This is Steva Robbins.

Welcome to the Get It Done Guys, quick and dirty tips to work less and do more.

In the episode using a visual timeline, we explored how the right visualization can help you understand how you expect your project to unfold.

But you're trying to tame fate, which means that the best laid plans of mice and men might end up involving cats, women, and intersex.

So be prepared.

When coaching Bernice Europa and Melvin threw the build-out of green-growing things expansion store, the project hit a snag.

A few weeks ago, Melvin reported,

The Audrey-2s are demanding Persian rugs for their area of the store,

and they say they're tired of living like they're on Skid Row.

Unfortunately, nothing seems to have happened since then.

As their coach, it was obvious what was going on.

Fate had thrown a monkey wrench into their plans.

They were using their project plan to guide them,

but their project plan didn't

include anything about Persian rugs. After Melvin brought it up at the meeting, everyone assumed

that someone else was taking care of it. The team didn't have a good way to make sure that the

unexpected got handled. I introduced them to the Issues Log. An Issues Log is a shared list of all of the issues the team has encountered and what's

happening with them.

An issue is anything that causes or will cause the project to stall, like when the Audrey

twos refused to move in without Persian rugs.

I could understand it if there were a chemical sensitivity issue, but this is just a bunch

of carnivorous plants throwing their weight around.

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