Busy? OK, but doing what?
Another day and another meeting with an overworked manager. Nothing remarkable about that you may say, this is a refrain we hear every day. Exactly, and that’s the issue. As with many other effectiveness issues this seems to be another case where it is important to distinguish between quality and quantity. In this case it’s the difference between the quantity of work being complained about and the quality of the work being undertaken. There are simple answers to the problem and many of them have been around for a while. (See my earlier post on management fads)
Let me try to explain. A phenomenon in the modern organisation that has been well documented, at least by the cynical. is ‘death by initiative’. Smart managers learned a while ago not to call their new project an initiative for fear of ridicule and not to expect any longevity in their assignment if they were allocated to a new initiative. In many organisations the solution is quite simple: kill the initiatives; wipe the slate clean and start again from a clean sheet of paper.
In organisations where there is a chronic resource shortage it is often the case that the shortage is more perceived than real, and the problem is exacerbated by the losses that result from trying to do too many things and never finishing anything.
Here’s a simple test: is your diary or schedule full of meetings that others have set up or is it populated with activities that you have chosen as steps towards achieving your objectives? Effective organisations, regardless of whether it is a process or project environment, have proactive managers and leaders with well-formulated goals, clear prioritisation and good time management. Ineffective organisations have reactive managers whose days are ruled by a meeting schedule and the email inbox.
If you recognise your organisation in the second description above there are some simple remedies, but the discipline required to implement them may be a challenge depending on how deeply the tendency to reactivity is embedded in the culture. Here are 5 simple steps to change from reactivity to pro-activity and help build a more effective organisation:
1 Clear every manager’s schedule or diary so you start with a clean slate
2 For each individual, select their top priority and schedule the time blocks required to achieve that objective
3 Repeat step 2 for the next priority then the one below and so on until the diary is 60-80% full. The space between these planned activities should be used for thinking, planning, preparation and follow-up
4 Transfer the remaining lower-priority activities to a register so that as objectives are achieved and activities drop out of the schedule new ones can be added.
5 Er, that’s it
As with so many issues we deal with, the solution isn’t complex or particularly clever. However, until these basics are in place, there is little value in pursuing the complex ones. Planned time and calm, but productive activity improves the quality of a manager’s work and as a direct result, the quantity of work they can complete increases – truly a virtuous circle.
