Procrastination is a Killer

One of the things that I study in improving processes is how people work. And one of the ways in the past that I have affected change is to lead by example. But I won’t be in the offices where I consult enough to affect that kind of change, but obviously, I will continue to see people display professional behaviors that are counter-productive.

Each individual’s professional behavior is important in that they contribute to the overall behavior of the organization.

I want to handle these situations with both directness and tact. I think that means it has to be understood that this kind of behavior critique is part of the package and an invaluable service. A method for disclosing such problems to the staff member involved and to management must be agreed to, along with assurances that management will provide behavior modification assistance without judgment. There will be many specific examples.

Although the client is always right, it would be best if you didn’t feel like you couldn’t tell them what you think, honestly and directly.

When I see an office with:

To do lists with “Handle it One Time” tasks on them that go uncompleted;

Phone calls that are never returned;

Packages that aren’t sent for two weeks, until their mailing becomes URGENT;

E-mail messages regarding on-going business not read for several days;

A constant backlog of work that you just stay ahead of;

A standing unfinished “special project” -

I am looking at an office that is locked into a cycle of procrastination and doomed to work every day in a reactionary mode. The workers will be stressed and feel vaguely dissatisfied with their work. Innovation will be limited; processes will not be improved, lists and other documentation will always be outdated, filing and other routine tasks will not be current.

So You Say You Want Results ? Back

And the funny thing is, it is the office that procrastinates the most that is most impatient with me about getting the work back to them.

One potential client had been working on an employee handbook for over a year. They had set multiple deadlines for completing and distributing the document, but had never been able to “wrap a bow around it.” Since desktop publishing is part of Werecat’s repertoire, I immediately put it at the top of an Initial Deliverables List.

The potential client also questioned when I proposed a 60 day time frame for the deliverables. “People want results.” They said they could probably go to Arthur Andersen and get the work done within 30 days, at the price I was quoting for 60 days. I said I could offer a 30 day time frame.

Nearly 30 days passed while we negotiated, and in the end, they decided that they were going to use their internal resources to get the work done.

Right.

If the internal resources were going to do the work, it could have been completed during the 30 days that we negotiated.

A contract with Werecat offers:

A fixed cost for guaranteed completion on every project.

The highest quality in every aspect of project completion.

Satisfaction guaranteed on every project.

Suggestions for Changing from Procrastination to ProActive: Back

Returning Messages

Not returning messages, e-mail or voicemail, is not cool. It is simply good business to be able to tell someone when you will call them back, and to call them back at that time. Or have someone call them. You should always call back, even if you don’t have the answer. It’s disrespectful not to call. And when the inevitable business delays crop up, you’ll be like “the boy who cried wolf,” and they won’t believe your explanation.

And you can’t say that you don’t mean it that way. It doesn’t really matter what “you mean.” Just change it!

Try learning to ALWAYS CALL BACK. Don’t say you will if you won’t. It’s just not good business processing.

Handle It One Time Tasks

I loved algebra. It shaped who I am. It taught me to love logic and to understand that there is an order to the most complicated equation.

The importance of Handle It One Time Tasks can best be described by a story problem and an equation.

The Problem

Late on a Tuesday afternoon, a manager remembers he has a package that needed to be shipped to Oklahoma. It’s after 4:00 p.m. and his secretary is gone for the day. It really can’t wait until tomorrow. He told the recipient he would ship it 2 weeks ago. It must go out overnight, tonight. At this point, it’s crucial.

The best solution would be for him to have mailed it for himself.

See, it takes time to think about doing something. And it takes time to ask someone to do something. And it takes time to do something. The equation looks like this:

where:

T=The length of time spent Thinking,

A=The length of time spent Asking,

D=The length of time spent Doing the work and

C=The Completed task.

But the equation for our story problem looks more like this:

Assuming:

That you think about it twice a day (28).

That you talk about it every other day with your secretary – or someone else (7).

When the package is mailed after 2 weeks, the equation still looks like this:

That means when you “do the math”, it would have taken at least as much time to get the work done after two weeks.

Everything takes time. Thinking, asking, doing. Efficiency leaves more time to do other things. Or to relax, after the work is done.

And it is a joy to have the work done.

Other examples of Handle it One Time Tasks

Ordering Labels

Inputting your work hours into the payroll system

Answering a question left by voicemail or e-mail (assuming you know the answer).

To Do Lists

For the record, I am a strong proponent of To Do Lists. And since Handle It One Time Only tasks are the kind of work that will eat up your workday, they should definitely go on your list, so you can see what you got done during the day. But they should go on the list and be immediately completed and crossed off. Back to the Top

Communication is Key

One of the more intangible things that we bring to any team that we work with is an emphasis on good communication. Although we’ve become accustomed to working with people in a much less open manner than what would be normal for us (basically, we think that once you are on the team, you should be privy to everything that affects your job), we believe in being clear, accurate and thorough. When you believe in ABC…Q, you want to avoid having people experience a sense of confusion about what you are saying to them.

To start with “Don’t say what isn’t true.” If you don’t know the answer, the best answer is “I don’t know.” You can say you’ll find out, you can say what you think, you can say what you heard; but unless you’re sure you know don’t say “I know.”

