke on Laura; everyone laughed except Laura. Caught off guard and embarrassed, she did not know what to say or do, and, saying nothing, she returned to her cubicle feeling humiliated and ashamed. Because that sort of prank was standard practice among the section’s employees, no one said anything to her, assuming she would get used to it.
Unfortunately, she did not. The event became the pea under the mattress in her relationship with her coworkers, and she was stuck with feeling embarrassed and unable to move beyond it. She made it a practice to stay away from informal gatherings and avoid the person who had played the joke on her. Soon the other employees accepted that Laura was a “loner,” which served to make her the target of more jokes and ridicule. After several weeks, Laura asked for a transfer to another section.
The Four A’s of
Closure Conversations
Closure conversations remove the peas from under mattresses by (a) recognizing that they are there, and (b) giving people an opportunity to say what will complete or eliminate them. Calling attention to something that is incomplete will bring it out into the open where people can see and discuss it, deal with it, and complete it.
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Acknowledge the Facts: Say What’s So
At the end of a project, while many things have been accomplished, usually others were either overlooked or left unresolved or not communicated. That is why some people can look at an obvious accomplishment and see only the errors or the miscommunications that happened along the way or the flaws in the end result. When we do not acknowledge these incomplete items, they can accumulate until the pace of work and communication slows down or, ultimately, stops progress altogether.
Charged with determining how to reduce infant mortality in a major metropolitan area, the Council on Infant Mortality started each meeting by reporting the latest infant mortality statistics from the health department. Over the previous several months, infant mortality had decreased slightly, so members were expecting a further decrease this month. However, when the health representative read the statistics, they learned that infant mortality had spiked upward. Rather than accept the statistics and look for what might have caused the undesirable outcome, council members challenged the data and argued among themselves about its validity.
“We were in denial,” the council chairperson said later. “We simply did not want to accept that infant mortality could have gone up that much in such a short period of time. Instead of moving forward with the rest of the agenda, we ended up arguing about the data. Was it collected properly? Who did the analysis? Did the data collectors count different neighborhoods this time?”
“If the health commissioner had not stepped into our meeting, we would probably still be at it. She listened, and each time we challenged the data, she would recognize the challenge and then bring us back to the factual statistic reported by the health department. She must have repeated that number ten times. Eventually we realized that none of our arguments were going to change the statistic.”
Finally, the commissioner told the council members, “The statistic is what it is, and since you are committed to reducing infant mortality, I suggest you accept the data and get to work on what to do about it. You can’t just accept the numbers when they are good and argue with them when they are bad.”
The commissioner’s Closure Conversation acknowledged the statistic for what it was, and helped the council members let go of their concerns about the data and return to their concerns about the causes of infant mortality. At that point, the dismal statistic became only a report on the current facts regarding infant mortality. Council members went back to work on what to do to bring the number back down.
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Sometimes there is no hard data to acknowledge, as when people simply do not share the same point of view. One person believes he or she is right and the other is wrong. If they stick with the argument, they can never move forward to make progress.
That is when it is useful to acknowledge that the other person’s point of view is valid, even when you do not agree with it. Let people know you hear them, instead of dismissing or arguing with what they are saying. This can create enough closure to get back into action. Using acknowledgment as a device for creating closure often eliminates the need for people to defend their point of view and keep the argument going.
Derek had a problem with Russell, a fellow manager in his department. Typically, they would argue over who should do certain jobs and how they should be done. Both were quick to point out the other’s mistakes and find fault with the way the other did things, even when those ways were successful. Each defended his own actions while criticizing the other’s.
Derek had been sharing an intern with Russell, and when Derek reassigned the intern to complete a project for his team, it made the intern unavailable to work for Russell at the same time. Russell was furious and called Derek, saying, “You had no right to reassign that intern without checking with me. How do you know I didn’t have something as urgent or important as you did for the intern? Why do you think your needs are more important than mine?”
Derek told us, “Normally at this point, I would have defended myself and criticized him for something. I usually would give Russell an excuse or remind him of all the times he did things that affected me without checking. I did not do that this time.”
“Instead,” Derek reported, “I told Russell,‘You know, you’re right. I should have consulted with you before reassigning her. It was inconsiderate of me, and I apologize. I will release the intern until we have a chance to discuss it. How would that be?’ That took Russell by surprise—he was quiet, and for a moment, I thought we were disconnected.”
Then Russell said, “Thanks, but you don’t have to do that. I’m sure you had a good reason, but I would appreciate if you’d talk to me about changes like that in the future.”
Derek told us, “Since then we have not had as many arguments as before. We still disagree about things, but it is different now. There doesn’t seem to be the same hostility.”
Derek’s communication was a break from a contentious way of relating that was gaining momentum between him and Russell, and it opened the door for a new way of communicating. He acknowledged that Russell’s point of view was a valid one and offered to change his assignment for the intern. It took the fight out of their relationship and broke the habit of attacking and defending. Each of them now reports an increased willingness to collaborate and a new ability to hear what the other is saying.
