PRODUCTIVE INSTEAD OF BUSY: HOW HIGH IS YOUR MANAGEMENT ROI?

“No time! I’ve got more important things on my plate! Am I supposed to drop what I’m doing?” It’s a clear case of mistaken priorities – we can only guess whether these supposedly more important things really are that important. Nonetheless, the colleague seems to be up to his neck in work and has no time for strategic development due to all these day-to-day tasks. He would rather design another slide for his weekly meeting slot. Like so many in the managerial class, this colleague is hopelessly activity-oriented instead of results-oriented.

When challenged about his inefficiency, a litany of unwitting incompetence will follow:

• I plan all things through neatly, track and monitor them, and if there are any deviations, these are discussed.
• I have a clear agenda for meetings: “What are the items that need to be discussed?” And they are exactly what we stick to.
• I delegate tasks as far as possible.

Does that sound plausible to you? Then perhaps you too have been infected by the virus of activity for activity’s sake.

HOW YOU CAN AVOID THE ACTIONISM VIRUS

• Plan things through? A plan does not constitute an output. It is an input as a means to an end. Anyone who dwells on the discussion of plans loses sight of the result. The focus of daily activities must be on the outcome. “What will bring us as close as possible to our objective today?” And not: “What has been in the plan for the past eight weeks?”
• Meeting with a clear agenda? Likewise, just a plan that lists what you want to do, but not what you want to achieve and what is needed to achieve it. The focus must be on the end result. Not “Discussion of ...”, but “Lack of manpower in project XY. What are we going to do about it?”
• Delegating tasks? Pointless tasks that are delegated to someone else remain pointless. Who knows how useful these tasks are?  Therefore, think before delegating. What is actually needed for progress to be made? Don’t delegate the superfluous to someone else.

If it’s so trivial, why doesn’t anyone follow it? Tweaking an outdated plan instead of solving a specific problem, boasting about minor successes in meetings instead of freeing up logjams, blindly delegating things because you don’t feel like checking their usefulness beforehand – quite frankly, that does not amount to management worthy of the name.

Matthias Kolbusa