Next, don’t be afraid to say, “I can’t talk to you about that.” Since we do work in a culture that values secrets, I often find that I know things that others don’t. And if you evade people or tell them “I don’t know,” and later it turns out that you did, you just weren’t supposed to talk about it, the person will see you as an evasive, not as someone who didn’t betray a confidence. People experience evasiveness personally, and may not be able to separate that personal impression with professional detachment. “I can’t talk about it” sends the clearest message.

And with regards to returning voicemails and email messages, try this for a rule of thumb: Always pretend that the sender is the CEO of your company, or a million dollar client. The old phrase “It’s a Small World” is truer in business than just about anywhere else in life. Today’s secretary may be tomorrow’s CEO. You never know.

You just never know. Back to the Top

Confidentially About Confidentiality

Recently, we had a potential client tell report that a staff member stated that one of our associates had asked that person what their salary was. The client said that this was confidential information that he felt it was inappropriate for our associate to ask for, since we were still negotiating contract terms.

As with most administrators, our associates have had access to so much confidential information, in so many places, for so many years, that it’s either relevant data, or it’s just clutter. In reality, people are really loose about their confidential information. Our associates have been inside some of the highest or most confidential levels of 20 different companies in the last 10 years, and have only been asked to sign 4 confidentiality agreements. Part of the reason for that is that people sense that their information is safe with our associates (see our References page). We’ve been privy to executive’s passwords, bank account information, board of director’s confidential information; known thousands of employee’s social security numbers; it’s all data. As stated before, it’s important if it helps us do the job; if not, it’s just clutter. And we’re all about Efficiency, with a capital E! Nothing unnecessary; no clutter.

Since we anticipate being privy to the most confidential information, Werecat associates are prepared to sign any confidentiality agreement that you require, at any stage of our relationship with you, even before a free consultation. Our standard contract documentation includes a CA; our commitment to maintaining your information’s security is secondary only to our commitment to providing excellent service.

Back to the Top

The Bells are Ringing

One area of productivity that we think is under-emphasized in discussing improving productivity is how people tick. So at Werecat we talk about human nature and behavior all the time. Some of us believe in a lot of metaphysical kind of stuff, like ESP and existence on a spiritual plain. And some of us are very traditional, even though diverse in our backgrounds. And one of the ways that we get around our differences to find a common viewpoint through story telling, whether from our own experience, or from our respective backgrounds. We find ways to describe our underlying philosophies through a lot of metaphors and parables.

One concept that we talk about all the time we call “ABC…Q.” The idea behind ABC…Q is that everything we experience in life occurs sequentially in time. In particular, in our relationships and contacts with individuals, whether in business or in our personal lives, events and conversations go along A…B…C…. Then, all of a sudden, we’ll experience an odd moment. An event or a conversation will occur that does not fit the sequence. That’s “Q.”

We may choose to fill in the gaps, based on our experience, or lack of experience with the individual. Or we may not, but continue to move forward, because as adults we understand that sometimes the information to fill in those gaps will come later, as we get to know the person or the situation better. Sometimes we are never told what fills in those gaps by the individual involved, and we either accept the gaps or fill them in with information we infer or guess.

But we always know and experience when an ABC…Q moment occurs.

And a little alarm goes off. A little bell inside your head. A tone that says “we hit a little bump in the road, there.”

In business, we find that these moments occur quite a bit. Everybody has an agenda; that is human nature. We all have a plan, and a goal, and we’re not walking around with that information pasted on our forehead. So, if you’re very attuned to and looking for direct communication from people in business (as we are), you are going to experience lots of ABC…Q moments.

We don’t shy away from these moments, nor do we dwell on them. We just store them away, as data, in our notes. And wait for future experience with and knowledge of the individual to tell us whether the “Q” is deception or privacy, or something else entirely. Sometimes they lead us to major areas of improvement. As one client said during an initial evaluation with an associate, “You’re a great devil’s advocate. You keep making me ask, ‘why aren’t we doing it that way?’.” We may never know what the bump in the road was, or even what it meant. But we know that something happened.

Your bells are ringing, too. Werecat will help you understand what they are saying. Back to the Top

Bettie’s Shopping Cart

A woman named Bettie took a part-time job at her local grocery store to keep busy and to make a little extra money. Among her duties was restocking. Although she was working alongside kids one-third her age, she quickly gained a reputation and a nickname, the Queen of Restock, because she was so fast. The young people came to her and asked what her secret was. She certainly wasn’t whizzing around the store at twice their speed. But somehow, she was always finished with her restock baskets more quickly than anyone else.

She told them. She had a system. She stood at the front of the store, before she began restocking, and organized her items into separate baskets for each section of the store.

So simple. So effective.

This is what we do, how we work. We’re always figuring out a better way to do the task at hand. And there is always a better way to do routine tasks. That is why there will always be a way for Werecat to help you.

One person recently described it as “always looking for a way to type one less keystroke.” “Everything you do is about efficiency.”

Not only do we ask the questions; we prepare and offer the solutions! And like Bettie, we’ll share our solution with you. Teach you how to use it. Help make you better equipped to be able to do it for yourself, with the next task. Back to the Top

Links

Home
Back to BIG
Jojosan Rules

In this Document

Procrastination is a Killer

So You Say You Want Results ? Back