Schaffer, R. H. (1991). Harvard Business Review.


If management is willing to invest time and energy, there is a way it can expect more and get more. To upgrade expectations and obtain a response and then use this achievement as the foundation for increasingly ambitious steps, management must employ a 5-step strategy: 1. Select the goal. 2. Specify the minimum expectation of results. 3. Communicate the expectations clearly. 4. Monitor the project, but delegate responsibility. 5. Expand and extend the process. A series of demands, initially limited, then more ambitious, makes success more likely than does a big plunge involving demands for sweeping changes. In breaking out of productiveness-limiting traps, consciousness-raising may be needed to help managers assess more objectively their approach to establishing demands. With clearly conveyed, non-negotiable expectations and a step-by-step expansion strategy, managers may find that the anticipated difficulties and dangers never materialize.