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Acknowledge persistent complaints and conditions. Another kind of fact to acknowledge is that every organization has a set of persistent complaints or subjects that people grouse about. Maybe it is about the managers, or the work environment, or certain policies or communication habits. One common habit may be that people say things like, “We have no leadership,” “Communication is poor,” or, “They don’t tell us anything, but expect us to do everything.” In some instances, the complaints persist year after year even when there is a high staff turnover—new staff members pick up the traditional organizational complaints very quickly. One manager invented a novel solution, without realizing that it was a form of Closure Conversation.
Erica was in charge of a customer service team that handled customer complaints, returns, and refunds at the back of a large retail store. She noticed when new staff members were hired, it took less than two months for them to start saying the usual gripes about working in customer complaints. Two things stood out. First, the staff got tired of hearing customer complaints all day, and said it was too negative to work there for very long. The staff ’s slogan was, “Customer service is really complaint headquarters.” Second, the staff liked to say, “You can’t pay people enough to put up with customers.”
“People are quick to learn to complain about the customers,” Erica said. “One day, I posted a big blank signboard in our meeting room, where customers couldn’t see it. At the top of the board, it said, “Cranky Customer Complaints.” I handed staff members a stack of Post-its, and told them to make a note of every cranky customer they talked to, and write down the complaint. They laughed and didn’t believe me, but I told them that I was serious. I wanted a closer look at the negative part of our job, and asked them to trust me and do it for a week.”
“They started filling up that board fast! By the end of the week, there were over seventy notes posted. I took the notes home and summarized the results, which indicated that most of the customer complaints had to do with merchandise on the ‘weekly sale’ racks. We talked about this at the Monday meeting, and the employees had suggestions about how to prevent some of the complaints. They had never talked about solving the situation before, and even though our discussion sounded a lot like another gripe session, this time they were talking about how to fix a problem instead of being discouraged about something that could never be solved.”
“I took their suggestions to the floor managers, and we had several meetings about my team’s suggestions. Some changes have been made, and others are still going on. In the meantime, my staff members are not the same: they don’t complain about customers so much. We are keeping the Cranky Customer board going so we can keep learning. It is much nicer to work here now than it has ever been, and staff turnover has dropped a lot.”
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Workplace complaints can become part of a background understanding where people talk as if some undesirable conditions are unchangeable. A conversation that recognizes the existence of a persistent complaint or difficult situation brings it out of the background and makes it visible. This can bring closure simply by having people look more closely, get more specific, and break up the habitual pattern of complaints.
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Appreciate the People: Recognize
Accomplishment and Contribution
Research shows that many people feel underappreciated and under-recognized at work. Gallup, for example, reports that less than one-third of employees can say that, “In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.”2
When we ask managers, “How many of you are confident that what you do really matters or makes a difference to your organization?” only a few hands go up. When we ask, “How many of you feel fully recognized, acknowledged, and appreciated for the work you do?” even fewer hands go up. Finally, when we ask, “How many of you make sure the people who do things for you would say that they feel fully recognized, acknowledged, and appreciated for what they do?” almost no hands go up. Is it any wonder that only 30% of nonmanagers, 40% of managers, and 50% of executives report being fully engaged in their work?3
It is tempting to blame lack of engagement on such things as poorly designed incentive plans or overly sensitive people. Unfortunately, that puts the problem of disengaged people on things beyond our control. If we want people to be more engaged in their work—which will improve productivity, performance, and relationships—we can learn to use appreciative Closure Conversations.
Appreciating people is an easy and inexpensive Closure Conversation, and it can restore even cynical people to a more active level of participation in their work. Words of appreciation can shift an interaction out of an unproductive rut and give attention to people’s positive behaviors and accomplishments. People respond to positive reinforcement in all aspects of life. When we recognize others for good work, or for being cooperative and thoughtful, we encourage them to continue being that way.
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Scott was in charge of developing a new promotion strategy for a well-established product his client wanted to reposition in the market. The client told Scott he wanted a radical, “out-of-the-box” type of approach. Scott worked with his most creative associates and came up with an innovative and contemporary set of ideas. Unfortunately, when the client saw it, he got cold feet and scrapped the whole campaign. Disappointed, Scott met with his boss to let him know what happened. To his surprise, his boss did not focus on the failure, but on what had been accomplished.
His boss said, “Scott, I know the loss of the campaign is a personal disappointment to you, and I’m confident you will look to see what we can learn from losing the contract for it. But don’t lose sight of what you accomplished in doing the preparation for the proposal. The approach you developed is unlike any we have tried before. It combines media and technologies in a creative way, and it has many ideas we could use in campaigns for other clients. Did you fail to get the contract? Yes, but you also produced something that will be valuable going forward. I want to thank you for the extraordinary work you did.”
