Whatever you do to manager your time, the most important mechanism you need is the mechanism to reject what you should not do. Many people obsess over tracking what they should do and fail because they just don’t realize what they need is a means to let ideas die, not to ensure the ideas come to fruition. How do you…
Category: Meaningful Management
The best way to get through a pile of stickies
There’s nothing as wasteful as doing what shouldn’t be done. Sticky notes with hair brained ideas make perfect fodder for the paper shredder. You should feel a sense of accomplishment feeding your shredder, especially if you haven’t done what’s on a sticky note to do, that should not be done. When staring at the sticky note, ask yourself, is this…
Robbing robs the robber
I saw this sign at a store in New York City a few weeks ago, reminded me of a beautiful lesson. When you steal, you have to justify what you’ve done to yourself, even if you don’t feel the need to answer to anyone else. In stealing you have two options for how you assess your actions: Denigrate yourself –…
Sacrificial budgeting
Routinely I hear people talk about industry benchmarking in terms of setting budgets. For example, if your competitor spent 5% of revenue on IT, or if most organizations your size spend $500K yearly on IT, and then you proceed to set your budget for IT at 5% of revenue or $500K. This reminds me of ancient rituals of animal sacrifice.…
How to avoid polarization
Our minds are hardwired to generalize and stereotype just about everything in life. It’s the blessing and the curse of the human mind. All of us do it, and if you think you’re somehow immune, well, therein lies the answer to how you can avoid it. What does generalization have to do with polarization? Generalizations lead to labeling. For example,…
Inadvertently hurting yourself
Most people find the idea of helping yourself in the process of helping others palpable. At least after they’ve had some time to reflect upon how they have changed as a person as a result of helping others in the past. But, what’s often not so obvious is the inverse of this principle. And people often disagree rather stubbornly. Here…
Value led budgeting
How in the world can you know how much to invest in something before you know what you hope to get out of it? Articulate the value of an initiative first, conservatively. Then, decide how much to allocate based on the expected value. And, if the value doesn’t surpass the potential cost, why bother with the initiative? Some people suggest…
It’s your fault for finding fault
When something goes awry we all have a tendency to seek out and place blame. Especially when a relationship problem arises. But, is blame a skillful means to remedy the situation? I constantly see people embroiled in it, I’ve been embroiled in it myself. We all have the tendency to blame. Unfortunately, blame is usually what perpetuates and exacerbates the…
The oft-overlooked problem with standards
If you struggle to set standards, chances are you haven’t considered what purpose standards will serve. Standards are the antithesis of flexibility. Standards are the centralization of decision making. The opposite of centralization is decentralization. Flexibility, naturally, allows for people to work independently. Keep the tradeoff between standards and flexibility–centralization versus decentralization–in mind when deciding upon standards. Never standardize without…
Let people know when they’re overdoing it
When someone has asked you to provide feedback, it’s easy to provide constructive feedback–what could be improved. Feedback to help them consider alternatives to achieve their goals. And it’s easy to provide praise–what was good. Sometimes it’s the feedback beyond these two types that can be the most helpful. Occasionally I see the opportunity to possibly lighten someone’s load. In…