Managing Expectations: Working with People Who Want More, Better, Faster, Sooner, NOW!

Introduction: The Expectations Challenge

Managing expectations in today’s turbulent business world is indeed a challenge, and it’s not hard to understand why: Expectations affect a range of interactions with customers, including service responsiveness, service capability, product functionality, and project success. These types of expectations vary from one person to another, one situation to another, and one day to another.

Expectations are influenced by so many factors, such as lifelong beliefs, past experience, common sense, wishful thinking, false assumptions, external pressures, the wisdom of those we trust, and the slickness of those who mislead us. Expectations are further influenced by departmental and organizational priorities, management ...