People do not like to fail, and they usually work hard to avoid it. Scott’s boss knew he would be unhappy about the failure and that it would preoccupy his thinking, perhaps costing his productivity and participation in upcoming projects. He acknowledged the facts—that Scott had failed and was disappointed—and then set about appreciating the accomplishments and the value. Scott did not dwell long on the failure, and shared the praise with his associates, getting everyone back to work with new energy and enthusiasm.
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Giving recognition can be more powerful than giving reprimands. We often hear managers complain that they want their people to demonstrate more initiative. Those same managers often forget to thank or praise people who show initiative, such as by sharing new ideas, shortcuts, or ways to improve products or services. The more we let people know when they do something right, the more we reinforce their good behaviors. And, according to Cindy Ventrice, author of Make Their Day!, recognizing people for what they accomplish is in our own self-interest because it can end up making our job easier.4
Marshall was a daytime supervisor in a factory with twenty-four-hour services. He was having problems with a maintenance supervisor from the night shift.
“This guy really hates me,” Marshall said. “We only ever speak through email, but his emails are nasty. He uses profanity and says some really mean things. I now don’t answer his emails until it is convenient for me. Then, when I do send him an email, it just says, “Done.” He probably doesn’t like the way I interact with him, but who needs that kind of abuse?”
Marshall learned about Closure Conversations and decided to try an experiment with the troubling maintenance supervisor. He planned a different way of responding the next time he got one of the “nasty-grams.” Within a week, he had his opportunity. He received an unfriendly message that accused him of botching a machine maintenance job that hadn’t been finished properly. Marshall was determined to test the Closure Conversation idea.
“Instead of ignoring the email,” he said, “I replied immediately, and I told him, ‘Sorry John, I am stuck in a production application problem here and will get back to you in half an hour.’ Then, as soon as I could, I gave him a response about the machine maintenance situation. I didn’t hear anything back, but the next morning, at the end of his shift, he came to my office. I was amazed because he had never done that before. Then he asked me for assistance on a procedure his crew was having difficulty getting right.”
“I was shocked,” Marshall said. “Maybe he liked the fast response, or that my email said more than, ‘Done.’ Whatever it was, that one conversation seemed to change things for us. It actually felt good to help him out with the procedure issues he was having and help get everything to work out for him and his crew. Now I feel better toward him, and I don’t get nasty emails anymore either. All this from one conversation!”
“Since then, I make it a point to respond when people email me a question or some information. I send an email back saying, ‘Thank you,’ or, ‘I will get back to you later this morning.’ This closure idea has changed the way I work and the way people talk to me.”
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Apologize for Mistakes and Misunderstandings
Everyone makes mistakes. Sometimes we overstep boundaries or violate accepted principles or norms. We forget to do the things we promised, creating problems for other people and ourselves. Sometimes we do things we think will be helpful or appropriate, only to find out that others see things differently. A few examples:
Jonathan made the mistake of speaking out of turn and interrupting a senior manager at an executive meeting; everyone got quiet and looked disapprovingly at him. Jonathan did not speak again for the rest of the meeting.
Rob, a software developer, promised his team he would complete a crucial section of code by the following morning. Then he got distracted with another project, and the code was never written. He and his team had to stay late the next day to complete the job.
Sharon, a management consultant, told everyone at a meeting of her client’s managers that she would take the information she had collected on a particular issue and pull it together into a report for the group to review. After the meeting, Sharon learned that one of the senior managers was upset because he thought she was intruding on his authority. He felt threatened by her promise to produce a report, and withdrew his support for her consulting work.
In each case, an interpersonal issue intruded on a potentially productive discussion, and it could have been defused by an apology or a personal conversation. Mayor Koch showed the way: a public admission of his mistake in building bike lanes in New York ended a controversy that had enveloped City Hall. It takes courage to admit a mistake and apologize for having caused inconvenience or distress for other people. We fear that an apology can make us look weak or incompetent, damage our reputation or career, be used as ammunition against us, or embarrass us and cause a loss of respect and credibility in the eyes of others.5
Mayor Koch probably had the same concerns, but he also knew and trusted the power of telling the truth. He could have blamed New York drivers for not obeying the law, or city planners for not anticipating the problem. But he didn’t, and his openness and honesty improved people’s perception of him as a good leader. Research shows that honesty is the one characteristic most admired and looked for in leaders.6
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An apology is a form of Closure Conversation, and, oddly enough, it can be useful even when you are not sure whether you made a mistake or not. One manager we know says his motto is, “Apologize even when it’s not your fault.” We shared this with an MBA student who was having problems with a team member, and he decided to test the idea.
Doug said, “Ever since I joined my current project team about a year ago, I have had issues with one guy who had been with the group for over five years. Unfortunately, he was supposed to be a mentor for me, but from the very beginning, it seemed like he just had it in for me. He was sarcastic to me in front of others, excluded me from meetings, and never seemed like he took the job of mentoring me too seriously. For the life of me, I could not figure out what he had against me, especially since I knew I hadn’t done anything to him.”
