No surprises

Our goals have dates, or at least dates for dates. We deliver when we say, or inform stakeholders when we know a date will slip. There are no surprises.

Back to the universal principles

Calibration

Under, just right, over.

Situation	Under	Just Right	Over
A date you gave	Misses it and lets people find out when the work is not there.	Tells them as soon as you know, with the new date you can actually hold.	Sends daily warnings before you know anything, and they stop reading them.
A goal with no date	Leaves the goal undated because the date would be uncomfortable.	Puts a date on it, or a date for when the date will be set, and writes it where stakeholders look.	Invents a date you have no plan to hit, so the surprise is merely delayed.
You know it will slip	Waits for the date itself, hoping you will recover.	Says it the day you know, including what will still arrive and what will not.	Declares a slip at the first hard day, before you know whether the date is actually lost.
A surprise in the review	Saves the bad news for the meeting so you can explain it live.	Sends the news before the meeting, and uses the meeting to decide what to do.	Sends a flood of minor updates so the one real surprise is harder to see.
A date for the date	Says you will know later and does not say when.	Commits to the day you will either give the date or explain what is still unknown.	Schedules a meeting to schedule the meeting, and calls that a date.
Delivering when you said	Quietly redefines done so the original date looks met.	Delivers what you named, or renegotiates the meaning of done before the date, not after.	Hits the date by handing over something the other person cannot use, with no warning.

Further reading

Sources and essays on this principle.

About Dawn Aerospace
The public mission this tenet is meant to serve.
dawnaerospace.com
Careers at Dawn Aerospace
How the company presents the work to people who would live this tenet.
dawnaerospace.com