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Archive for October, 2006

Goals & to-do lists—making them work

Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006

A client sent me a list of what he plans to accomplish in Q4—it was a very long list. I find most people have similar lists and, although all the items are necessary, the list can be daunting.

As opposed to listing just goals, most people’s lists include everything they need/want to accomplish in that time frame, both goals and to-do’s, hence the long list.

You’ll still need to do the work, but here’s a simple trick to help tame your list, raise your productivity, and give yourself more feelings of accomplishment and fewer of frustration.

I’ve found that the items on these lists fall into three categories:

  • Normal work: includes all the things that you need to do that quarter that are part of your job description. (executing marketing plans, making sales calls, hiring staff; doing reviews, etc.)
  • Goals: in addition to normal, daily tasks (increase manufacturing output 8% in Q4; write operating plan for 2007; reduce attrition 10%, etc.)
  • Behavioral changes: refers to MAP changes (improve attitude; give and accept constructive criticism)

Goals usually require a great deal more planning and take longer to come to fruition, hence the longer deadlines. They are often more strategic and can involve other people’s activities. One major and two minor goals are the most that can be handled efficiently and be accomplished.

Normal work doesn’t need to list every single thing you do. It’s more a matter of personal taste whether you list each thing or just the major tasks that aren’t ongoing on a daily basis. When listing major tasks, e.g., hiring, be sure to set a deadline, be reasonable, but a deadline will keep you on track and keep the item from getting pushed to the back burner. It’s easy to mix up goals and work. For example, you may think of filling a req as a goal, but it’s really part of your normal work as a manager.

Behavioral changes need to be specific, so, rather than “improve attitude,” specify three things that will accomplish that (stay positive, smile, be friendly). MAP changes require staying aware until the desired change becomes a habit and three is about the max most people can monitor at once and, even that, can be a stretch. However, if you made even one MAP change each quarter the over all change in that year would be phenomenal.

Now for the trick. Using three columns with these headings,

  • drag and drop your list into the appropriate column;
  • keep shuffling them until you’re sure each is in the right place;
  • prioritize them; and
  • move any extra items (more than three each) from Behaviors or Goals to a separate holding doc—that’s why prioritizing them is so important.

Print Behavioral changes and stick them on your monitor, tape them to the dashboard, up them on a wall—somewhere you will always see it because out of site is out of mind and you need to stay constantly aware to build the habit.

Using the deadlines, incorporate the others into your normal planning process.

Be sure to do a reality check using normal and worst case analysis. You aren’t Super(wo)man, so be sure that what you want to accomplish can be done. If not, adjust your lists accordingly, keeping it firmly in mind that your object is to increase your productivity, not your frustration.

Finally, once you’re clear on the process, share it with your organization, not just the managers, but with everyone.

Dr. Sulkowicz, better responses, please!

Monday, October 2nd, 2006

I’ve been a Business Week subscriber for more than 20 years and one of my favorite features is a section called Up Front, that’s comprised of an eclectic group of very short items of interest. A few issues ago BW added one called Analyze This, which is comprised of a question [sent by a reader] and an answer by Kerry J. Sulkowicz, M.D., “a psychoanalyst and founder of the Boswell Group, [who] advises executives on psychological aspects of business.”

When The Boss Won’t Share is the tenth item down in the October 9 issue. The question regards “a top executive who regularly fails to share information…” Dr. Sulkowicz spends 317 words describing, in different words, information presented in the question; the source of the problem in Freudian terms, explains why it’s a problem, says most people work around it, and, at the end, offers one 25 word sentence towards a very iffy solution. This has been the pattern since the Analyze This started.

I have two gripes, one general and one specific.

First, the general. I grant you that I’m not trained in psychology, but it seems to me that responses such as this aren’t much use in the fast day-to-day action of most businesses.

Specifically, I think there is a far more common reason that information is withheld. Power.

There is only one true source of power in a company and that’s control.

There are only two things worth controlling: money and information.

There is no question that the control of information yields power. There is little question that there are people who control the flow of information as a powerbase within their organization, whether they are managers or not. These people don’t communicate adequate information, not because they are inept or unwilling, but because they believe that not sharing information

  • enhances their power—The vice president who berated a manager for being over budget, but wouldn’t tell her what the budget was.
  • makes their position more secure, or them more important—The engineer who purposely omitted information from schematics and bills of materials so that manufacturing had to keep coming back to him for data critical to building the product.
  • allows them to evade responsibility for decisions—The executive who says, “I don’t care how you shorten the testing cycle. Do it fast, get it done, and don’t come to me with excuses.”

These kind of people are communicating with malice aforethought. Communicating is difficult enough when people actively work at it, but when communications are used as part of a devious personal agenda, corporate life starts to resemble a Dilbert cartoon.

In all instances you need to find a way to work around the person withholding the information. Whether you’re dealing with a power trip or insecurity you still need to get the work done, so here are some quick suggestions that may help.

  • It’s hard for a subordinate to force change in any superior, so find a peer to the non-communicator, who is also impacted by the actions, and enlist her aid.
  • Look for information holes.
    • Assume that information is missing and find other sources for it.
    • Ask others with knowledge or parallel information if what you have looks complete.

Finally, I hope in the future that Dr. Sulkowicz will consider spending more of his column on pragmatic solutions that play directly to the needs of his readers.

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