“I swallowed my pride and decided to apologize to him for somehow causing him a problem. I waited until Friday afternoon, in case things didn’t go smoothly, walked into his cubicle, and asked if he had a minute.”
“I began apologizing for whatever it was I may have done to upset him. I felt like I was rambling, which I probably was, because he was not saying anything in return. I felt more awkward as he continued to just sit, listen, and say nothing. I finally concluded by saying that I hoped he could put whatever I did behind him so we could maintain a good work relationship.”
“All he said was,‘I guess.’ I felt like a fool as I walked back to my desk, digesting what had just transpired. I was disappointed with his lack of response. I thought he would say more than ‘I guess,’ and I started to question whether I handled the conversation correctly.”
“To my surprise, about two hours later, I got an email from him. He said I had done nothing to him, but that my apology made him reconsider the way he was behaving toward me. He said even though he was supposed to be mentoring me, he actually viewed me as a threat, thinking that I might ‘steal some of his thunder.’ He ended by saying we were on good terms and that he would like for us to start over so we could work together cooperatively in the future.”
“I am amazed at this. I had no idea that apologizing for something I didn’t do could have this kind of impact. It got him thinking, and the result was it cleared the air. My whole work experience has changed for the better.”
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We have seen many examples of Closure Conversations similar to Doug’s. When people feel wronged or threatened, they often do not know how to communicate in a way that lets go of their negative experience. Instead, they change their behavior to a “fight or flight” response. Doug’s mentor took the “fight” response and became difficult and confrontational. Others take the “flight” response and withdraw from subsequent interactions.
In either case, the result is that people withhold their performance to make others pay for their transgressions and wrongdoings, whether they actually happened or not. A well-handled apology is an easy solution to breaking up this knot, and, because it is such an extraordinary thing to do, it provides a way to address a personal problem without making anyone defensive.
Attorneys once told doctors not to apologize when bad things happened to their patients, but now those attorneys are changing their advice. They once feared an apology was an admission of fault that could result in losing a malpractice suit. In 2001, the University of Michigan Health System dropped the traditional “deny and defend” approach in favor of honest disclosure and apology. Over the subsequent five years, the number of active malpractice cases, along with the time and cost to resolve them, dropped dramatically.
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Apparently, the top motivating factor for malpractice lawsuits was the patient’s anger, which was only made worse by the doctor’s silence and denial. By the end of 2007, twenty-nine states had passed laws that prevent doctors’ expressions of sympathy and condolence from being used against them in court. Hospitals and malpractice insurance companies are now telling doctors to have open and honest discussions with their patients. They are even teaching doctors how to apologize correctly.7
Amend Broken Agreements:The Four R’s
The “broken windows” theory says that a single broken window left unrepaired in a building will signal a lax attitude toward the care and upkeep of property. Soon, other windows in the building will be broken, and other signs of deterioration will begin to appear around the building: accumulation of trash, graffiti, abandoned cars, and other junk. Eventually, as the neglect becomes obvious, other forms of crime such as panhandling, prostitution, and drug dealing take place in or near the building. People who live in the area start to feel vulnerable, and they either leave or avoid the area. The neighborhood deteriorates further and crime increases.8
Rudy Guiliani, then mayor of New York, and his chief of police William Bratton, believed in the “broken windows” theory enough to put it into action. They aggressively pursued graffiti artists, panhandlers, loiterers, subway turnstile jumpers, and other low-level crimes. They made the homeless stay in shelters, removed graffiti within twenty-four hours, and repaired broken windows in abandoned buildings. Although there was a lot of dissention about going after petty criminals, the result was that violent crimes declined by over 56% and property crimes by almost 65% during Guiliani’s administration.9
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Broken agreements are like broken windows. When people break an agreement to complete a job by a particular date, do quality work, or communicate honestly, it sends two signals. First, it says that particular agreement is not important. Second, it says keeping agreements in general is not important. If one broken agreement goes unacknowledged, more will be broken as people realize that keeping promises does not matter much even when threatened with legal sanction.10 At that point, a culture of cynicism and uncertainty is gaining ground.
When agreements are broken, as they surely will be, a Closure Conversation can help to restore trust in the relationship. There are four steps—the Four R’s—to address and repair broken agreements, which will build and strengthen accountability in much the same way that repairing broken windows improves a neighborhood.
Step 1. Recognize: The first step is to recognize that an agreement has been broken. Denial is a sure way to problems. Was something late? Incorrect? Falsely represented? Look closely to determine what the agreement was, what did or didn’t happen, and when. Learning to recognize that the “pea under the mattress” is really a broken agreement can be a useful skill to develop.
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Step 2. Report. Both parties meet and communicate about the fact that an agreement has been broken, what the agreement was, and what exactly did or did not happen. Reporting is an acknowledgement type of Closure Conversation and needs to include mention of any costs or consequences resulting from the broken promise. Ideally, both parties will see where they fell short and take ownership of their respective roles, but this does not always happen.
Step 3. Repair. Both parties, having recognized the costs of the broken agreement, ask, “What will make this right?” The repair needs to be spelled out in a way that both parties are clear about the actions, results, and timelines that are appropriate to clean up the breakage.
Step 4. Recommit. The damage has been done, identified, and communicated. A new agreement has been made to repair the damage. The final step is to restore the relationship by agreeing to honor promises in a new way in the future. Prevent damage to the future of the relationship by agreeing that a new future starts now.
Amending broken agreements is an ongoing part of managing the accomplishment of even the smallest task or project. It lets people know that talk is not cheap and that their word matters. It also clears the air of a great deal of the guilt or defensiveness that can become a barrier to individual productivity and group creativity.
The “Four A’s”—Acknowledge the facts, Appreciate the people, Apologize for mistakes and misunderstandings, and Amend broken agreements—can be used independently or in combinations. There are times when all that is needed is an acknowledgement of the facts to let people know the status of things. At other times, appreciation is sufficient to restore people, or an apology or amended agreement is enough to clear the air so that people can return their attention to the job at hand. But we know many people who make it a point to use all four A’s in each Closure Conversation to be sure that they defuse every aspect of a difficult (or potentially difficult) situation.
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Build Accountability and
Resolve “People Problems”
“We need people to be more accountable” is a popular wish of many managers. Unfortunately, they often talk about accountability as if it is a personality trait, an attitude, or some characteristic of an individual person. In fact, accountability is a product of conversations between two or more people. Accountability is an aspect of a relationship, not of an individual, and you can build and strengthen it with Closure Conversations.
According to Merriam Webster, accountability is a willingness to account for one’s actions. As ASTD’s research shows, people are most likely to do a task when they know they will have to account for it. An accountability conversation, in which people account for their actions and results, is a special form of Closure Conversation. It is sometimes called a status report, a debrief conversation, an after-action review, or a postmortem, in which participants report on the status of tasks and results, examine breakdowns and breakthroughs in order to learn what worked and what didn’t, and adjust future plans and timelines accordingly.
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An accountability conversation is an application of the first type of Closure Conversation: Acknowledge the facts. This can also be seen as a feedback conversation, and ideally, it is built into every task assignment and project schedule. Giving each assignment a regular status report schedule is a way to strengthen accountability by ensuring that there will be a conversation to account for whatever happened in the process of doing the job. When the factual results are good, or better than expected, you can add in a Closure Conversation to appreciate the people. When the results are not good, you have the opportunity to strengthen accountability in several ways.
If the Result Doesn’t Meet Expectations
Sometimes people fail to deliver what they promised: the structure is wrong, something is missing or inaccurate, or the quality of work is low in some other way. Making clear requests for what you want, explaining why it is important, and getting good promises from people will all help reduce the frequency of quality problems.
Harry is a processing plant manager. Pete, an engineer, promised Harry he would research a new compressor to see if it would improve one of the plant’s process measures. Harry specified he wanted a report that included specific information and a table of comparisons. Pete delivered the report, but he omitted putting in the table of comparisons. That meant Harry had to have a Closure Conversation to let Pete know that parts of the promised result were missing, incomplete, or unacceptable. Harry called Pete to his office.
“Hey, Pete, thanks for coming by.”
“Sure thing. You wanted to talk about the compressor specs I gave you?”
“I do. As I recall, one of the things you were going to do was put the comparisons in a table, but I don’t see a table. What happened with that?”
“Ah, well, I thought the listings I gave you made the table unnecessary, so I didn’t think it was needed.”
“Yes, I can see what you mean, but I wish you had checked with me first. I intended to give the VP that table as a summary without sending her the full report. Now I can’t do that without creating the table myself or asking you to redo it.”
“I’m really sorry. It wouldn’t have taken much to prepare the table; I just didn’t think it was necessary. I have everything on the computer, so I can prepare it in no time.”
“That would be very helpful. How soon can you do that?”
“About thirty minutes.”
“Great, email it to me. That way I can forward it to the VP.”
“Will do.”
“One last thing. I just realized I didn’t tell you why I wanted that table when we made our agreement.”
“No, you said you wanted it, but you didn’t say it was for the VP.”
“That is my mistake, and I apologize for not telling you that I wanted the table to hand over to someone else. If I had done that, we wouldn’t be having this meeting right now.”
“True. But if I had done what you asked for, we wouldn’t be meeting either. Instead of making assumptions about what you needed, I should have checked with you. I guess we both learned something.”
“Looks like it. I’ll look for your email in about thirty minutes.”
“It’ll be there.”
