Q: How can I get people to keep their word at work? People agree to unrealistic deadlines and unrealistic budgets with no real intention of meeting them. At the end of the day nobody delivers and nobody trusts anyone.

A: Not only is this problem common, it’s also extremely costly. We documented its costs and described many of its solutions in an in-depth study called Silence Fails. Last summer it was published in MIT’s business journal, Sloan Management Review.

Here’s the good news: You can solve this problem. I’ll outline a few steps to get started.

Measurable Results: You might assume that your desired result is: People keep their word one hundred percent of the time. However, I’d like to suggest a slightly different goal.

When identifying business targets I like to use the money-grubbing capitalist pig test. I ask myself, “Would this result appeal to me if I were a money-grubbing capitalist pig who only cared about making bucks?” Call me a cynic, but I want to make sure the result is one that’s tied to the bottom line.

So, here’s the result I’d focus on:  Projects are delivered on time, on spec, and within budget one hundred percent of the time. And then I’d set a time frame to achieve this result.

Vital Behaviors: The vital behaviors are the few high-leverage actions that can accomplish the measurable results. I’ll focus on just one of the five we found in our Silence Fails study: Hold complete and frank discussions in the early phases of a plan, especially when you have concerns about the achievability of the plan.

We found people were reluctant to share their concerns with their boss, sponsor, or customer. If they did speak up, they quickly backed down as soon as one of these people pushed back. As a result, they agreed to plans they suspected—or even knew—were unachievable.

Influence Strategy. You need to convince your peers and management that this is a problem that’s worth solving. I’ll use ideas from Influencer.

Data. People’s data stream sets their mental agenda. The data stream that impacts your peers and managers is probably full of immediate customer demands. Consequently, their mental agenda is focused on responding to these demands and finding ways to say, “Yes.”

What’s missing from this data stream? The customers who have been disappointed due to broken commitments. Find a way to add this group’s input to your team’s daily dose of data. Customer service specialists use the term voice of the customer data. You need some.

Stories. Pick one badly missed commitment and research it. Talk to the customer to learn what happened as a result. For example, I met an employee who lost her job because a vendor missed his commitment to her. You can imagine how the vendor felt. That incident would make a powerful story.

In addition, find out why your peers missed their commitments. My bet is that they failed to have the complete and frank discussions about concerns in the early phases of the project. Add this detail to the story.

Here’s the moral your story should convey: When we fail to discuss and resolve our concerns early on, we end up agreeing to unrealistic plans that we can’t achieve. This has a profound, negative impact on the people who count on us.

Share this story first with your peers. Add their examples to your story. Then find ways to get the story heard by decision makers.

Personal Experience. A story is a great place to start, but personal experience is the gold standard for changing minds. To tap into personal experience, research the impacts and causes of your team’s missed commitments. Organize customer roundtables, customer visits, and customer webinars.

These ideas are just a few ways to get the problem noticed. Once it’s noticed it still needs to be solved, and our book is full of practical ideas that work. One tip: don’t rely on a single solution, such as a training program, an incentive system, or a data stream. This kind of stubborn problem will probably require a mix of all six sources of influence.