Delivering at Pace

You have three pieces of work due this week and it has become clear you cannot finish all of them to the expected standard. Which response would be MOST effective?

• AWork through all three as quickly as you can and accept that the quality of each will be lower than it should be
• BFinish the two you find easiest first so that at least most of the work is delivered by the end of the week
• CSay nothing until the deadline and then explain that the volume of work was more than one person could manage
• DAssess which matter most, tell your manager early what can and cannot be done, and agree what to prioritise✓

Answer: Delivering at pace is about outcomes, which means prioritising and flagging problems early enough for others to act. Spreading yourself thin, picking the easiest tasks, or presenting the shortfall as a surprise at the deadline all leave your manager without the chance to help.

A project you are running depends on data from another team, which has told you it will be two weeks late. Your own deadline cannot move. Which response would be MOST effective?

• AProduce the deliverable on time using assumed figures in place of the data, and correct it later if the real data turns out to differ
• BEscalate the other team's delay to senior management immediately, since your deadline is fixed and the responsibility is theirs
• CStop work on the project until the data arrives, since anything done before then may have to be redone once the data is in
• DWork out what can progress without the data, get on with that, and agree with the other team and your manager how to handle the gap✓

Answer: Keeping momentum means separating what depends on the delay from what does not, pressing on with the latter, and being open about the gap. Waiting idly wastes the time, escalating first treats a dependency as a fault, and substituting assumed figures without agreement delivers something that may be wrong.

Halfway through a piece of work you realise the approach you chose will take much longer than planned. A different approach would be quicker but means discarding some of what you have done. Which response would be MOST effective?

• ASwitch to the quicker approach now, keep whatever work still applies, and tell your manager about the change and its effect on timing✓
• BContinue with the original approach, since abandoning work that has already been done is wasteful and the plan was agreed with everyone at the start
• CSwitch approach without mentioning it, so that the change of plan does not draw attention to the earlier misjudgement
• DPause the work and write a note explaining both options in detail so that your manager can decide which approach should be used from here

Answer: Delivering at pace means recognising when a plan is not working and changing it, while keeping people informed. Persisting with a slower approach out of sunk-cost thinking, hiding the change, or halting to hand the decision upwards all cost time the deadline does not have.

Your team is under pressure to hit a target for processing cases. You notice that a colleague has started closing cases without completing a required check so that they count as done. Which response would be MOST effective?

• AMention it to the colleague in passing and leave the decision to them, since how they handle their own cases is their business
• BRaise it with the colleague and your manager straight away, since cases closed without the check are not genuinely complete✓
• CQuietly redo the missed checks yourself on the closed cases so that the target is met and the cases are also correct
• DSay nothing, because the target is the team's priority this month and the missing check rarely changes the outcome of a case

Answer: Pace never justifies skipping a required step: work that is not done properly is not delivered, and the problem needs raising with the colleague and the manager so it stops. Ignoring it, secretly patching it up, or leaving it to the colleague's discretion all let a hidden quality failure continue.

You finish an urgent task ahead of schedule. Your manager is out of the office for the rest of the day and has not set you anything else. Which response would be MOST effective?

• ACheck the team's priorities, pick up the next most useful piece of work, and let your manager know what you are doing✓
• BUse the time to reread and polish the task you have just finished, since extra checking is never wasted
• CWait for your manager to return so that the next task can be properly allocated rather than chosen by you
• DSpend the time on personal development reading, since no work has been formally assigned to you for the afternoon

Answer: Taking ownership of delivery means using free capacity on the work that most needs doing, not waiting to be told. Idling until the manager returns, over-polishing finished work, or defaulting to personal reading when team priorities are waiting all waste the time.

You are coordinating contributions from five people for a report due on Friday. By Wednesday two contributions are still missing and both colleagues say they are swamped. Which response would be MOST effective?

