Just-in-Time Management Advice
Learn key ways to improve your time and priority management, including 10 things you can do right now.
Listen to the ‘Time and Priority Management’ Podcast:
Time and Priority Management Podcast Slides
Take a look at the Time and Priority Management Cheat Sheet.
I found this clip on YouTube that is a hilarious/sad commentary on many workplaces. Happy Viewing.
One of my favourite work assignments was a project based in Philadelphia that was a joint venture between an American Company and a British one. One would think the similarities between these two countries would keep cross-cultural issues to a minimum, but as anyone who has worked in both countries will tell you, the differences are more than merely adjusting to funny accents.
One of the first wrinkles that needed to ironed out was the fact that Americans take about 3 weeks vacation a year in increments of no longer than 5 days, and their British counterparts have two or three times that holiday entitlement.
While the Brits would jet off to Southern Europe for 3 weeks at a time during the summer, the Americans would be at the office working the same excessive hours as always. Interestingly, the productivity of the two groups was about the same.
This got me to thinking about how we work in North America, and how much of the time we are pretending to work. Lots of people will take offence to the notion that they are not really working, but in reality the bulk of the work at many organizations takes place in just a few weeks per year.
January through May are good production months, except for a few days around Easter and Spring Break. June through August, many people are not at work at all, and those that are working show up, but really have one eye to the outdoors and their next BBQ. September and October are usually about budgeting and planning, and while some will argue they are critical to the business, it distracts from the actual running of the business, and often adds far less value than it costs in time and effort. Finally November and December work gets done, but with the distractions of Christmas and (for the Americans) Thanksgiving.
So as a manager, how do you reconcile that the few people that do show up in July and August are probably just pretending to work? You don’t. It’s part of the deal, and most organizations don’t fall apart as a result. The real question to ask is whether the work being done the rest of the year, when the entire staff complement is in place and working at capacity has any value.
Anyway, I better take a quick lap around the office floor (holding a piece of paper, and walking quickly) so as to maintain the appearance of work, before someone figures out I’m part of the masses pretending to work during the summer months.
In most corners of the world, South Africa is currently the center of the universe, and bars and restaurants on six continents (and perhaps a research station on the seventh), are packed with crazed fans cheering for the team or nation of their choice. Even in North America, where Football (not Gridiron) rarely attracts any attention, people are paying attention to the World Cup.
Some time in July, there will be a new world Football champion, and the sport will then fade into relative obscurity for the next four years. This is because Soccer doesn’t matter… at least to people in the United States. The Canadians have a marginally more international view of the world, but they are largely stuck with the baggage their big-brother to the South leaves them with.
Business in North America is largely conducted the same way. It stands to reason that when the world’s largest single economy by a wide margin is located on the North American continent that people would not be compelled to look beyond their own neighborhood.
However, the times are changing. Much like the disintegration of the Roman Empire, the economic dispersion precedes the rest of the empire, and businesses in North America would be well advised to look abroad – not only for market opportunities, but for management help as well.
This may seem like heresy to many Americans and Canadians, but there are European, Asian, and South American organizations that are exceptionally well run – they may even do some things better than their North American peers.
Health care industries are an excellent example. Both the United States and Canada have incredibly dysfunctional health care systems. If you don’t believe me, look at any global ranking, and see where these two countries place. In most northern European countries all their citizens have access to care (unlike the United States), and they have a mixture of public and private care that ensures the rationing of care is kept to a minimum (unlike Canada).
If Governments and businesses in North America could see past their own myopia to other parts of the world, a great number of business and social problems could be addressed.
Tell me I’m wrong….
Something happens in an airport or on an airplane every few months that makes us collectively lose our minds. In the past year, restrictions have been put on air travelers that are only slightly less obtrusive than being bound in straight-jacket while in transit.
At any given time there are literally hundreds of thousands of people in the air. Of all of those people, some tiny fraction of one percent want to do harm. Regardless of how small that deviant population is, all air travelers are subject to slow, invasive, and somewhat ineffective security measures.
Many workplaces manage their employees the same way. They put restrictive policies in place to thwart the occasional employee that may abuse a corporate directive. One example was a client of ours who had a proposal to put people on a per diem expense when they were travelling, and thus eliminating the need for the collection and auditing of hundreds of $10 lunch receipts.
