What Does Ready Mean?

At a small furniture company, Lena managed a new product brochure. On Tuesday morning, she asked the designer, Marco, whether the file was ready.

"Yes," he replied."It's in the shared folder."

Lena booked a printing slot for that afternoon. The sales team needed the brochures for a customer meeting on Thursday. Everything seemed on time until Priya, the product manager, opened the file.

"The small desk has the wrong height," she said."And I haven't checked the other details yet."

Marco looked surprised."I meant the design was ready for review, not ready to print."

Lena called the printer and stopped the job before any copies were made. However, the next available printing slot was Thursday afternoon. The brochures would miss the meeting.

During a short team discussion, Lena resisted the urge to ask everyone to work faster. First, they needed to know what work remained. Marco had finished the layout. Priya needed two hours to check sizes and materials. Sales still had to confirm the prices.

Lena offered the sales manager two choices: use a checked digital brochure at Thursday's meeting, or move the meeting and wait for paper copies. He chose the digital version because the customer's travel plans were already fixed.

The team agreed on clear stages for the file: design finished, product details checked, prices checked, and approved for printing. Each stage had a named person and a deadline. Only Lena would send the approved file to the printer.

They also dropped a planned extra photo page. It was attractive, but it was not needed to explain the products, and checking it would take more time.

On Thursday, sales used the digital brochure and promised to send printed copies later. The meeting went ahead, although the team paid an extra delivery charge for the paper copies.

At the next project meeting, Lena changed her question. Instead of asking,"Is it ready?" she asked,"Ready for which next step?" This time, the answer included what was finished—and what was still waiting.