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When It’s Late
Making good requests and promises improves accountability, especially if everyone involved agrees to a specific due date. A few tips on building accountability for timelines are:
- Follow up immediately after the deadline has occurred. Whether you receive the result at the agreed time or not, a prompt follow-up is a way of communicating that the deadline matters and that you care about it.
- When the people you are working with have little experience in being accountable, don’t wait until the deadline—have a reminder conversation with them prior to the deadline. This lets people know the promise is still alive and your expectations are too.
In the case of Harry and Pete, they had a good working relationship going back more than two years. Harry knew Pete took their agreements seriously, but if Pete was ever even a little bit late, Harry knew he needed to communicate quickly. He also knew he had to continue being specific about the time requirements when he talked to Pete.
“Hey, Pete, this is Harry.”
“Hi, Harry. What’s up?”
“I am following up on that table you were going to send me. I know it has only been forty-five minutes, but I want to be sure you didn’t forget about it.”
“Ouch, I got distracted on the way back to my office. One of the maintenance guys stopped me with a problem on repairing a seal on the valves. I’m working on your table now, though, and it is just about done. I can have it for you in ten more minutes. Will that be OK?”
“OK, but the VP is leaving today at 3:30 PM, and I need to get it to her before that.”
“For sure you will have it in ten minutes. I’ll email it to you, and I’ll call you to confirm it’s on the way.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it.”
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Don’t Let People off the Hook
People learn that our requests and promises matter when we follow up with them. Depending on the capability and experience of the people with whom you make agreements, you may need to follow up only at the time the promise is due, or you may need to check in on them several times during the process of their fulfilling the promise.
We know one manager who swears by her method of making a “resource check” at the 25% mark on the timeline of every promise she makes with her supervisors and project managers. “By the time they are 25% of the way into the work,” she says, “they know more about the reality of their plan and the resources they really need. My resource check is something I now build into the schedule of every timeline. We review the staff levels assigned to the project, the equipment and supplies, the vendor agreements, and anything else that could alter the timeline.”
She says her resource check accomplishes two things. First, it allows for an adjustment of resources after people have started a project and learned more about what they really need. Second, it is a reminder that the promise and the timeline are important. Managers who do not use a resource check or status debrief partway through their assignments can expect some failures in quality or timeliness.
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With failures, come excuses. If you accept people’s excuses for failures of quality or time, you do a disservice to their future performance as individuals and as a group. This does not mean anyone needs to be scolded or punished. It does require a Closure Conversation that reviews and acknowledges the facts and itemizes where things went off track. Whenever we let people get by without that conversation, we undermine their ability to be accountable as well as undermining our own credibility in managing agreements with people.
“I’ve been with this company for twenty-three years,” Duane said. “I’ve had six bosses in that time. None of them have ever been serious about what they say they want. When I started here, a supervisor told me that he never did anything unless the boss asked him for something two times. He said he used to do things right away, but then he found out the person who asked for it had changed his mind, forgotten about it, or wanted something different. So he made it his policy to wait until he received a second request, figuring that if someone asked about it again, he or she was probably serious.
“Over the years I have been here, I think my supervisor gave me pretty good advice. All my bosses ask me for things, and then they forget about them and never get back to me. It’s not that I’m lazy, but I don’t want to waste my time on things that nobody cares about.”
If you want people to honor their promises with you, it is important to honor your promises with them by following up on or before the due date. The failure to follow through with Closure Conversations can be a manager’s own worst enemy when it comes to building a culture of accountability.
It is also important, as part of improving accountability, to take responsibility for the rebuilding part of a Closure Conversation. When a manager has identified a problem, he or she is obligated to bring it to light and look for a way to address it in a way that it will not recur.
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“Hey, Pete, this is Harry.”
“Hi, Harry. What’s up?”
“I got the table you sent me, and I’ve passed it along to the VP. Thanks.”
“No problem.”
“One other thing, though. I want you to know I would like to ratchet up the way we make agreements. I sometimes think I am doing a little too much micromanaging with you, because you are pulled in so many directions that you wind up being late on some of the things you promise me. You’ve got me trained to call you and remind you about things, and to check up on you more than I like. Any suggestions about how we could change that?”
“Oh, wow. I see what you mean. I never realized that my way of working was causing you to do more work. Let me think about that, and what I could do. Come to think of it, I could probably start by clearing some of the stacks off my desk, and start using my calendar to track what I’m promising.”
“Sounds like a good start. I may bring this up again, but I appreciate your looking for ways to be more time sensitive.”
“Thanks. Talk tomorrow.”
Defuse Resentment and Upsets
During the America Cup races, boats are taken out of the water every night and their hulls scrubbed and polished in order to remove barnacles, roughness, or protrusions that could increase turbulence and surface drag. Keeping the hulls clean allows the boats greater speed and more accurate maneuverability. What if there was a way to remove the barnacles that impair management and productive relationships in the workplace?
