Laundry Lists and Diffused Focus

The fun part about our job is being exposed to a number of different industries and organizations.  One of my favorite things to say is, “I’ve worked in Nuclear Power Stations, and in grocery stores, and 90% of the management issues are the same.”  I usually get significant pushback from the Nuclear Engineers on this one, but it’s true.

Often the response I get from this statement is a question about the most common thread that weaves organizations and their performance together.  The answer, quite simply, is “Focus”.  The great performing organizations define and continually refine the limited number of things they need to do well, and then execute those things.

The reason people lose focus is because they get so busy managing tasks, they forget to look up every now and then and make sure they are doing the right things.  Or, as I like to say, “They are so busy doing their jobs, they forget to do their jobs.”

As a busy manager, the next time you feel more overwhelmed with work than the bartender on the Kennedy Compound, spend a couple of minutes to review what your top 3 to 7 objectives for the year are.  What are you doing to achieve those objectives this week?  Better yet, review your top objectives every day before you start diving into tasks.

If you find yourself involved in meetings and activities that have nothing to do with those 3 to 7 objectives, then you need to question what you’re doing.  Worse yet, if find yourself with 25 or 30 objectives, you need to go back to drawing board, and transform your laundry list into a more manageable, critical action list.

Achieving focus is conceptually very easy, but requires a lot of discipline to do well.

 

Bias for Action, Absence of Thinking

“A bias for action” – this has become a buzz-phrase I’ve noticed lately, and it makes my skin crawl the same way as when some one uses the word “irregardless”.  This is the curse of several years of studying English at University.

I’ll be the first guy to encourage people to actually get things done, but if I’m going to have a bias for something, I’d prefer it be a bias for thinking.  Simply put, any action you take that is not preceded by some thinking is a waste of time that will ultimately cost you much more time in the long run.

In many situations, the thinking involved need be brief.  Unless you’re planning a moon landing, the amount of time writing and refining plans quickly hits diminishing returns.  To spend even a few minutes thinking about something, and perhaps handwriting one page on what you are trying to achieve, the benefits, risks, and involvement required from others will save you a huge amount of time in the long run.

Here are some of my favorite business moments that demonstrated a bias for action, and an absence of thinking:

New Coke:  Turns out people liked the old coke better, and the company spent millions to undo their action

Moving Jay Leno from the Tonight Show:  NBC had a problem as to what to do with Conan O’Brien, but didn’t think too long about any of these decisions.  Oh well… what’s $40 million between friends?

Ford Motor Company and the Pinto:  It seems it was cheaper to pay wrongful death suits than it was to recall the exploding Pinto.  Apparently the guys running Ford at the time had the Wizard of Oz trifecta:  No brains, no heart, no courage.

US IRS and tax evaders: The US Revenue Service has decided recently to go after tax evaders in Canada and the UK.  Newsflash: people looking to evade taxes don’t move to higher tax jurisdictions that have comprehensive tax treaties with the United States.  If any thought had been put into this, they would realize the housewife who moved to Canada as a child probably isn’t as promising a source of revenue as the corporate executive that moved to Grand Cayman.

Think, then act.  You’d be surprised how well it works.

 

7 Steps to Writing a Business Case

Watch the 7 Steps to Writing a Business Case Video.
For instant access, enter your email on the right –>
This 15-minute video is part of our paid membership content… watch it free as our guest.  We’ll also send you 5 FREE Cheat Sheets for busy managers.

Below we discuss Writing a Business Case in seven easy steps.  Specifically, we discuss:

  • What is a Business Case?
  • Why you should bother Writing a Business Case.
  • Seven steps to Writing a Business Case
  • Three things to remember about Writing a Business Case

What is a Business Case?

A Business Case is a document you create in order to help you get approval or financial commitment to a project or change initiative.

Why Bother Writing a Business Case?

  • It will help you to organize your thoughts and test your ideas.  Some things seem like great ideas initially, but after you put some structured thought into it, several questions may arise.
  • It will help you clarify and focus your efforts.  Just a little bit of structure can assist you in the implementation of your idea.
  • It will aid you in ultimately selling your project or change initiative to stakeholders.
  • It will provide the basis for more detailed project planning upon approval.

