Incident Record: Approval Silence

INCIDENT REPORT Type: Approval silence Date range: Tuesday through Friday Status: Resolved, late Friday

Description

A proposal was distributed to seven stakeholders on Tuesday at 10:14am. The proposal required review and approval before proceeding. The sender expected responses within two to three days.

By Thursday 3pm, three responses had been received. All three were positive. Four stakeholders had not responded.

The Silence Interpretation

The sender attempted to interpret the silence before following up. Possible interpretations were identified:

1. The stakeholders had not yet reviewed the proposal. They would respond when they did.
2. The stakeholders had reviewed it and had no objections. Silence equals approval.
3. The stakeholders had reviewed it and had objections they had not yet articulated.
4. The stakeholders had not received the email due to a delivery issue.

Only Interpretation 4 was addressable without the stakeholders' involvement. The email delivery was confirmed as successful. Interpretations 1, 2, and 3 required information only the stakeholders could provide.

The Meeting

A meeting was requested. The meeting was titled "Quick alignment on proposal." The four non-responding stakeholders attended. The meeting took twenty-three minutes and produced: one approval, one objection that was addressable and was addressed, one stakeholder who had not read the proposal and would read it after the meeting, and one stakeholder who was traveling and had not seen the email.

Resolution

All seven stakeholders approved the proposal by Friday 5pm. The proposal was advanced.

The meeting was used to determine the meaning of silence. The silence had four meanings across four stakeholders. Three of the four meanings required no meeting. One required the meeting.

The meeting was necessary. It was also a meeting to resolve silence that was not discussed in the meeting.