Good Morning, and Happy Friday!

 

How are you doing today?

 

Recently, on a joyful but chaotic family adventure best classified as a trip and certainly not a vacation, we unloaded our massive stack of luggage, small child, and large dog from our small camper van into our hotel room for the evening. 

 

 

After unloading everything and everyone from the van in the 97 degree weather and attempting to organize the stack of luggage in the room, I stepped into the bathroom to set down our toiletries. Here, I found myself staring down a bathroom covered in dirt, grime, and a highly disturbing amount of hair. I will spare you further details in case you're enjoying your breakfast or an afternoon snack, but let's just say, it was bad. 

 

Leaving the massive stack of luggage and with my little buddy in my arms, I made my way back to the front of the hotel and asked Zoe, at the front desk, “Would you mind confirming that room 125 has, indeed, been cleaned? Based on the looks of it, I'm not so sure it has.” 

 

“The cleaning crew just left,” she said, “but the manager gave me room 125 as part of the list of clean rooms, and assured me that the cleaning had been done."

 

I showed her a picture of the bathroom, and, as her eyes widened and a look of shock came over her face, she said “yeah, that definitely does not look like it has been cleaned,” and proceeded to assign us a new room.

 

This experience made me think of the Definition of Done.

 

The cleaning manager had communicated to the front desk agent that the cleaning had been done. But based on the state of the bathroom, there was clearly some ambiguity within this definition. 

 

The same thing can happen within or organizations, teams, and homes. What is “done” to one person might look different to another. For example: 

Clarifying these things up front can save us stress, headaches, and heartache down the line.

 

This may involve taking a step back before we take a step forward to get clear.

It may also involve the use of a checklist. 

 

Either way, defining done can help everyone know where to begin, and how to proceed. 

 

What do you think?

Any opportunities you've encountered recently to clarify the definition of “done?”

If you'd like, feel free to hit reply and share. 

 

From here, we will move to our list of favorites below.

 

Thank you, as always, for being part of this community and for reading.

Wishing you a beautiful summer weekend ahead, and for clean hotel rooms along your journey if you, too, have any trips in store. 

PS: WCK is continuing to persevere on the ground around the world, despite so many challenges.

 

PPS: Does anyone have a favorite hotel chain that you love, that you use when traveling with kids and dogs? I'm finally accepting that I need to release my points-related loyalty (see above) and try some new options. 😉 

“Newly released Gallup data reflects this toll. In 2024, global employee engagement declined for only the second time in over a decade. Unlike the first drop in 2020, however, the drop wasn’t driven by frontline workers. Instead, it was entirely due to declining engagement among managers. In a March 2025 survey by Modern Health, 77% of managers reported that their role was more challenging now than ever before.”

With a helpful little framework at the end. 

 

It was a pleasure to join Josh McNary on the Intentional Change podcast. We talked through specific strategies we can use to increase our leadership effectiveness; how to focus on the things we can impact and influence; and a couple things I've changed my mind about since podcast interviews back in the day. 

 

Excited to check some of these out. 

This really does taste like Dr Pepper. Highly recommend. 

 

Partnering Together To Elevate Your Leadership

If you're interested in talking more about what it could look like to work together elevate the leadership capacity of your organization this fall, please feel free to drop me a note. Here's how we often work with organizations: