What's Going On?

Any person in authority who does not ask "What's going on?" a lot risks one of the greatest fears in the workplace: surprise. When the surprise occurs - and surprises are seldom pleasant - it is often accompanied by one or more of these remarks:

• "You're not going to believe this."
• "We were just about to tell you."
• "We've been working on this."
• "It seemed controllable but things got out of hand."
• "Our information wasn't as good as we thought it was."
• "We could not imagine this would have happened."
• "We're not the only ones to encounter this."
• "We lacked the resources to catch this."
• "We were misled."
• "We thought this had been solved."
• "This is the item we alluded to at the bottom of page 12 in the Kramden report."
• "We assumed the XYZ department was handling this."
• "This may not be as bad as it seems."
• "Here's my resignation."