Management by objective, but the only objective is speed
Picture this scenario. The CEO, owner, senior manager of a business calls an urgent meeting of all senior managers and staff together. The objective is… a new website and social media strategy. He or she has recently discovered that this is what the next great trend in business is and “we can’t be left behind”.
The meeting is arranged with a very brief agenda distributed a few days in advance.
1) Our website and proposed update
2) The importance of a social media strategy
3) Plan of actions
On the day the one hour meeting consists of a series of dictums issued to the participants.
a) Contact a graphic designer within 2 days and have a report on the plans for the website by the next meeting which will be held in a week.
b) Research the social media phenomenon and again prepare a report with recommendations by the following week.
c) Preliminary launch date for the website is one month away.
d) The social media strategy is to be agreed and launched in conjunction with the website again in one month.
e) Allocations of responsibilities are agreed.
a. The sales manager will be responsible for the website launch
b. The operations manager will be responsible for the research on the social media strategy.
c. The CEO/Owner will make recommendations based on the reports generated and oversee the implementation of both strategies.
f) The meeting actions points are recorded and distributed to all participants in the form of an email.
The CEO/Owner is relieved as this was one of his/her action points on the to do list for a long time now and the sense of relief of now being able to strike it off due to a master stroke of delegation, is palpable.
Does this sound familiar? Do you think that this is unrealistic?
I don’t think so. All too often strategic decisions are not taken strategically but are taken quickly and speed of completion is the only real objective.
This inevitably leads to very poor execution and the start of the blame game, as each team member tries to deflect responsibility to another.
But it doesn’t have to be like this. Speed in today’s climate is over emphasised and consequently leads to a culture of poor execution and ultimately one of constant fire fighting.
The old adage still holds true today. Fail to plan, then plan to fail.
The starting point is a clear concise and mutually agreed goal, with a deadline that is realistic for all participants and for the skill/knowledge levels of all participants. Clearly in the case above giving responsibility for such a key project to people whose skill sets were not within the area of website and social media planning is risky, however coupling this with ridiculously short deadlines is practically a guarantee of failure.
Once the goal is clearly outlined and agreed. Then the process of putting together a clear plan of action is agreed.
Try using a very simple format of a project control sheet for example.
Include in this the project name, level of importance i.e. an A, B or C project. The start and estimated completion dates.
Below this have a Project description box, which outlines the purpose and goals of the project.
Then outline what information is needed before you get started. For example in this case what courses could be attended, books read, reports read, outside guidance required.
I find the use of mindmaps a very effective way of piecing together a complete picture of the project and the various facets of the overall goal to be achieved.
What supplies if any are needed in advance of a start?
Finally have a list of the steps for completion with a space for the completion dates alongside.
List every activity that needs to be completed. List them in order of importance and in order of sequence. Agree on realistic dates for completion and put these target dates in the team’s diary as a reminder.
At your weekly review meetings you now have a clear focused approach, which will lead to significantly higher effectiveness and clarity for all concerned.
In summary speed for speed’s sake is counterproductive in so many instances and leads to poor quality work and execution. Everyone wants to get their high value tasks completed but the consequence of poor planning is generally last minute fire fighting and increased stress levels not to mention very poor productivity. Typically it can result in a 50% increase in the time taken.
My mother always used to say “more speed, less haste”. I ignored her then. Experience has shown me that these are indeed wise words.
Best of luck
Ronan
