A concern voiced in a meeting is not automatically a task. Until someone makes a clear request and someone explicitly accepts it, the work is still unowned.
Recently, I was part of a group working on a critical issue. A few times, across different meetings and on different days, someone said to the group, “The root cause was identified, and I’m sure there has to be more negative impact on the business that we haven’t discovered yet.” Everyone agreed.
Later, I had a chance to talk to that person privately. I mentioned his repeated statement and was curious to learn more about what was behind it. He expected people to pick up on his statement and continue working on it as if it were a task. I bet no one recognized it as a task, and actually it was never treated as one. Situations like this often lead to distrust at work
The Cycle of Commitment is a small framework used to manage requests, prevent misunderstandings and ensure that work gets done.
Need. One person, acting as a customer, has to clearly define their need. It might be something like, “I need this area to be explored further so we can fully close the case.”
Clear request. The customer asks another person, acting as a supplier, to fulfill the request. The request includes a deadline, acceptance criteria, a definition of done, and other important details.
❌ There might be more areas affected by the incident.
✅ Hey John, could you explore systems A, B, and C to see if they were affected by the same root cause and present a report by Thursday at 10 AM?
Meaningful response. The supplier might respond with a commitment, an agreement, or a counteroffer.
❌ Maybe / I don’t know
✅ Yes, I can handle that
✅ No, I can’t do that
✅ I can’t do it by Thursday but I’m sure I can do it by the end of the day on Friday. Let me know if that works
✅ I’m not sure. Let me talk to my team about the priorities and get back to you by the end of the day
Promise and fulfillment. The supplier has to keep their customer informed in any case.
❌ Supplier disappears when faced with a challenge
✅ “Hey man, I can’t fulfill your request anymore due to X, Y, and Z. Do you think we can move the deadline to next Wednesday?”
Completion and evaluation. The customer has to evaluate the completed work and declare satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The customer has to provide feedback to the supplier and explicitly say whether the request was fulfilled successfully or whether something needs to be changed. This way, we avoid “I thought it was obvious” situations.
I learned about this framework from “The Thin Book of Trust” by Charles Feltman. Consider reading it if you want to learn more.