Eliminate then Delegate

What am I doing that no one should be doing? What am I doing that is a waste of time, contributes nothing to where we are going, and is useless, busy work? Eliminate it. And while at it test for system failures.

Of the work that is left that I do what can I delegate to others that by so doing the output per person on my team increases? Delegate it.

Note the order. Eliminate first. Delegate second.

Be ruthless with time spent on what doesn’t matter or is diminishing the work of others.

Examine time qualitatively first, then quantifiably second.

System Failures

One of the possible causes of poor output per member of your team is the failure of a system or systems that you have in place to self correct. A system or process that requires constant reminders and enforcement doesn’t scale and tends to add labour and attention to adherence management rather than being a tool to free oneself to pursue work that matters and contributes. A process or system must be a multiplier of time quantitatively and qualitatively, and to achieve this it must be self correcting, self managing and self enforcing. If it isn’t, the system is broken and needs to be fixed or scrapped.

Minimum Acceptable Addition

When considering hiring or adding to your team consider what the output per person on your team is now, and what the output per person will be once you have completed the successful addition of the new person to your team. Output per person, not output of the team.

If the output per person remains the same, or worse, is lowered, don’t add. Only add when the addition is a multiplier of output per person. Add this validation to the completion of the addition. Test it. Make sure the hypothesis was and is correct. If the validation isn’t achieved fix it. Don’t accept it.

And, regardless of adding or not, test what you have by working backwards. Examine the output per person on your team as it currently stands. If you had one less person would the output per person decrease? It not, you have a problem with the productivity of the team you have. Fix that before you considering adding anything else.

They & Them

Everyone has a reason, probably a very good reason. We just haven’t taken the time to ask for or consider it.

We have ignored our responsibilities and consider them to be the problem. We find fault with what they have done or are doing and look for opportunities for blame and evidence of their ineptitudes.

Instead, take responsibility, look for similarity, understand underlying cause and effect, ask why over and over until deeply understood, and then seek alignment and synergy, mutual education and understanding.

Forget pointing at they and them. Point at you.

Flip Flop

Change your mind without hesitation as you follow the truth of the opinion you hold.

And… being the curious continual learner set the expectation that you will, more than likely, “change your mind”. Especially today, where change is the only constant. A constant that is increasing.