Short notes for your next team conversation. With recognisable situations, a concrete first step and a question you can use straight away.
M / 07
Editorial concept content for this fictional design study. Examples are illustrative and do not describe real engagements.
Who can confirm the start date to the client?
Sales wants speed. Planning needs visibility. Delivery needs to know whether the prerequisites are in place. Three perspectives on the same decision.
A useful decision agreement distinguishes the person gathering information, the person making the decision and colleagues contributing advice. Atlassian describes that distinction in its DACI model. Its main value in this situation is making the roles explicit.
Take a new assignment. Have the person preparing the decision bring together scope, capacity and dependencies. Agree who can then confirm the start. Record the chosen date and any conditions where delivery picks up the work.
Discuss with your team: for the last three assignments, is it clear who confirmed the start date?
Can your colleague move forward while you are offline?
A handoff across time zones does not fail only because of distance. It can stall because the recipient lacks the context to take the next step.
In its own communication handbook, GitLab describes how written context supports collaboration across time zones. It also distinguishes questions that can be resolved in writing from situations requiring a direct conversation.
Apply this to one handoff. State what was agreed, what remains open, who can decide and when a response is needed. Include a route for genuinely urgent situations. A status of “in progress” says little; a named next action with an owner gives the recipient something to work with.
Discuss with your team: which follow-up question almost always comes back to the person handing work over?
Test the agreement before rolling out the process.
A complete document is not yet a usable way of working. Try a new agreement on a limited stream of work first.
Choose one type of new client assignment, for example. Agree which information needs to be present at handoff and who checks its completeness. Use the agreement in daily work and note where questions still arise. This is an illustrative test approach, not a universal programme.
Before starting, agree when to review and who can amend the agreement. Examine missing information, waiting time and rework with the colleagues involved. A pilot is also useful when it reveals an unclear criterion or an exception occurring more often than expected.
Discuss with your team: on which limited piece of work could you responsibly try the new agreement?