Promise me?

I had a training day at work today. It was the 2nd day of a 2 day course. Essentially, it was a course to give people ideas of how to better manage their time and workload, so as to generally be a more effective person.

There were quite a lot of good parts in it, but the key thing I'm full on passionate about is the promise cycle. Essentially, before you agree to doing anything, understand the nature and scope of work required, negotiate the scope, agree on a deadline, and then commit. After commiting, stick to that commitment. Not doing so causes unnecessary stress on others and has a cascading effect.

I believe that principle is really core to a business. Having a profitable business relies on things getting done effectively, and if people can't keep to their word, significant time is wasted and a large amount of unnecessary stress is generated.

I believe this principle should be applied to daily life. I saw a Facebook status today that said, "How many times do you allow someone to cancel/postpone before you give up trying to be their friend?" Good question. Those that do that should realize they rapidly lose credibility and one day, we're not going to bother anymore. Call us when you want to maintain a relationship.

Of course, the world's not perfect and things will get in the way of keeping all promises. But to the best of our abilities, let's try and at least pretend we respect each other by keeping our word.