Doing the Right Things

How often have you heard someone say, “I seem to be busier these days but don’t seem to get as much done.” Perhaps this is because the person has identified their measure of success as activities. Many of us do exactly that. We look at what we did today, I.e. made 20 phone calls; answered 35 e-mails; wrote 5 letters; and on and on. It was a busy day. Lots of activities. The question, however, is what were the results achieved?

It is critical to determine up front what measure will be used to determine success. The adage “if you can measure it you can manage it” has never been truer than in today’s fast paced business environment. Measurement is the only way to know whether we’re winning or losing in any given situation. The other option is to have no idea about how we are doing. Which would you prefer?

All too often employees, even ourselves, are asked to perform tasks for the sake of activity. For example, how often is a weekly, monthly activity report that merely gets filed when received, been asked for?
People have, for one reason or another, fallen into the trap of always doing what has always been done. To quote Einstein, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”

I get into this concept ever further in Chapter 2 of There Has To Be A Better Way. Request your copy as a comment or send me an email.