Expectation management in project called Life

"Dad I want a new bicycle" my 5 yrs old kid said. "Sure boy, as soon as you start jumping in swimming pool without fear".

So that’s the story of life, we all expect from each and everyone in life. More from our close people, less from people who are not so close. In our home, school, office just about everywhere. Kids expect new toys, parents expect best grades, employees expect raise, employer expect commitments, husbands expect nice food (and more), wives expect surprises, the same kid becomes too busy at the time when parents start expecting support, Investor expect good returns, Companies expect large investment to their IPOs, Girls do not marry for years for WHATEVER they are expecting from their would-be, even more an insurance company expects the person to live, while the same person expects uncertainty and the list goes on. All Saas-Bahu melodramas on TV are games played around expectation.

In childhood most people in India have read and recite - "KARMANYE WADHIKARASTE MA PHALESHU KADACHANA, MA KARMAPHAL-HETURBHUH, MA TESANGOSTWAKARMANI" so we all know that "Expectation is the soul reason for disappointment, anxiety & anger", and this very fact was realized many many years back in humanity.

Having said that, can one stop expecting in his personal life is still a topic of investigation. Many people have given theories about this, but were those people expecting others to change based on discipline they suggested?

The fact of life is one can't stop expecting in professional life. When a project is chartered, do we think project sponsor is wrong in expecting success for the project while he is expending money for it? Stakeholders in project have their own wish lists and funky expectations from the project. So here is our project manager the Lord Krishna of project who has to meet expectations of every person in the project. If he could do that the project is in flying colors.

Ironically one just can't meet all expectations of all stakeholders, be it project or life. Thus communication management process implicitly includes a sub-process called Expectation Management. A tool to use here is a up-to-date list of expectations from each stakeholder.

In project a set of common goals & objectives are defined by sponsor, also in project everyone is expecting things from one common entity called project. Thus its comparatively easier to maintain a list and try using proper and timely communication to continuously plan, execute,monitor, control & close the expectations (similar to risk management - Expectations themselves generate lot of risks).

In life however, it’s very complex because the graph is many to many, i.e. everyone has some XYZ expectation from others, thus maintaining a up-to-date list may be extremely difficult (considering lots of emotional communication barriers). We could still learn from historical information and give it a try.

Hope this helps all of us.