In Brussels

Tomorrow is a 'rehearsal day' for an EU rollout with a new marketing client.  Actually tomorrow is the rehearsal for the Launch meeting.  The rehearsal for the rollout proper is a week away.  I have no role at the Launch (I'm not even attending) so I don't know why I'm even in Brussels.

That's not true.  I know exactly why I'm here.

Every now and then I work with a team that is smart, driven, good to be around, strategically astute yet something is missing.  It's as if the very essence of the project eludes us.  This has  been bugging me for weeks and I've worked out why: -

The project culture is flawed, albeit not fatally

Every extended, team-based project takes on its own culture and ours was flawed from the start.  At the first meeting we embarked on an informal competition to be the most farsighted person in the room.  Genuinely important conversations were derailed by grave, oracular statements about the most trivial possibility.  We never shook the habit and decisions were made in February that could have waited until August, whilst critical issues raised months ago remain unresolved.

We'll get there.  That's why we have tomorrow and next Friday.  There's nothing like a deadline to sharpen up the discipline of a group.  Even a group of marketers.