“They’re asking me for status updates when they haven’t even given me the specs yet!” cried a manager in frustration. “I’ve got my entire team ready but we can’t get started until we know what they need. Unfortunately, if we don’t hit the deadline, they aren’t going to respond well if I tell them they caused the delay!” Exasperated, she sat down to write yet another email reminding her internal customers of the deadline for getting her their needs.

Whatever your business, I bet you recognize this scenario. True? I know I could fill in the blanks with examples from a public utility, an educational testing service, a civil engineering firm, a real estate management company, a custom web developer or the staff of a university brainstorming how to coordinate with faculty.