Give feedback appreciative and positive, specific rather than general on this post here: The author Todd Enter organizational politics. Like most things - it depends. Am I resource constrained? Appeal for more resources. Do I have a supplier pushing lead times out? What can I do to expedite? Is it an issue of us knowing exactly how much work we have in front of us and knowing there aren't enough minutes in the day for the current team to finish the work or is it worse? Are we trending behind and estimates look bleak because we are running into issues we didn't see coming or we have no idea what we are doing? Then it gets to the spicy side of organizational politics - who set the timeline? Do I have a relationship with them such I can be open and honest or is there precedent such that everything must be done to make up lost time and not disclose any slippage until the bitter end, where no one really owns the issues, it just "is what it is" and then we offer a plan to address as best we can. In a previous life I was a Quality Manager