2K. The Stages of the Achieving Outcomes Subprocess

2K1. The Achieving Outcomes Subprocess begins with a request from a team leader, a customer, a team member, or the coach to achieve a goal or produce a deliverable.
- 2K1i. Figure 2.11. All stages of the Achieving Outcomes Subprocess.
2K2. Stage 1: Clarifying the Request
- 2K2i. Purpose: Understand the solution or outcome the individual or team is being asked to produce. Answer the following questions:
  - 2K2ia. What is the common goal we have that this outcome is aligned to?
  - 2K2ib. What is the solution or outcome being requested?
  - 2K2ic. What problem or opportunity is it intended to resolve/capture? Or What will you be creating out of the deliverable being produced?
  - 2K2id. Why is it needed?
  - 2K2ie. What is it intended to do?
  - 2K2if. What characteristics are necessary?
  - 2K2ig. The output of stage 1 is an understanding of the request to inform planning.
2K3. Stage 2: Planning to Negotiate
- 2K3i. Purpose: Collect data to prepare for negotiating accountability. Answer the following questions:
  - 2K3ia. Is the request reasonable? Doable?
  - 2K3ib. Has the best possible solution been chosen?
  - 2K3ic. What is the scope of the request?
  - 2K3id. What will be required to fulfill the request—how much time, money?
- 2K3ii. The output of Stage 1 is plan of what is possible.
2K4. Stage 3: Negotiating an Agreement
- 2K4i. Purpose: To negotiate an agreement between two internal parties and secure an upfront commitment.
- 2K4ii. The two parties must negotiate accountability based on their organizational and team accountabilities.
  - 2K4iia. Organizational accountability ensures both parties who are negotiating accountability are working towards what is in the best interests of the organization as a whole (the common goal).
  - 2K4iib. If the parties are negotiating team accountability (between the team leader and the team members), both parties must bear in mind that they will be unconditionally accountable for the outcomes agreed to, so they must be realistic and doable.
  - 2K4iic. If the two parties are negotiating individual accountability, the parties involved must work within the context of what was agreed to for team accountability.
  - 2K4iid. The two parties must work within the triple constraint. The triple constraint is the interdependence between scope, cost, and time to complete.
- 2K4iii. If the two parties can’t come to an agreement, the negotiation can be escalated.
  - 2K4iiia. The first escalation is to the team leader (if the negotiation is between two team members), then to the sponsor or team liaison at the next higher-level team (if the negotiation is between a team leader and a team member).
  - 2K4iiib. If no resolution is possible, negotiations will be processed through the coach, who can assign accountability.
- 2K4iv. The output of Stage 2 is the documented agreement..
- 2K4v. Stage 4: Committing to an Outcome
  - 2K4va. Purpose: Confirm and document the commitments being made.
  - 2K4vb. The commitment is made by the person accepting accountability. It is a commitment to produce what has been agreed to based on the established conditions, such as the timeline, budget, etc.
  - 2K4vc. In a customer/supplier agreement, there is accountability on both sides. The customer agrees to produce certain deliverables by a certain date, and the supplier agrees to produce certain deliverables by a certain date, possibly within a certain budget. Failure on the part of the customer to meet his accountability can nullify the agreement with the supplier. Both the internal customer and supplier are also bound by team accountability (if they are both on the team) and/or organizational accountability.
  - 2K4vd. An agreement doesn’t have to be formal—it can take the form of a confirming email. For more complex deliverables or negotiations, more complete documentation of the agreement is appropriate. Since these are internal agreements, they should be relatively simple matters.
  - 2K4ve. The output of Stage 4 is a commitment by all parties involved.
2K5. Stage 5: Executing the agreement
- 2K5i. Purpose: Deliver the outcome committed to in the agreement.
  - 2K5ia. During this stage, the work is executed, and the process is monitored.
  - 2K5ib. The requesting party should be receiving updates on how the work is progressing.
  - 2K5ic. The requesting party must also live up to his part of the agreement.
- 2K5ii. The output of Stage 5 is the outcome/results.
  - 2K5iia. These may or may not be the ones that were agreed to.
2K6. Stage 6: Evaluating the Results
- 2K6i. Purpose: Determine whether accountability was fulfilled or not.
  - 2K6ia. The results are compared to the agreement to determine if the commitment was fulfilled.
  - 2K6ib. Consequences are applied. (See Section 2L for more on consequences.)
2K7. Stage 7: Lessons Learned
- 2K7i. Purpose: Learn from what happened.
- 2K7ii. The process is evaluated to determine what can be learned so that next time the process is more effective and efficient.
- 2K7iii. The most important part of the accountability process is Lessons Learned. Accountability will not be fulfilled 100% of the time. Even if an individual negotiates an achievable goal, does a risk assessment for what could go wrong, and finds ways to prevent those risks, sometimes things go wrong anyway. There are lots of moving parts in a matrix organization. Life is unpredictable and uncontrollable. However, what the individual does have control over is whether or not she learns from her experiences.
  - 2K7iiia. If we learn, we do better next time. If we don’t learn, we repeat the same mistakes over and over again.
- 2K7iv. The output of Stage 7 is Lessons Learned.
2K8. Renegotiating if priorities change:
- 2K8i. When the priorities of the organization change, then the agreement made based on the old priorities needs to be renegotiated.

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