Seven Steps to Writing a Business Case

  1. Create a Backround (or Project Definition) Statement: The first step to Writing a Business Case is to explain the background of the project or initiative.  In this phase, you need to provide just enough information to inform the reader as to why you’re bringing the idea or subject up.
  2. State the Objectives (Future State or Desired Outcome): What are your specific objectives for this project or initiative? What is it that you are going to deliver?  Try to articulate the root value of the opportunities that you are planning for. Imagine an investor sitting across the table from you: Why would she give you money or otherwise invest in your project?
  3. Describe the Current Situation: Now that you’ve defined your future state, you need to determine where you currently are on that journey.   Make sure you include facts, figures, and data wherever possible.  You need to create a compelling argument that highlights the gap between desired state and current situation.
  4. Put Forth a Recommendation or Solution: If you’ve followed the above steps, you’ve created a hunger in your audience for some sort of change.  Now you need recommend what that change should be.  Articulate your ideas as clearly as possible.  This section could include a few different options, but ultimately you should commit to a specific recommendation.
  5. Determine Your Success Criteria and Measures: How you will measure the success of the project?  What will change as a result of your intervention?  Note that your success criteria must be measurable.  The return on investment should be included in this section.
  6. Determine Your Support Required: A key part of writing a business case, is to determine who you need support from and letting them know exactly what you need from them.  You can’t point fingers after the fact.  Indicate what support you need from outside resources to achieve your goals.  This includes the resources required in terms of time, effort, tools, money, and other resources.
  7. Articulate Next Steps and the Timeline: Once you have approval for your business case what are some key milestones that come next?  When will you commit to finish/deliver?

Three Things to Remember About Writing a Business Case

  1. Ensure that the document is clear and succinct.  Minimize the use of jargon, and speak in clear and concise terms.
  2. Include factual information – you’ve done your homework here’s your chance to prove it.
  3. Sell it!  Speak to people about the benefits of pursuing your idea.  Demonstrate the value the project brings to the organization, customer and financial bottom line of the company.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Writing a Business Case (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

Writing a Business Case

Join Jed & Bob as they discuss the Seven Steps to writing a good business case.

Watch the ‘How to Write a Business Case’ Video (14 mins 47 sec):


Download the ‘Writing a Business Case’ Cheat Sheet, Video, Audio, and Slides

How to Build a Business Case

It’s amazing how just a little bit of process can make a huge difference in making better decisions and pushing an organization along.  Join the Wily Manager guys this week as they discuss building a business case in just a few easy steps.

Monday’s Tip: Articulate the benefits clearly. Before you get bogged down in the details, make sure you can clearly and concisely articulate the benefits.  Write your “elevator speech”.

Tuesday’s Tip: Describe the current situation to highlight the gap. Why are you advocating any change?  Illustrate for people the desired future state or performance versus where you are now.

Wednesday’s Tip: Define your criteria for success. How will you know when you are successful?  By what measures will you assess the success of your plan?  Determine in advance how you will measure your progress and success.

Thursday’s Tip: Reach out to those whose support you need. Don’t surprise anyone with what you might need from them to advance your cause.  Negotiate support and involvement in advance, when writing your business case.

Friday’s Tip: Sell it. It is a common mistake to think that all good ideas are self-evident.  This is how many great ideas die.  There is always a “sales and marketing” component to getting people to do anything differently than they currently do.

How to Make Sure People Don’t Care

There is so much stuff out there telling managers what they should do to be more effective, and how they can be better leaders of their people.  This week, I thought I’d take a different approach, and suggest to managers how they might make sure that none of their people care.

It seems that many leaders will read an article or attend a seminar and them come back to the office and do the same thing they were doing before.  They then find themselves stressed-out and miserable, as they can never seem to get a grip on their jobs or on leading their people.  It seems something is lost in the transfer between reading or hearing something, and applying it to our own circumstances.

As for the people those managers are leading: they all start out with a different level of giving a crap, and they are then pushed towards the mean (or average) of “giving-a-crap-edness” of the culture around them.  The great managers push that average line up, and inspire people to come along for the ride.  Bad leaders, push the line down, and tacitly encourage people to give a crap about far fewer things, and at far lower a level.