Ultimately the proposal was turned down because there was some history of one or two employees abusing their expense accounts. Rather than properly discipline the offending employees, it was decided to stack policy on top of policy to eliminate any chance anyone could abuse their expense account.
In the process, they created an abundance of unnecessary work for countless employees, cost the shareholders more in compliance-related costs, damaged any atmosphere of trust in the organization, and ultimately didn’t stop dishonest employees from taking advantage of the situation. Not a very smart decision.
In the airports, we don’t have much choice; in the workplace we do. Managers need to be accountable for managing. If an employee behaves poorly, then address the behavior – don’t write a policy. In the example above, the offending employees should have been fired. They then could have instituted an expense allowance that is easier to administer and saves everyone time and money.
I can already hear the HR and Finance people objecting, but at some point pragmatic common sense must prevail.
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When creating a team charter, you will wan to include the following standard components (and might also include other sections):
The Purpose, Accountabilities, and Goals sections establish what the team needs to achieve; the Operating Guidelines section lays out how the team is going to achieve them.
Team Charter: Purpose
The Purpose Statement in a team charter defines the focus of the team’s efforts by explaining why the team exists. This section is less about the job description of things the team does and more about why the team might do these things … to what end? What organizational goals does the team intend to impact? Think in terms of being in business for yourself as though you are a team of consultants or contractors with skills and talent the organization needs for a specific purpose. You might try using the “5 Why’s” or asking “SO WHAT” to help you drill down from actions or activities to what the teams purpose is.
Questions to prompt your thinking:
Team Charter: Accountabilities
The Accountabilities in a team charter are the team’s main deliverables. Well-identified team accountabilities, provide a list of the team’s main responsibilities and outputs. Think outcomes not activities!
Questions to prompt your thinking:
Team Charter: Operating Guidelines
The Operating Guidelines in a team charter should be stated as behaviors so that all team members understand what is expected of them. It’s important that everyone on the team agrees to and supports the guiding principles. They define the agreed-upon behaviors and expectations of the team and the individuals who make up the team.
Questions to prompt your thinking:
How will we approach the work?
How will we make decisions?
How will we run meetings?
How will we treat one another?
Team Charter: Goals and Actions
The team’s Goals and Actions in a team charter need to have direct line of sight to the Team Purpose and Accountabilities. Here you need to get more specific, with actions that include measurable targets that will lead to your team meeting its accountabilities and delivering on its purpose. Think ‘SMART’ (Specific, Measurable, Agreed-upon, Realistic, Time-Bound).
Questions to prompt your thinking:
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So it’s time to select who will participate in your Accelerated Development Program and your thinking about your team and who might be the best of the best to put forward, who deserves the opportunity. You start looking through your teams performance reviews and 360 results, you start planning for the talent review meetings … HOLD ON! I love the enthusiasm you have for developing people but I need to ask you to back it up.
Contrary to common practice, do not start with a process aimed at identifying the high potential talent in your organization. Start by determining the leadership requirements that exist for the organization; start with the identifying your Business Requirements.
When you are considering who will be selected to participate in your Accelerated Development Program ….. start with an organizational assessment rather than a talent assessment.
If you’re like most companies there is a limited amount of resources of time and money that you can spend on Accelerated Development Programs. In a larger organization leveraging traditional identification process will still likely lead to a large number of candidates who are labeled as High Potential. Don’t misunderstand, everyone should have development plans and be supported in their development, however the truth of the matter is that organizations should be proactive in allocating additional development resources against those individuals who are most likely to meet the leadership requirements of the organization. You need to make sure you are getting the biggest benefit from your development efforts.
Leverage your organizational analysis in determining some of the criteria for selection. If your bench strength is weak in the sales department and really strong in operations then concentrate your selection to the program by choosing individuals interested in building a career in sales. YES, even at the expense of not including a high potential individual from Operations. If your business requirements for leadership are heavily weighted in a specific geography you may consider not including some individuals that have indicate that they are not willing to relocate, in favour of some who are. The goal of accelerated development programs is to accelerate the development of selected individuals to meet the needs of the business. Don’t invest more money and time where it’s not needed at the expense of where it is needed.
