This is certainly a critical question to ask yourself – and the positive approach to this is “Let’s make sure we all have the same definition for being done”. This is a variation on the theme of success criteria and what does success look like, but really gets more to the heart of each and every individual’s tasks and task assignments. Am I done with a work assigment when I hand you a finished product or when you positively acknowledge that you received the product and that it meets pre-agreed to specifications? Written this way it is clear; but more often than not, this is not the pervasive definition for “being done” within a project or an organization. Getting this understood with incredible clarity will lead to more successful initiatives.
Completely agree. It is hard to deliver something that meets expectations (and comes in on/under budget) if both parties have a different understanding of what “done” looks like.
Thanks for the comment and thanks for visiting – hopefully over time, I’ll get enough content here to help people spur some thoughts and ideas. Until then, it’s a good place for me to organize my own thoughts.