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People who are resentful or upset about something, or who are working with people who are upset, will not be able to work at their full potential. People’s upsets are like the flu: they are distracting for the people who have them and can infect the people who are nearby, pulling attention away from work and onto the details and moods of the distressed person. Resentments and other upsets are like barnacles impeding workplace performance—they slow things down.
It happens every day: someone says or does something to somebody else, and suddenly someone’s reaction becomes a barnacle of resentment, irritation, or worry. Unfortunately, we cannot take our workplace interactions out of the water every night and scrape them off to start fresh tomorrow with clean communication. Closure Conversations are the tools we can use to dissolve workplace barnacles, and they can dissolve even very old ones.
George, the new manager of a vehicle service organization, planned to upgrade his maintenance team’s technology by installing GIS and computer communication systems. He had already met with the fleet and service supervisors in one-on-one meetings, but planned to talk to the employees in both groups about scheduling the GIS installation and the training program that would bring everyone up to speed.
The discussion about the installation schedule went well, but when he handed out the training schedule, several employees seemed angry, saying, “This isn’t going to be fair for the back room machine guys,” “You’re going around us again,” and “This won’t work any better than it did last time.” Since he knew from previous conversations that they all wanted the GIS system, he was caught off guard by this resistance.
After listening, George said, “The training will help you use the system that you all agree you want. What is going on? Really, I want to know what this is about.”
After a moment of hesitation, one fleet employee said, “The manager who was here before you told us we had to attend trainings for a new purchasing and inventory system. He said if we did the training, we’d get promotions and pay raises.”
“Yes,” another mechanic said. “He said if we could switch over to a new purchasing system in eight weeks, we’d get promoted. So we did it. We got the training, and then we transferred all our inventory data, and updated the inventory records and reports. We did it in less than eight weeks.”
Their previous manager, however, was ultimately unable to obtain the promotions or the raises for the employees. He never had a Closure Conversation with the supervisors. Instead, he tried to cover it up by making other adjustments. He permitted three of four supervisors to receive overtime opportunities that boosted their income. The fourth man had not been with the company long enough to be classified in a way that made him eligible for overtime, so the manager gave him a special title and promised a change when he reached his two-year anniversary. By the time the anniversary date came, the manager had left the company. Although the men could never prove it, they believed their manager never intended to obtain the raises and promotions. Further, they had convinced themselves that his decisions had racial and cultural overtones. Their resentment had only hardened since that time.
George realized that, whatever the truth, some of his employees believed they had been betrayed. All it took was the word “training,” and it brought back all the grudges of that past incident. George knew he had not been the cause of the problem, but he also knew he was going to live with its consequences until he found a way to resolve it. He chose to take the broken agreement approach. He acknowledged the agreement his predecessor had made, recognized that it had not been kept, and offered his genuine apology, on behalf of the company.
“You were misled,” he told them. “The way it was handled showed a lack of respect for you and the work you do. I want to personally apologize to each one of you. And I will look into this to see what I can to do make it right.
George met with the human resources director and the operations vice president, and followed through to see that his employees were properly classified and received the best increases available in the budget. Three weeks later, the human resources director came to meet personally with the supervisors to tell them when the new pay scale would begin. Their skepticism finally dissolving, one inventory supervisor said, “It’s great to get this squared away, but you know what made the biggest difference to me? Seeing that George was shocked and sorry to find out we had been treated like that in the first place. The way he said he was sorry, even though he hadn’t done anything, I knew we had a friend.”
George said later, “I think the previous manager did the best he could at the time. I probably would not have been able to do any better than he did, but he made a mistake in not following through to get their pay raises the following year. I wonder if I would have been honest enough to apologize for that incident if it had been me who caused it in the first place. I’d like to think so.”
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By dealing with the broken promise on its own merits, George not only completed something his predecessor left incomplete, but also enhanced his credibility and earned the respect of his men. It would have been very easy for him to dismiss their complaints as “just resistance,” but he listened well and was able to strengthen his relationship with his staff. His experience is a reminder that the velocity we experience during a project may have little or nothing to do with the current plan. However old the barnacles are, a Closure Conversation can help people let go and get back to work.
If You Are Missing Closure Conversations
Closure Conversations are commonly used, but often we do not realize that they can be instruments to accelerate performance. We acknowledge the facts of the matter when a situation demands we do it, but we can also acknowledge the “what’s so” facts of a situation as a device for getting unstuck. Similarly, we can learn to recognize accomplishments and mistakes as a reliable way to keep people engaged and doing their best, or to restore their spirit after a problem or breakdown in performance. We can give people better feedback, revitalize communications, and clean up past misunderstandings to develop a culture for strengthening accountability.
Closure Conversations touch every element of performance (i.e., the What-When-Why and Who-Where-How). They can work to reduce obstacles, add velocity to work, and improve collaboration between groups. They also add authenticity to communication and relationships. We know several consultants who tell us, “This is where I start my work in every organization. Closure Conversations help people be more willing to make changes.”
