I was part of multiple business decisions in which we, as a business unit, were promising different things and some of us knew they are not going to happen. When you execute and someone is telling you that is possible to finish the project (which you know is impossible) something is shaken in your core believes. It is a doubt that there is something that you are not able to perceive or that someone can drive you/your team to peaks not even imagined. Or is the prosaic version, "we will see when we reach that point, for now let get the work started". Often times there is the resignation "we did as much as possible, but this is the result", or the sudden enlightenment that in the new context, there is only one way out. Either way, there is a crack in the reality as perceived by you when a group of people are engaging you (among others) in endeavours you have doubt they will be fulfilled.
In some organizations they are talking about managing risk, and the risk being something, you as a cog in the system, might not be able to see it at the same level as other people. Or sometimes is the "lateral decision" which derails the whole project onto something you did not envision - the initial project was about making nuclear cars but we discovered oxygen propelled ones and the switch was swift and smooth.
On the flip side, people talking without much experience in executing have nothing to lose, they are the "pushers", but not really having any skin in the end result. Sometimes, their core competency is to translate downwards decisions without having the backbone to convey upward problems - kiss upper asses, kick lower asses. So here is is the idea of engaging the whole chain: have them skin in the game, really gaining or losing in sync with the goal of the project.
Professionals are claiming in front of their customers illusory features. Force professionals to claim with their own money!
Personally I like to dare people to bet with their money when their claims are bogus. Reading and conveying technical information is different than going through the pain of executing projects and bending the rules to make it work. Experience trounces information in any professional field.
I was reading about the Tesla's CEO promising a very aggressive deadline for the first electric car and one reader was challenging him with a bet of 1 million dollars. Do you think there were any takers?
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