The meeting took a sudden turn for the worse when Emil stood up, walked over in front of Sharon and slammed down the report. Up to then, things had been ambling along with the usual finger pointing, back biting and general nastiness. Now, there was real confrontation.

The GPS Project had been off track for several weeks and had been the whipping post of every department meeting in the past 14 days. As I listened, it occurred to me that, what had been said, was true. The problem was in the structure of the conversation, or the lack of it, that prevented the team from making progress.

I suggested a Gap Analysis. This is quick and easy. Take a flipchart piece of paper and make three columns. Column 3 is used to define what we expected. This could come from any list of goals, benchmarks or milestones. Column 1 is to document what we got, instead. This is what actually happened in relation to the expectation. The middle column is the gap, which can now be used to document what actions can be taken to close the gap.

This simple structure can be used to turn the whining, moaning and complaining into a useful conversation. -TF