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becoming more effective
Excerpted and Adapted
from Peter Drucker and Fred Smith
Five Habits
of Mind 1. Know where your time goes. Work
systematically at managing the little of your time that can be
brought under your control.
2. Focus on outward contribution. Gear
your efforts towards results rather than work. Start out with
the question, "What results are expected of me?" rather
than work to be done, tools, and techniques.
3. Build on strengths — your own and
that of superiors, colleagues, and subordinates. Build on the
strength of the situation. Do not start out with the things that
you cannot do.
4. Concentrate on the few major areas where
superior performance will produce outstanding results. Set priorities
and stay with your priority decisions. Do first things first
— second things not at all. The alternative is to get nothing
done.
5. Make effective decisions. Take the right
steps in the right sequence. An effective decision is always
a judgement based on dissenting opinions rather than on consensus
on the facts. To make many decisions fast means to make the wrong
decision. What is needed are few, but fundamental decisions.
What is needed is the right strategy rather than razzle-dazzle
tactics.
Information 1. What information do I need to do
my job?
2. When do I need it?
3. From whom should I be getting it?
4. What new tasks can I tackle now that
I have gotten all this data?
5. What old tasks should I abandon?
6. Which tasks should I do differently?
7. What information do I owe to other?
To whom? When? In what form?
Organizational
Information 1. What information do we need in
this organization?
2. When do we need it? In what form? From
where?
Types of
Information What a business needs the most for
its decisions, especially strategic ones, are data about what
goes on outside it. It is only outside the business that there
are results, opportunities, and threats.
So far, organizations only have day-to-day
market data: what existing customers buy, where they buy, how
they buy. Few have non-customer data which is illogical since
the non-customers always outnumber the customers. Non-market
information is in demographics and the behavior and plans of
actual and potential customers.
Finding the
Crux of the Situation In every situation there is generally
a key, essential piece that must be solved for the work to move
forward. This is the crux of the situation. The crux is the point
or points upon which success or failure rests. Stay focused on
the crux. Don't become sidetracked onto peripheral issues. Smith
writes that almost all problems have a "key log" that
can clear the "log jam." Here's some suggestions:
Climb a tall tree.
Locate the key log.
"Blow" the log which then lets
the stream do the work.
Though it will work, don't start at the
edge of the jam and move all the logs eventually hoping to move
the key log. You'll lose time and expend much more effort.
Are You Doing
the Right Thing? Get in the habit of repeatedly asking
yourself:
Should I be doing this?
Does it matter
If so, how much does it matter?
The Process
of Getting Things Done Decide 3 things:
What you're trying to do? (This is the
work that needs to be done.)
What it takes to do it? (Find this by breaking
the work into its component parts.).
Who you can get to it better then you can?
(You must assign/delegate the work to the right people.)
Remember, the answer to most problems is
putting the right person in the right place (doing the part of
the work that suits them best).
Work, Parts,
People Once you've divided the work up into
its logical parts, put somebody in charge who's capable of doing
the work necessary for each part. First you assign. If successful
then you delegate.
To Assign, you tell the person:
What you want done.
What time you want it done by.
How you want it done.
That you expect them to do it themselves
while you watch.
To Delegate, you tell the person:
What problem you'd like solved.
That they're responsible for developing
and implementing the solution.
How to Move
from Assignment to Delegation People enthusiastically do what they
do well. The general principle here is: Water seeks its own level.
People generally drag their feet on what they can't do well.
Therefore as you assign things to a new person, they'll show
by the results that you can consider delegation. You must have
working experience with somebody in order to move from assignment
to delegation.
Problems Ask these questions:
Is the person you have doing something
strong enough to do it?
If the answer is no, where is the person
you need (find the right person).
The earlier you make the decision that
you have the wrong person, the better it is since it's never
easy to deal with people issues.
Being the
Boss The people who work for you must understand
your job. List all the things only you can do. Add a few things
in that you prefer to do. Only do these things. Let people know
your commitment to the most important things.
Time: It's
Limited Most lack of accomplishment result
from failure to prioritize and complete. The answer is focus.
Focus has two parts:
Prioritize: Write down what you have to
do in order of priority.
Complete: Finish the first item before
you start the second.
Look at every activity you do and assess
whether it is a good use of your time. (See the 3 questions in
the section, "Are You Doing the Right Thing?"). Relationship
between boss and manager is key. The better it is, the better
things will be run.
People Assessment
Understand what people will do in a particular
context.
Know how to motivate them.
Understand how things get done.
Know how to utilize people's strengths
and buttress their weaknesses.
Keep it Running Key people get tired of serving in
major capacities and as a result burnout or default. So you must
develop a "bench." Continued motivation hinges on creating
a team. Successful teams have these components: Participation,
Recognition, Rotation, The feeling of belonging, The possibility
of moving up through the ranks.
Rotation is moving someone to a different
task or position when they're tired of it, lose interest, burned
out. This brings new challenges to people, keeping them excited.
It also protects by preventing people from owning a position
by virtue of being there for a long time.
Spiritual system is built around--not upon--a
shepherd, whose purpose is to develop mature believers, not a
facility, memorial, or human organization. These are helpful
but not the true purpose. Growth is for the people's benefit,
not the leaders. The system utilizes people by their gifts. It
function is ministry and its object maturation.
Copyright
2001, Robert I. Winer, M.D.
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