“Well, Now That You Put It That Way…” — Why Your Projects Aren’t Done
Here is a story from a CEO I met a couple of months ago when speaking to an Vistage Worldwide, Inc. CEO Roundtable in the midwest.
This company was supposed to roll out the new payroll software two quarters ago.
Didn’t happen.
Then they aimed for the end of the last quarter.
Still not done.
When I met the CEO, it was halfway through the current quarter—and the new goal was (again) to have it finished by the end of the quarter.
Third time's a charm - but what does it REALLY mean to be done with this project?
I asked him: “What does done actually look like for this payroll rollout?”
He replied: “They’ll be using the new software.”
“Okay. Who’s they?”
“About 40 people.”
“Can you name them?”
“Yes.”
“And how many projects are those people working on?”
“Oh, that's a lot - probably over 100 active projects.”
“Can you name those?”
“Yes, we could do that."
“Great. Do you know who is working on each project?"
"Of course we know who’s on what.”
“Have you written down the list of people and actually mapped them to each project they are actively working on?”
“Well, no.”
“Okay, good to know. So now for the software - how will they access it - is it an app on their phone, something they'll use a tablet for, or do they need to log into a computer directly?"
“Phone.”
“How many of the 40 people have downloaded the app so far?”
“Ummm... None.”
“Okay, and has the backend been configured so each person sees their assigned projects?”
“No.”
(Of course, I knew this had not been done because he already said they have not actually written the list of people mapped to the list of projects, but wanted to connect the dots here.)
That's when I said:
“Okay, whant I'm hearing you say is that DONE is:
By the end of this quarter: 40 named individuals who are working across 100+ active projects, will have all downloaded the payroll app on their phones with a pre-configured back-end, and each person will have logged at least 1 hour into each of their assigned projects.”
He sat back and laughed: “Well… now that you put it that way…”
That’s the power of a real Definition of Done.
If your team keeps rolling the same project from quarter to quarter, it’s probably not a motivation issue. It’s a clarity issue.
✅ Who, exactly? ✅ What, exactly? ✅ Where does it show up? ✅ Can we verify it happened?
Vague goals create pain and frustration. Clear outcomes drive results and momentum.
Don’t let “done” become a moving target. Define it like you mean it.
Because halfway through the quarter isn’t the time to realiz that you never defined what done looked like in the first place.
Happy Defining!
Andrea