Did you ever notice how every project that you’ve ever worked on with a team has experienced some type of delay or another?

The reason these delays happen has to do with the fine art of buck-passing.

I’ll give you an example that happened to me today.

I’m working on a team of three: me (I’m functioning as the copywriter/web designer), the client, and the VA.

I finish up every part of the project that is in my power, and make ready to attend to other clients on my list. Before I shift my focus to the next client, I write an email to the two aforementioned parties. In the email, I explain to the VA that once I get the updated shopping cart/ezine signup form code from her, I can pop that in the page templates and then we can go live with the new website.

The VA promptly responds that they can’t have an email signup until the client supplies copy for the “giveaway” that people will receive when they sign up for the newsletter. She then summons the client to step in with more information (the copy).

Now I get this visual of the tennis ball… it’s sailing through the air, and about to bounce right back into my corner again. “The client needs to supply the copy.” Now if the client is in the same, buck-passing frame of mind that the VA seems to be in… I can see the writing on the wall with this one. After all, who’s the copywriter? I am. And *whoosh, thunk,* here comes the ball.

The truth is, we don’t *need* to have a free giveaway in order to put up form code on the site, begin collecting email addresses, and then finally take the newly built pages live.

I *could* be mistaken, but it seems to me that the VA just jockeyed for more time by adding side elements to the project that didn’t exist before.

This is how delays are created, and it happens every day in the professional world. If I wanted to jump on the project delay train, I could kick it back to the client and say that I need more information before I write the copy.

(But what I really see happening here is a group of people who are maybe focusing on other things right now, and therefore no one is taking charge. “I can’t do this… I’ll need more info…” )

Of course you can do it. If no one else seems to be in charge, YOU are supposed to take the initiative and kick off the next phase of activity.

The next post I write will be on how to machete your way through procrastination situations like this one.

But not now, because writing this post might just be me looking for a new way to procrastinate.

Care to share a procrastination story of your own? I might just be willing to delay my project for another ten minutes while I read your tale of woe!

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