So here are some things bad leaders do to ensure no one cares:

  1. Enable unnecessary bureaucracy. This is why many public sector organizations suffer with poor morale.
  2. Not dealing with performance issues.  I’m not going to work all that hard for you if I know my peer is doing nothing, and not getting called on it.
  3. Not administering consequences.  People need to know that both good and poor performance will be recognized and “rewarded” as such.
  4. Micro-managing.  If you are going to redo all my work anyway, I’m not going to put much effort into it.
  5. Playing favorites.  OK… maybe a meritocracy only exists in a University Professor’s textbook, but you’ve got to at least try to give the appearance of fairness.
  6. Reinforce a blame culture. People’s best work comes from taking risks, which they will not do, if they get crucified every time a small error is made.

There are lots of other ones, too, but leaders should start with these ones, and determine to what degree they do these things.  The further away you are from these things, the more likely you are to be pushing that mean line of discretionary effort upwards.

 

Capturing Discretionary Effort

Organizations with highly engaged people outperform merely ordinary organizations on every axis: production, cost, & safety.  So how can individual managers who may not have the authority to hire a concierge for every employee capture their people’s discretionary effort?  Join Jed & Bob to find out.

Watch the ‘Capturing Discretionary Effort’ Video (15 mins 29 sec):


Download the ‘Capturing Discretionary Effort’ Cheat Sheet, Video, Audio, and Slides

Capturing Discretionary Effort

Members Click Here for Additional Tools

Get Instant Access to 200+ Cheat Sheets, Videos, and Other Immediately Usable Tools for Busy Managers – Try Out a Wily Manager Membership Today!

Below we discuss the following aspects of Discretionary Effort:

  • What Discretionary Effort is
  • Why managers should care about Discretionary Effort
  • Who does a good job of capturing Discretionary Effort
  • How your organization can capture Discretionary Effort

What is Discretionary Effort?

  • Quite simply, Discretionary Effort is the difference between the full potential of any given employee, and the minimum required to NOT get fired.

Why You Should Care About Capturing Discretionary Effort

Often people talk about the intangible benefits of capturing Discretionary Effort.  According to a 2010 survey, here are some tangible benefits:

  • Productivity – is 20% better with a more highly engaged workforce.
  • Retention – highly engaged people are 87% less likely to leave their organization.
  • Safety – highly engaged employees are five times less likely to have a safety incident, and seven times less likely to have a loss time accident.

What Organizations do a Good Job of Capturing Discretionary Effort?

There is a misconception that it is only cutting edge technology companies in the Silicon Valley that can aggressively improve employee engagement.  This is not the case.  In fact, it is often businesses in seemingly mundane businesses that routinely make up Top Employers Lists:

  • Wegmans Food Market – Retail Food (Fortune Magazine’s Top 100 US Employers)
  • Container Store – Retail (Fortune Magazine’s Top 100 US Employers)
  • Luminus – Community Housing (Sunday Times Top 100 UK Employers)
  • Beaverbrooks – Retail Jewelers (Sunday Times Top 100 UK Employers)
  • BC Biomedical – Medical Laboratory Services (Canadian Business Top 100 Employers)
  • Great Little Box Company – Manufacturing (Globe & Mail’s Top 100 Employers)
  • Diageo – Manufacturing (Great Places to Work Australia 2010)
  • Sentis – Education and Training (Great Places to Work Australia 2010)

How to Capture Discretionary Effort

The pool tables, concierge services, bring a pet to work policies and on-site masseuse may work well for some organizations.  For others, there are some conceptually easier ways to create a great work place:

  • Create clear expectations. You people need to have a very clear idea of what it is you want them to do.  Most people want to have a sense of accomplishment, which is extraordinarily difficult if they have no idea of what the organization expects from them.
  • Connect people to a larger picture. There is an old adage about the difference between a bricklayer, and a cathedral builder.  They may be doing exactly the same work, but the job has significantly more meaning for the latter one.  How can you connect your people to the larger purpose of the organization, or a greater cause?
  • Create improvement opportunities. The days of linear career paths are quickly ending.  What learning and development opportunities can you provide for people.  For many employees a lateral move, or a special project is better than a promotion, so what can you do to give people the opportunity to improve?
  • Encourage social networks at work. People will feel much more engaged if they feel they have good friends at work.  It also makes it much harder to leave an employer, if a good portion of your social network is there as well.  In many cases people spend more time with their coworkers than their families, so do not underestimate the importance of solid social networks at the workplace.
  • Make people feel important. Regardless of the job, people like to feel that their contribution matters.  Leaders often underestimate the impact they have on people, and by doing something as simple as offering your full attention when you talk to someone, you can make them feel valued.

