Just WAITTA Minute!

The Power Of Thoughtful Pause Before Action

A little known fact about me is I’m a serious poker player. Among the many things I do in and around the game is coaching. My students range from brand-new players who are keen to learn the basics and how to stop losing, to advanced professionals who want to improve their hourly win rates or perform better in high-dollar tournaments. My primary expertise is uncovering and plugging so-called “leaks” in a student’s game.

I mention this because I see similarities between new project managers and poker players. During a hand of Texas Hold’em, for example, there are two—and only two—ways to win that hand: force the other players to fold by betting, or show down the best hand on the river. But new players often forget this. When asked why they bet the amount they did, the player struggles to answer. Were they bluffing and wanted their opponents to fold? Or were they betting to build a pot because they thought they had the best hand and wanted to go to a showdown? Frequently, a newbie won’t be able to answer this basic “W.A.I.T.T.A?” question, which is an acronym that stands for What Am I Trying To Accomplish?

Frequently, I can plug this kind of leak by just having the student pause and literally ask-and-answer the WAITTA question before acting in a hand. What Am I Trying To Accomplish, and will a bet achieve that result? Or should they just check and fold? It’s surprising how effective this simple pause-before-acting technique is…

…which brings us to project management. Whenever facing a decision, problem, or task on the job, it’s useful to wait a minute and ask yourself, “What Am I Trying to Accomplish?” This is Project Management 101: taking just a few seconds to ask-and-answer this question will frequently lead to the right course of action. Heck, this is useful in pretty much everything we do in life. Before you jump into action—aways first ask yourself: What Am I Trying To Accomplish? And will this action I’m considering actually accomplish that goal?

The interval between defining the problem and acting on it is known as the “WAITTA-minute” pause. Taking this reflective beat helps us focus. It avoids wasting time, heading off in the wrong direction, and it ensures we’re targeting the correct, significant goal, and not something else that isn’t actually needed or desired.

Delivery vs. Legal Action

To illustrate this idea, let’s rewind the clock to a few years ago. I was consulting with an engineer who was griping about the poor performance of a vendor. “They’re behind schedule and aren’t prioritizing our work,” he said. “Fortunately, we have a liquidated damages clause in our contract, and I’m drafting an email that threatens us using it on them if they don’t shape up!”

I responded by asking him the WAITTA question. What did he want to accomplish, and would the letter achieve that goal? Threatening legal action is a pretty big step in contract management. How did they think the vendor was going to respond if threatened—and, more importantly, is this what the engineer actually wanted? Did they want to bring lawyers into the mix, or did they actually want to find a way to re-prioritize their work and get it done? “WAITTA?,” I asked the engineer.

I got a weird look in return, and it took a moment, but the lightbulb eventually flickered to life over the engineer’s head. He said, “I just want them to produce my items.”

“Is this letter the best way to accomplish that goal?” I asked.

“No,” he sighed. “Probably not.”

After some back and forth, we decided the best course of action would be for the engineer to travel to the vendor and have a formal sit-down meeting where the concerns could be aired and a solution found. A month later, the situation had a happy-ish ending. During the meeting, the vendor explained they had paused other scheduled work at the company because of a national security-related issue with another product they made. They were under a legal obligation from the U.S. government to prioritize that work, so everything else on the production line got put on hold. But during the meeting, the two parties realized that, by re-scoping the engineer’s work, they could squeeze in some of it on an alternate line, and keep the ball rolling forward. Asking “WAITTA?” led to a fruitful discussion and workable solution—and avoided legal action that would surely have delayed delivery even further.

The Bottom Line:

The point I’m making is a super simple, but powerful one: knee-jerk reactions are hard-wired into us humans—often to our own detriment. Acting quickly without a thoughtful pause in project management can and will frequently lead us to the wrong decisions and actions. We must deliberately slow down and ask fundamental focusing questions, starting with what are we trying to accomplish? What’s our over-arching goal, and how then can we best accomplish that thing?

This WAITTA-minute approach applies whether you’re going to write an email, prioritize specific tasks, or plan a new project from scratch. Ask “What Am I Trying To Accomplish?” with the email, the actions, or the plan—before doing anything else. Just as it is in poker, a well-timed WAITTA pause in project management might just help you win a big pot—in this case, a successfully delivered project.