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If You Don’t Use Closure Conversations
Many people do not use Closure Conversations, believing that they are unnecessary. This is the optimistic view that people will remember what they have committed to do, and will manage themselves, their resources, and their communications successfully. It is a failure of management to turn over responsibility for agreements to others without follow-through. Agreements are, after all, a two-way process of requests and promises, and thus deserve to be owned on both sides rather than handed off and never revisited.
Some people do not use Closure Conversations because they think they are either too personal or too confrontational. Appreciating accomplishment, for example, can be warm and supportive, which may be uncomfortable for someone who wants to maintain more workplace distance between people. Similarly, acknowledging someone’s mistakes can be seen as punishing them, which could be uncomfortable for people who would rather be liked than respected.
Without Closure Conversations, however, a project can lose momentum, a workplace can acquire long-lasting baggage that compromises performance, and an entire organization can develop a culture of resignation and indifference. Managers who learn and practice using Closure Conversations will see a shift in the trust and credibility of workplace relationships, and communications will begin to become more reliable and productive.
If You Use Them Improperly
The primary misuse of Closure Conversations is a failure to listen to the people who are working on fulfilling their promises and agreements. When we cannot, or will not, hear what they are saying, they are left stuck with something they need to communicate. This undelivered communication can reduce their productivity and manageability in future communications.
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When you pay attention to incomplete items, you set the tone that nothing is to be overlooked in either reaching for a goal or supporting people who are working on achieving one. Ask for, and act on, feedback and you will keep workplace communications focused on the desired results. It also helps when you must introduce course-corrections if plans need to change midstream. Closure Conversations are a time-tested way to accelerate changes small and large, and to gain people’s involvement and interest in any endeavor.
If You Use Too Many Closure Conversations
As long as your Closure Conversations are well grounded in a commitment to creating or accomplishing something, they probably cannot be over-used. However, there can be an overdose of Closure Conversations when we lose sight of the initiatives we are looking to fulfill, or when our conversations are inauthentic. Debriefing people without reference to the original plan of action, for example, loses the reason we are involved in the project in the first place. Without this context, people can shift into busy mode, adding more anxiety and urgency, but without a sense of the purpose and value of their work. Similarly, if we are insincere in our appreciation or our apologies, people are likely to see us as patronizing and disingenuous, which will undermine our credibility and their trust in us.
Closure Conversations are useful to keep things moving and to support people in being responsible, accountable, and in communication with others. When you tie them to a larger goal or purpose and communicate honestly, they will deliver those benefits to the entire workplace.
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Putting It into Practice
Closure Conversations return people to the purpose of their work, and support them in operating consistently with workplace intentions and initiatives. Sometimes they are personal conversations to support individuals and groups in joining (or returning to) the original proposal to make something new happen. But many Closure Conversations are impersonal, such as the display of a workplace scoreboard to show how many deals have been closed, services delivered, or timelines met. The idea is to manage the agreements between people and to support them in honoring their word.
People who want performance from others must master the Closure Conversation. The easiest way to begin is by acknowledging facts. Let people know, “I got it,” when they deliver things you asked for, so they do not wonder about it. Let people know, “Here’s what happened,” when you learn something about events or communications that are relevant to their assignments.
Adding appreciation, even a simple, but sincere “thank you,” can make a difference in the way people respond to future requests. Apologies are sometimes harder, but when you catch yourself doing something that doesn’t work, acknowledge it and apologize. It sets a tone that mistakes are not the end of the world.
One reason people fail to follow up on requests and promises is that they do not have a way to keep track of them. If you track your requests and promises using the table at the end of Chapter 4, you will be able to acknowledge the facts of work in progress and have status reviews at any time. This mechanism also allows you to have the Closure Conversations to follow up with people, and to amend agreements as needed.
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A quick way to do this is to use a device some managers have tested (see the table below). If you maintain a list of each important project or initiative, (in rows), you can check at every meeting whether there is something that needs to be Acknowledged, Appreciated, Apologized for, or Amended. We know a few managers who have posted this table in their conference areas, and who invite their staffs to use it as a tool to identify what they need to address to increase velocity.
Table 8
List of Initiatives, Projects, or Tasks
| What Facts Do We Need to Acknowledge? | What People Do We Need to Appreciate, and For What? | What Mistakes or Misunder-standings Do We Need to Apologize For? | What Agreements Need to be Amended? |
| 1. | |||
| 2. | |||
| 3. |
Finally, a Closure Conversation with respect to the entire initiative will complete the original intention and allow participants to debrief for the entire undertaking just as they do for individual requests and promises, and will make space for new initiatives. The table describing the initiative shown at the end of Chapter 3 is the product of Understanding Conversations, which means it contains the benefits of participant ideas and perspectives. We know managers who keep that version on their conference room wall. It helps everyone make updates as things change, so that everyone can see where things stand. It is also useful as a tool for remembering all the Closure Conversations that will be needed at the end of the project.