First, the treat. It IS possible to reduce your workload by 1/3. And if you did? You would be able to redeploy that time on the things that are important instead of the things that are urgent. You would be able to have time to implement some of those new ideas that will move the business forward instead of just stay at status quo. If you were working on fewer things then you could do those things better. Your staff would be more focused so they would be spending more time on the right things instead of just trying to do everything right. Sound like a treat?
OK, so what is the trick? Have a plan! A well done strategic plan defines where you want to go. It determines what is relevant to that future state and what is not. Now you can divide the stuff on your desk into three parts: What will drive you to our future state, what is not related to the future state, and what might be a part of your future. Take the middle third and throw it away. When it crosses your desk, get rid of it. You don’t need to take the time you always have considering every possible idea–just the ones that fit the position within your industry you want to fulfill. That focus trickles down to your staff and pretty soon you are working on the right things, doing them right and you are moving forward.
But there is still a bit more trickery: For your new focus to make its way through the organization there are three essentials:
- You have to mean it; walk the talk; stay on course
- You have to communicate it regularly and effectively
- You have to re-allocate resources to fund it adequately (note: this does not mean incremental resources because you stop doing things that don’t take you there–you are re-allocating) And this is likely the trickiest part of all.
Does it work? One of our clients reduced their budgeting process by one month–they all had the same priorities. Another funded1/3 of their new agenda by what they agreed to stop doing. Sound good?
Now that you know the tricks you can treat yourself to a year of focus and growth next year. Now is the time to do the plan. So a shameless plug to visit our website at http://reynolds-consulting.com and see how we can help make the tricky part easy–with consulting support or one of our products or workshops! Trick or treat!
