“I know you wanted two pages of detail, but I could only get part way down one page. Maybe I am stuck.” Jeremy pulled himself closer to the table. We had been working on his project plan, a short range project due in 60 days. As a first step I had asked him to paint a picture of the project, as if it were already complete.

I studied what he had written. It was a good start, but needed some fleshing out. “Tell me, Jeremy, are you working by yourself on this plan? Or do you have some team members helping you?”

Jeremy shook his head. He was thinking of an excuse, but didn’t know which way to go.

“Look, Jeremy, one of the biggest reasons managers fail is they think they have to do everything themselves. But you don’t. Let your team in on this project. They will help you. You have four main ideas in this page. Take your team, split them into four small groups. Give each group one of the ideas and tell them they have five minutes to present their thoughts in a meeting next Monday. At the end of a half hour meeting, you should have more than enough detail.” -TF