I am beginning a series of posts on ways to easily avoidunforced errors – and I could use your ideas. I’ll explain at the end of this post.

Lots of new ideas fail to build the support they need at work. Often these mistakes are easily avoided. In sports, they refer to these as unforced errors.

I asked Al Paz, a global practitioner of OD (organizational development) and OE (Organizational effectiveness) for one simple and practical way to avoid unforced errors.  I didn’t want a new theory or model. Just something that people like us might actually use.

Al boils support for projects in organizations to three things:

Purpose – Intent – Closure.

Purpose: people understand why this idea is worth their attention.

Intent: this addresses the question, “What do you want from me?”

Closure: this is your plan for moving ahead.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it?

But think about projects that failed to earn the support of stakeholders.

Did leaders adequately cover Purpose, Intent, and Closure? In my experience, the answer is often “No!”

Al uses this simple framework to organize his own thinking and to help his clients focus on what’s really important.

I think Purpose-Intent-Closure is quite useful. I hope you can use it.

Here is my request for you. I am looking for practical and simple ways that you’ve used (or seen someone else use) to avoid avoidable mistakes.

If you’ve got something to share, please post it in the comments section below. Or, if you prefer to contact me directly, that would be a great option as well.