There hasn’t been a fall from grace like this since the OJ trial. Ok… maybe this recent Tiger Woods thing, or the fact that people set the expectations for Barack Obama way too high could be close seconds, but the fact that Toyota isn’t absolutely perfect seems to be disturbing a lot of people.
Toyota is a well run company – despite their recent setbacks. What separates well run organizations from those not so well run is the ability to respond to challenges, not the absence of any troubles.
I have no doubt the marketing people at Toyota are freaking out, but they do have some credibility they can spend on this issue. What they shouldn’t do, is announce to the world there isn’t really a problem, and carry on with business as usual. This is the corporate equivalent of OJ going out on his own to look for the “real” killer.
Toyota needs to step-up, acknowledge what went wrong, tell everyone how they intend to fix it, and then get back to completely dominating the global automobile industry. Too much spin, and they’ll lose even more credibility.
And while we’re talking about supposedly world class companies, can we have a reality check? I have studied and held up organizations like Southwest Airlines, General Electric, and Disney myself as examples for managers to look to. In many cases I would stand by this advice. However, we need to realize that even the best run entities are not going to do everything right all the time. In fact, it is probably closer to the truth that these companies really only do things right marginally more than every other organization out there.
Don’t get me wrong… much like I find President Obama to be an impressive guy, watching people’s unrealistic expectations of him be constantly deflated, people need to look to the Toyotas of the world in the proper context. They are not perfect, and they will make mistakes. They also can’t be all things to all people.
I bought Southwest Airlines stock about 8 years ago, because they were such an impressive company. So impressive, that I would lose my shirt if I sold those same stocks today. I also bought Southwest stock before ever flying with them. I have no doubt they serve their niche well – I’m just clearly not one of their target customers: “What do you mean you won’t assign me a seat?”
Leaders in big organizations and small should watch Toyota very carefully in the coming weeks and months. They will either come through this stronger than ever, or crash and burn horribly. Either way it will be instructive.
How do you think this will end? Will Toyota recover like Tylenol did after the poisonings, or will Mr. Toyota end up driving down an LA freeway with a gun to his head?
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A business review meeting is a specific type of recurring meeting that is held to discuss individual or team scorecards and progress toward objectives. During the business review meeting, teams apply problem-solving tools to issues that are impacting their performance. Team leaders, managers and senior leadership assume coaching roles which emphasize positive feedback and recognition.
Roles of leaders in the business review meeting process:
The business review meeting process:
Business review meetings are scheduled on a regular basis (monthly or quarterly) and include a presentation of key performance measures (individual and/or team). Baselines (historical performance), current data and projected trends are presented for each goal or critical success factor. Key successes are shared with the group as well as required interventions and actions to overcome barriers. Working together, the team develops action plans to improve performance – steps to reach objectives are identified; individuals are assigned responsibility for each step; target completion dates are established for each step and expected results are communicated.
Why have a business review meeting?
The Business Review Meeting topic bundle includes:
Get instant access to the complete ‘Business Review Meeting’ Topic Bundle…
What a debacle.
Of course, the whole situation becomes exaggerated when you add in multi-million dollar severance packages, and inflated celebrity egos. But when you look at the situation purely from a management perspective what is to be learned?
Here’s what we know:
What Jeff Zucker and the kids at NBC management failed to realize is that sometimes you don’t get to pick a good option. Sometimes, as managers, we are called upon to determine which option sucks the least.
Back in 1993, NBC had a similar management choice to make when replacing Johnny Carson. Their managerial decision making at the time caused them to lose David Letterman to CBS, which likely guided their decisions a decade later. In retrospect, say “no” to O’Brien, and potentially losing him, as they lost Letterman, may very well have been the option that sucked the least.
There are thousands of managers out there right now facing decisions where there may not be a best option. These decisions won’t make the news, and there probably won’t be a $45m severance expense, but making difficult decisions is a burden of leadership.
So do the right thing… if you can’t figure out an option that will work best, determine the one that will suck the least, and get on with it.
Either that, or follow the example of Jimmy Fallon, and just stay quiet and below the radar until the whole thing blows over.
