Improve My Business

As business owners or workers, we often are caught up on the “movement” of it all – the movement of ideas, services, products, whatever – from where we are to where it needs to be. As a result, it’s often difficult to find the quiet – to find that place that will allow us to slow down, relax, and reflect on what we are doing.

The quiet that allows us to listen to the soft, almost unintelligible voice inside us – the one that quietly whispers words of wisdom and our most secret thoughts. Things like

“Is this what I really should be doing?”

“Should I be doing this more? Less? Differently?”

“Do I really need to sign up for another webinar, or should I be working on what I’ve already gleaned from the 3 I’ve attended?”

“What makes me happy? Does this?  Could this if I change something?”

and a whole host of personal stuff, which I won’t get into here…

Finding the quiet is often difficult unless you know where to look. One client I had was busy from 7 am to 7 pm every day – and was stressed out as a result. As her consultant, I worked with her to help her streamline and organize her business, including delegation of authority and shared responsibility; but as someone who genuinely respected and cared for her, I also worked on the way she approached work – especially as it negatively affected her level of stress. What did we do?

• Took 30 mins minimum for lunch – every day. This may sound like a simple thing, but she had gotten into the habit of eating at her desk – while she caught up on voicemail, emails, etc. - and so had no break from her day.  By “forcing” her to look up from what she was doing, she quieted her mind enough to take it out of gear - and sometimes found that she got things cleared up easier as a result.

• Took a walk whenever we could. When we had to discuss a matter, and the weather cooperated, we’d take a 10 min walk outside while we had our talk.  We’re not talking 3 mile hikes - just a quick turn around the building perimeter.  This was in an industrial park next to the railroad – not the most scenic of areas – but we both grew to appreciate the flowering weeds that refused to die even though they were regularly run over; the patterns in the gravel after a hard rain; and the bite of the wind or the heat of the sun as we walked and talked. This momentary focus on nature always left us both refreshed, and the brisk walk got our blood flowing again. [I had often envied smokers who got to go outside every 2 hours for a smoke break; and saw no reason why non-smokers should be deprived of seeing outside weather... so had implemented something similar in two previous companies also, which had worked well.]

• Wrote down a task list. Previous posts have talked about the need to write an ‘accomplishment’ list; but for this case, we simply emptied her head of the stuff that was swimming around there, in order to make room for cognitive thinking. Accordingly, we set up a task list that worked for her, and once she finished something, she would cross it off (and get that feeling of accomplishment that we all get when something gets off our task list.)

• Keep a pad/pen next to the bed. One of her problems was that, once she was lying in bed and relaxing, things that she’d forgotten to do would pop into her head. In order to ensure that she didn’t fret about it all night, she started to keep a pad and pen next to her bed so she could jot it down – and then let it go.

While this list is not rocket science, it worked. She started to enjoy her lunch time as a ‘work free’ zone, running errands or (gasp!) taking an hour to meet a friend when she wasn’t in the cafeteria, reconnecting with employees; and as she continued to take her walks, she invited others in the company to walk with her, so everyone started to benefit from the small break; best of all, she started sleeping more soundly once we figured out how to empty her brain from all her worries.

What techniques have worked for you? I’d love to compile a great list!  Please post your ideas here!

our friends at Inc.com have listed five ways to improve quality - and also have linked an article that goes into more detail for each tip.  Give it a read, and see what you think!

Technorati Tags: Inc magazine, tips for quality

Have you ever been frustrated because no one except you seems to be worried about a deadline?  Or, everyone seems to be uptight about a deadline that you think you’ll make with no problem?  This disconnect comes about as a result of not sharing the same sense of urgency for the task.

How do you avoid this?  I know the answer seems simple - better communication.  But how do you achieve better communication?

I ran into this problem recently with a group of folks I was trying to coordinate.  The person who hired me told me about the project.  He had set a very tight deadline with his client, and needed our assistance to make this deadline.  Because I knew more intimately all the steps that we’d need to do in order to make this deadline, I went into “HIGH” mode from an urgency standpoint - working that weekend to have things laid out by Monday when his staff would come into the office, as an example.

What did I forget?  To verify that the client was also aware of the workload, which things had to be done serially vs. parallel, and how long I thought it would take.

What was the result?  The client took their time about getting documents to me, did not return my phone calls for 2-3 days, etc.

Once I realized what the problem was (my lack of communication on the full, expanded task list with timetable), I rectified this, and we were on the same page again (and I was getting my info in a timely manner).

When have you had a problem with communicating the urgency (or lack thereof) for a project?

Technorati Tags: communication, important, urgent

I recently delivered my updated Time Management class to a branch of the Federal (US) government.  During this time, I always review the course materials and see if there’s anything that needs to be refreshed or updated.  One of the things I talked about briefly, and probably will expand upon during the next go-round, is setting priorities.

Sure, we talked about it some; how everyone writes a “to-do” list instead of a “results needed” or “things to accomplish” list; and some attendees even said that they were going to switch from writing down tasks to writing down what needed to get done, and then how they would accomplish it.  That’s a great start.

What are the best ways to set priorities?  It turns out, it depends on who you ask:

Covey - Quadrant Method

Pareto - 80/20 rule

For many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Business management thinker Joseph M. Juran suggested the principle and named it after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed in 1906 that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population; he developed the principle by observing that 20% of the pea pods in his garden contained 80% of the peas. It is a common rule of thumb in business; e.g., “80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients.”

Pairwise comparison

Determine what you need to do, and then ‘vote’ which you do given the list.  Let’s say our list states

1) get food for dinner

2) clean pool

3) work on proposal

You say which you’d prefer to do by voting:

1 vs 2 - 1

1 vs 3 - 3

2 vs 3 - 3

so your prioritized list is #3, then #1, then #2.

There are literally dozens of methods for setting priorities.  A quick scan into any search engine will show you these in detail.  Which one should you choose?  The one that works for you.  That’s why I present multiple tools in class - I ask students to find a tool that makes sense to them (logical for them, not onerous to use) - and then to start using it!

Technorati Tags: Time Management