WIZE TIME MANAGEMENT

DO – stop talking about it! Just get the job done!

How many times does Tom Peters have to say it? 

Are managers hard of hearing?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UyvJgOCS1w[/youtube]

I was amazed to see a video on YouTube with Tom Peters still preaching the same message, ‘Don’t talk about it – do it’.  And here we are decades later after Tom Peters first started delivering that message still on the same track of the same record!  What is it about managers who have learned that meetings are the be all and end all?  How is that efficient?  How is it cost effective?  Where are the economics?

In the health industry, it was meetings from morning til night.  I was drained.  I had never ever been in an environment with so many meetings to accomplish so little.  And yet people continued to meet day after day, week after week.  What a waste of valuable time and what a waste of the taxpayers’ money!   Yes, of course it is necessary to have some meetings but meetings on purpose for information, to address a problem, to find a solution or whatever but . . . there is no necessity to be in meetings day in and day out.  When does the managing part of the management job get done?  Yes, I know, that’s the hard part!

Imagine how much it costs to have a boardroom full of managers sitting around meeting and accomplishing nothing except scheduling more meetings – the cost is astronomical!  It was a habit in the health industry as it was in government and big corporations  - nothing more.  They truly believed that’s “how business is conducted”!  Of course, there’s a status symbol attached to it too – if you’re in meetings all day, you must be important!  Not.   

Let’s simplify this notion: 

Imagine if a farmer said to his/her family, “It’s time to plant the seeds but let’s talk about it first”.  Because of the numerous meetings, the seeds are planted late or not at all.  Where do you think we would get our food from?  Absurd to think about it, isn’t it because we expect the farmer to know his/her business, get the crop planted on time for maturity during the growing season.  Yet, we accept the notion of late planting or not planting at all in boardrooms – odd, isn’t it?

You don’t have to believe me – there’s a guru who knows the subject much better than I could ever.  I believed in what Tom Peters had to say when I first read his books.   I believe that, today, more than ever, his message must sink in especially in North America where we have seen a lot of shenanigans at the top but little in the way of productivity – a few getting extremely wealthy while thousands are losing their jobs!   Could you expect anything else when people are meeting just to meet – eventually, like little kids in an unsupervised classroom, they’ll eventually get into trouble out of sheer boredom – much more exciting to plot than to actually do work! 

Go, Tom Peters, go!  One day the message will get through . . . . we hope!

What’s the big deal someone asked me.  This person felt that sales are everything.  It doesn’t matter if operations run amok as long as sales are high. 

The logic here is:  “If I’m making a lot of money, it doesn’t matter if my kid buys a Ferrari every month and wrecks it.  The money is there!?  

No one in their right mind would say such a thing but when people say that “sales is everything and nothing else counts” then it’s tantamount to saying the same thing.  (yes, I know, it’s called marketing today)

Take Government for instance -   spend, spend, spend – there’s more where that came from – and our taxes go higher and higher and higher – and then the ingenious bureaucrats come up with all kinds of new ways to tax us so that we don’t notice like new sales taxes or new transit fees or taxes on gasoline.  Inch by inch our income is taxed in one way or another while government continues wasting money as is readily apparent to taxpayers.  Do you even hear of anyone revamping government and cutting out waste?  They cut out jobs – it’s not the same thing!  In fact, it’s worse!  Now we have a government taxing us more than ever, reducing services by having fewer people in places where the public is being served – on the front lines -  increasing senior bureaucrats’ salaries and politicians’ as well as adding more and more expensive  perks for certain people while maintaining wasteful practices – doesn’t make sense, does it?

In your business or enterprise  or non-profit, you tax your clients too in a way.  If your expenses go up, then you increase your prices to secure the profit you are looking to achieve.  However, unlike government taxes where there are no limits, there is a limit what a client will pay for your services or products.  Do you first look at increasing sales or increasing efficiencies?

Here’s an example.  A company had a massive amount of material had to be shipped for events.  Operations were in chaos.

Just on the shipments alone, and there were many, at least half of the cost could have been saved  if operational efficiencies had been the norm to prevent the need for last-minute shipments.  Imagine that – at least 1/2 the cost saved!  That translated to thousands and thousands of dollars needlessly spent each and every month!  But hey, sales were everything and the millions kept rolling in – who cares about a few thousand dollars here and there?

A lot of people protest – but my workplace is not like that.  Really?  Did you ever try to call your place of business anonymously and ask typical questions which clients or would-be clients would ask?  Did you ever follow an order from beginning to end?  Did you talk to past customers who didn’t return?  Many people are surprised at what they find. 

Ah, and sometimes, the “boss” sees there’s a problem, blames everyone in the company and fires  all managers and executives.  Get some new blood in there -  what a stupid idea!

At a cost of around $40,000 or more to hire a new employee nowadays, is that truly cost efficient?  No.  Why?  Because it doesn’t solve the problem.  The problem is the “boss” – the lack of cohesiveness within the company which this person should be bringing to the operations is not happening.  If the boss can’t or won’t do it, then someone should.

What will good operations provide?  It’ll save money.  It’ll make time consumption more effective. It’ll make your customers happier.  It’ll make your employees happier.  The company will grow logically and someone will be in control of hiring only the people absolutely necessary to enhance the operations.  The sales people will be happier because they won’t have to deal with unhappy customers.  And, the “boss” will be happier because the profits will be higher for less effort.

So, if this is so fantastic, then why don’t people make sure their operations are sound, efficient and effective?  Why indeed!

Someone was telling me that being a good steward of the environment was way too time consuming.  I was a little shocked since it came from a person who has a lot of time on their hands and often complains of being bored.

Awareness of your impact on the environment doesn’t take any time at all – it’s only seconds – a thought – noticing what you are doing.  For instance, are you throwing a piece of wrapping on the sidewalk?  Are you using bleach when another product would do just as well?  Are you consuming a lot of packaged food when fresh is better for you and the earth? 

Think of the examples above.  Everything that you throw away whether on the sidewalk, down the drain or in your garbage can ends up somewhere on earth – your earth!  Not Mars or the Moon or Saturn – but on the planet on which you live. 

Somewhere along the line, it’ll cost you a lot more.  Why?  You’ll pay to clean up the ocean because it already has miles deep of garbage floating in it and toxic chemicals – sooner or later, it’ll have to be cleaned up and who will pay for it – the taxpaper!  The land dumps are already overflowing and we find ourselves having to export our garbage – and who’s paying for that?.  And our rivers and streams are polluted and you’re already paying for the consequences of fish depletion.

And when you need to pay for more and more and more, you need to use up more and more and more time in order to earn the money necessary to meet your wants and needs!

So next time you eat something, think about whether it’s doing the earth any good at all or using up its resources.  And when you think of resources think of how much of your pay cheque is going to clean it all up!  Remember, the only money government has is yours!