Why is completion important?

Our lives are a series of projects; daily, monthly, yearly and, yes, lifetime. The nature of a project is that it has a beginning, middle and end. The project may go through various phases, is naturally ongoing, or needs stepping stones to completion.

Ah, completion, the achilles heel for human beings. How many times do we near the finish line and don’t quite break the tape? We leave loose ends that accumulate and can eventually cause a breakdown. We buy a carefully chosen gift, wrap it beautifully and then fail to get to the post office to mail it. We wait so long to mail it that we are embarrassed to send it, and so it sits on a shelf somewhere … a failed exercise.

You may be thinking, “What is the nature of completion?” Completion is a conversation had immediately following the project result. Success or failure equally require completion. Let’s look at the flow of the completion conversation.

FIRST CONVERSATION. WHAT WORKED?

Everyone who participated in the project gets to say what they think worked. This could include:

  • The Results
  • The Individual Efforts of a Participant
  • The Concept Itself
  • The Feeling of Accomplishment
  • Other Participants (People not on the project team)

SECOND CONVERSATION. WHAT DIDN’T WORK?

(Never have this conversation first. They won’t be able to fully get what worked if you do.)

This isn’t a blame conversation. The intention is to cause growth and development. This could include:

  • Failed to Produce the Result
  • The Timing of Something
  • The Cost of Something
  • Resources That Were Missing
  • Intentions That Weren’t Delivered
  • Breakdowns in Communication

THIRD CONVERSATION: What did we learn from what didn’t work and given that, what action will we take and by when?

If there is nothing learned, declare the project complete and move on. This is how you deal with failure.

The more we complete things the more complete our life will be. We can put our best foot forward to produce the intended result of the next project. Every time we can learn something our capacity to perform increases.

Take a few minutes to visit the Coaching Bookstore and find the support you may need to produce extraordinary results and become a master of completion.