3 Things to Remember about Capturing Discretionary Effort

  1. This is not a task, but a way to operate.  You can’t go out and capture discretionary effort, and then tick it off on your list.  This is an ongoing challenge for those in a position of leadership.
  2. It’s not about the concierge and the spa. Look to do the fundamental things first, and only graduate to the sublime, once you know you have a well-lead organization.
  3. You need to invest in leadership.  People and organizations need to take leadership seriously, and continually improve that part of their business.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Capturing Discretionary Effort (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

Looking for the Full-Length Podcast/Video? …

Get Instant Access to 200+ Cheat Sheets, Videos, and Other Immediately Usable Tools for Busy Managers – Try Out a Wily Manager Membership Today!

Capturing Employees’ Discretionary Effort

We all have good days and bad days.  A bad day is when you show up, and try to stay under the radar.  A great day is when you push your accomplishments to new heights, and seem to do so effortlessly.  The difference between the two is discretionary effort.  Join us at Wily Manager this week when we discuss why managers should care about discretionary effort, and how they can capture it from their people.

Monday’s Tip: Do the basics well. Don’t install a hot tub in the employee lounge until you are leading and managing people well.  Otherwise, the hot tub is a waste of money.

Tuesday’s Tip: Do not treat it as a task. Capturing discretionary effort is a way to run your business that will never end.  Do not think it is a task you can tick off on your to do list.

Wednesday’s Tip: Create Opportunities for Improvement. It may be training, or it could be a stretch assignment.  Whatever it is, you need to help people expand their skill set, and improve themselves.

Thursday’s Tip: Connect people to the larger picture. No one wants to be an anonymous cog in a huge wheel.  Tell people how their efforts matter to the larger organization, or connect them to something bigger than themselves.

Friday’s Tip: Encourage social networks at work. Most people spend more waking hours with their coworkers than their families.  If people can feel connected to those people they spend so much time with, they are much more likely to be engaged.

Measure Your Measures

Last time I wrote about measurement in the workplace, I got quite a bit of hate mail.  I could tell you the exact quantity and relative quality of that hate mail, but suffice it to say, that people seem to have very definite ideas about how things ought to be measured (or not measured) in their workplace.

So I’ve beefed up my security detail, and put on my protective cup, and I’ll tackle business metrics again – this time for service oriented businesses.

Let me describe the two opposite ends of the continuum on this silly debate.  Way over on the far left hand side, are those people who say, “I’m a lawyer (graphic designer, LR negotiator, marketing specialist, etc.), you can’t measure what I do.”  Sorry – I can, and I will.

On the extreme right hand side of the scale are those people (mostly consultants, who’ve never actually worked in any of these jobs), who say, “Measuring service businesses is exactly the same as measuring production-based businesses.”  You should throw such people out of your office quickly, before any more of their ignorance wears off on your people.

As with many things, the truth lies somewhere between these extremes — in the less comfortable grey area.  You can and should measure service business functions, but it often much harder than simply counting widgets.

In some cases, there are very repeatable and transactional things that occur within a service function, that should be counted like widgets.  If you work as a recruiter, you should be prepared to disclose how many resumes were screened, how many people were shortlisted, how many interviewed, and your time to fill the position.

You should also have a quality ranking as to how well those positions were filled that will only become clear after some time has passed.  For example, how many of your new recruits quit or are terminated within the first 18 months is a quality indicator of the recruiting process.  So are the upward mobility of new hires, and their scores on performance appraisals, in the first couple of years after they come onboard

That wasn’t so hard, was it?

So rather than fire-bombing my office, perhaps you could measure the effectiveness of your current measurements – but we’ll leave that for another day.

 

« Previous Page
Next Page »