• ARemind them both of the Friday deadline and leave it with them, since each contributor is responsible for delivering their own section on time
• BAgree with each of them exactly what is essential, offer to help shape or trim their sections, and confirm a time you will receive them✓
• CTell your manager on Wednesday that the report will be late because two contributors have failed to deliver on time
• DWrite their sections yourself from what you already know, so that the report is complete regardless of whether they deliver

Answer: Delivering on time with others means removing obstacles: narrow the ask to what is essential, offer practical help, and pin down a time. A bare reminder changes nothing, writing their sections yourself risks inaccuracy and lets the problem recur, and declaring the report late two days early gives up too soon.

A senior official asks for a piece of analysis by tomorrow morning. Doing it properly would take three days. Which response would be MOST effective?

• AWork through the night to deliver the full analysis by the morning, since a senior request should be met in full whatever it takes
• BDeliver a full-looking analysis by the morning without mentioning that parts of it are unverified, to avoid appearing unhelpful
• CSay that three days is the minimum for the analysis and that it cannot be delivered before then under any circumstances
• DExplain what can be done reliably by tomorrow, offer that with its limitations stated, and propose when the full analysis could follow✓

Answer: Pace with integrity means offering what is genuinely possible in the time, being explicit about what it does not cover, and planning the rest. Heroic overnight working produces unreliable work and sets a poor precedent, presenting unverified analysis as complete is dishonest, and a flat refusal gives the official nothing to work with.

Your team has been asked to deliver a change by a fixed date. A week in, you can see that one workstream has too little resource and will hold everything else up. Which response would be MOST effective?

• ANote the risk in your weekly report and continue as planned, since the risk register is the correct place for a concern of this kind to be recorded
• BWait until the shortfall actually causes a measurable delay before raising it, since predictions of trouble very often prove unnecessary in practice
• CFlag the risk now with a proposed fix, such as moving people or rescoping, so that the date can still be met with a decision taken early✓
• DAsk everyone on the team to work extra hours on the under-resourced workstream until it catches up with the others

Answer: Early, specific risk reporting with options gives decision-makers the chance to protect the date. Waiting for the delay to materialise, defaulting to overtime, or burying the issue in a register entry all leave the problem to grow until it is too late to fix cheaply.

You are managing a project with a fixed launch date. A stakeholder asks for an additional feature that would put the date at risk. Which response would be MOST effective?

• AInclude the feature and let the launch date slip without discussing it, since a better product is worth a short delay
• BRefuse the request, since the scope was agreed at the start and changes are not allowed once work has begun
• CExplain the effect on the date and offer options: launch on time without the feature and add it afterwards, or move the date✓
• DAgree to include the feature, since stakeholder requests should be accommodated and the team can work harder to hit the date

Answer: Delivering at pace means protecting the outcome while being honest about trade-offs. Absorbing scope without acknowledging the cost, refusing any change on principle, or letting the date slip silently all fail the stakeholder and the team.

You have been given a task with an unclear brief and the person who set it is unavailable for two days. Which response would be MOST effective?

• AAsk a colleague who has worked with the person before to guess what they meant and work to that interpretation instead of your own
• BComplete the whole task on your own interpretation without checking it with anyone, since the deadline matters more than getting the detail right
• CMake a reasonable interpretation, start work on the parts that are clear, and confirm the interpretation as soon as the person is available✓
• DWait until the person is available before starting anything at all, so that you do not waste two days of effort working on the wrong thing

Answer: Keeping momentum under uncertainty means acting on the best interpretation while limiting the risk of wasted effort. Waiting idle, committing fully to an unchecked interpretation, or substituting a colleague's guess all handle the uncertainty less well.

Two urgent requests arrive at the same time: one from your director and one from a member of the public whose benefit payment has been stopped in error. Which response would be MOST effective?

• ADeal with the director's request first, since seniority determines priority in a hierarchy and a member of the public's problem can wait until the director has been served
• BAssess the real urgency and impact of each, deal with the payment error first if it is causing hardship, and tell the director when their request will be done✓
• CDeal with both at once by doing each of them to a lower standard than usual, so that neither the director nor the member of the public is kept waiting for a response
• DDeal with the payment error first and say nothing to the director until it is done, since they will understand once the reason for the delay is explained to them later on

Answer: Prioritising on impact rather than seniority, while keeping people informed, is how pace serves the public. Ranking by rank, leaving the director uninformed, or doing both badly all get the priority or the communication wrong.