PURPLE YOUR PEOPLE: 15. Getting stuff done

SHARED FROM THE BOOK:

Purple Your People

Jane Sunley

15. Getting stuff done

 

            Most successful organizations go into planning overkill and spend so much time building strategy, budgets and KPI’s, and then beating their people into submission to deliver.

Cliché

If you fail to plan,

You plan to fail

            The world seems to move ever so fast now, and information flow is super rapid.  So, in order to be able to pick up opportunities without getting distracted or moving too far away from the strategic goals, organizations have to

-          Have strong strategic intent

-          Work out the non-negotiable in terms of

      -           achievement

      -           vision

      -           mission

      -           values

-           be flexible about the detail

-           prepare to veer off plan if situation dictates

A Goal Is

·        What you want

·        How you’ll get there

·        Actions (in manageable chunks)

·        When

·        How will you know

·        Measures and evaluates

 

Goals and objectives must be:

·         Aligned to the big picture so people know they are contributing to the greater vision

·         Understood targets and goals by people; communication is the key

·         Self-generated where possible, people are far more motivated to achieve goals they came up with themselves

·         Inspiring so people are more likely to push to achieve something exiting

·         Monitored so people know how they, their team and the organization are doing

·         SMARTER

®    S :  Specific

®    M:  Measurable

®    A :  Achievable (realistic)

®    R :  Relevant

®    T :  Timed

®    E :  Engaging

®    R :  Reviewed

            Things don’t go off track because people are bad or hopeless.  It’s usually because organizations make the goals so complex that it’s lost in the confusion.  Inspiring goals come from:

·         A great vision and values that people can be proud of

·         A sense of direction and purpose

·         Understanding the impact their contribution brings

·         Ownership (individual and team spirit)

·         Clarity (make it simple)

·         Activities people can relate to and become excited about

·         Easy ways to know how they’re doing

·         Knowing what it’ll be like once they’re got there

            The power of visualization is all about self-belief.  Skilled leaders point the pictures of success so that people are experiencing it before they event get there.  There are a few things you need to make sure to ‘make things happen’:

·         Prioritize by thinking about

®    Urgent and/or important

®    Short, medium, long term

®    Hard, medium, easy

®    Resource required

®    Quick wins

·         Chunk down

·         Set deadlines (always under-promise and over-deliver)

·         Organized resource

·         Doing it

Think ‘urgent/important’ grid

Say no, delegate or plan to do after important stuff	Do first - priorities
Do last -  or not at all; the nice to have	Plan to do before deadline

There are lots of techniques for managing time, and by far, the most important factor is self-discipline.  Personal focus and drive makes a world of difference when it comes to achievement.

 

10 top time tips:

·         Have a constant eye on the goals, priorities and outcomes

·         Brain dump that is to get everything out of the head and on to a list/diary/calendar

·         Invest in a PDA or notebook that can easily be carried around

·         Write everything down

·         Use the ‘urgent vs important’ grid

·         Bring tasks down to manageable chunks so that it’s easy to get started

·         Stop procrastinating, make energy and action the buzzwords

·         Be assertive about saying no and prevent interruptions

·         Ask for help

·         Manage expectations (under-promise and over-deliver)

            Delegation is where one person divests responsibility and authority for a task to another person.  The reverse of delegation is to micromanaged everything.  Managers sometimes don’t delegate because they believe they can do it better themselves; or they don’t want to ‘lose control’; or it’s just too much work to stop and explain.  People who don’t delegate will certainly miss out a massive opportunity to:

·         Win themselves more time

·         Develop others

·         Provide motivation

·         Build trust

·         Assist succession planning

Delegation should be:

·         A two-way ‘contract’

·         Properly explained (and understanding checked)

·         Properly resourced and supported

·         Safe and without undue risk

·         Monitored but not interfered with

·         SMARTER

One man’s boring task is another man’s stimulating challenge

 

The three (3) things to do:

1.      Set clear goals and communicate them,  learn to delegate and thus develop others

2.      Become a master of self-management

3.      Keep nothing in your head; use calendar and daily to-do list