Applying the 80-20 Law
Clarity of key objectives, ruthless in time management, and concentrating energies around only the activities that make a difference
Manage the “air traffic control system” of life. A number of planes are circling ready to land, and others are on the tarmac, waiting for your clearance to take off. Use your prioritisation skills to keep the airport operating. Your focus and clarity will help you juggle the competing demands of life, knowing which plane you need to bring down immediately, which can circle a few more times and which need to be given clearance for take-off. Your life success will not be the result of only one thing. It will be the result of juggling different planes, knowing which plane to bring down and which to despatch.
Rarely do things go in a straight line. Jack Welch of GE fame points out the need for follow up. The path from idea to plan to implementation to outcomes is not linear. Your plan will need constant adjustment. Keep alert to:
- first phase planning and the responses of your colleagues. Is there a real sense of commitment to make things happen? Or will you need to embark on more lobbying to “line up the ducks”?
- the second phase in which momentum is either maintained or lost. Check how things are progressing to pick up on any initial problems that require rapid resolution.
- the final furlong when others begin to lose interest and move on to other projects. Follow through to check that the details are being implemented.
Don’t confuse means and ends. Means are how you plan to achieve your goals, your ends. The end is what fundamentally matters to you. The end is what you want to achieve that will make a real difference to your life. Don’t be efficient about the means but haphazard about the ends. Know your goals, what they are and why they matter. And keep flexible about the means to attain them. Don’t lock yourself into a course of action, the means, that isn’t moving you closer to your end point.
Ready, aim and fire. Are you absolutely clear about your priorities? Don’t lock yourself into a life position with consequences which will make change difficult. Making a strategic life commitment is good, but only defensible when based on a clear assessment of your own personal capabilities, the life challenges you will face and the long-term goals you want to achieve. Don’t embark on a half-baked life strategy, attempting to achieve unattainable goals requiring skills you don’t possess. Think before you act. And then think again.
Take time out to see the big picture. Don’t strive to achieve your immediate objectives, concentrating your efforts on the “one thing” you see as critical to life success, if you’re not absolutely clear about what it is. Switch off for a few days. Give yourself some time and space to do nothing apart from think about what ultimately you’re trying to achieve and the kind of life you’re living to attain it. Forget past investments. Don’t lock yourself into goals that have outlived their usefulness. Focus on the future and be clear about what it means for you.
“Life is what’s happening while we’re busy making plans.” Don’t become so preoccupied with a single goal you lose your spontaneity to respond to the enjoyment of the diversions and distractions of life. Keep alert to the sense of the possible in life rather than become preoccupied by your original game plan.
Enlightened trial and error outperforms the planning of flawless intellects. Experiment, pilot, evaluate, then launch. Your blue print of the future may have worked through every eventuality and contingency. Or maybe not. Before you implement the grand master plan, conduct a pilot (not the kind which loads the dice in favour of a positive outcome) but a real practical experiment to put your ideas to the test. And evaluate the impact of your plans. Keep trying new stuff, evaluating and fixing, and trying some more.
Others don’t share your priorities. You might be clear about your own priorities but others – your boss, colleagues, partner, friends - might have very different objectives, objectives that will clash directly with your goals or will distract you from doing what you see as much more important. Don’t allow competing goals undermine your own efforts. Be prepared to negotiate to agree a way forward which gives you the freedom to maintain your purpose. And be explicit in outlining the outcomes you expect of others. Be clear about what you do want. And keep communicating and clarifying your expectations.
Manage your “boss”. We all have a “boss”, the individual who is the final arbitrer of our effectiveness and impact. It may be your line manager in the formal organisational hierarchy. Or it may be your biggest client, bank manager, partner, etc. Your priorities may not be their priorities and their agenda may be very different to your plans. Manage expectations proactively. Don’t make assumptions about what you think is or isn’t important to your “boss”. Check out their assumptions to come to an explicit understanding of expectations and negotiate a working arrangement that is good for both of you. Remember that your “boss” is your “boss” because they have the power to make your life more or less easy.
Rewrite your job description to stretch your responsibilities. No one will praise you for doing your job. Don’t hold your breath waiting for a big thank-you. You will be admired and rewarded for the “extra mile”. It is the additional stuff that gets you noticed. Get on top of the basics of the role but don’t get bogged down in the maintenance activities of your role. Keep pushing the boundaries to take on those activities that will help you stand out from your peers.
Recognise and reward the talented. Motivated, smart and energetic colleagues are the quick route to life success. Know who these people are. Don’t be fooled by the impression management tactics of the lazy, stupid and scheming. Identify and manage the talented. Recruit them, reward them and retain them. Don’t find yourself spending time on the “problem children” and neglecting the needs of your best people. Direct your efforts around your high performing staff. Don’t take them for granted, assuming they will always keep performing for you.
Move on the “mad, bad and sad.” Your life success is dependant on the talents and achievements of others. But you will encounter individuals who, if ignored, will make your life difficult:
- incompetent: lacking the basic intelligence, common sense or street smarts to do anything much apart from work within set limits and close supervision. In the end, these individuals are too high maintenance to support for any length of time. They may be nice people but in the long run will demand too much effort from you.
- lazy: those whose creativity is best displayed in finding reasons to avoid doing any work. These individuals become exhausting and will undermine the morale of other team members.
- scheming: the ambitious who devotes more time to planning their next career move and your downfall than making a decent contribution. Managed well these individuals can be major contributors within your team. They want to impress. But usually they are too high risk to ignore for any length of time. Confront them or get rid of them.
- neurotic: those employees whose behaviour is so bizarre and weird that no one (colleagues or customers) wants to work with them. Don’t go near them. They are too unpredictable and hazardous.
Keep a detailed record of work issues for each individual. Remember that they will noting down their grievances. Provide regular and specific feedback. And don’t hold back in the formal performance appraisal process. Make it clear that their contribution is unsatisfactory and needs to improve. But if the formal personnel procedures are proving too exhausting to work through, then restructure your work area. Establish new roles with a different set of responsibilities and duties to change the staffing mix. And remove those individuals with the potential to jeopardise your career well being. However bad you feel at the time it will be worth it in the long run.
Manage high impact meetings. Meetings make our hearts sink, with the recognition that we will be drawn into an awful combination of tedious discussion, childish bickering and unproductive effort. But meetings, organised for the right reason, run in the right way, involving the right people, have huge potential to get the key issues on the table for resolution and energise and stimulate creative thinking about actions. Remember the ground rules:
- know the purpose of the meeting. Be specific in the expectation of outcomes. Don’t allow meetings to become routine updates or briefings. Always have a set purpose based on a specific issue. There are lots of other ways to keep people informed.
- hold meetings at the end of the day. Because everyone wants to get home, contributions will be focused (the exception here is brainstorming sessions which need to be scheduled earlier in the day)
- start on time. Don’t wait for latecomers, however important they or others think they might be. Don’t reinforce bad manners.
- make your meetings memorable. Vary the agenda, format and style to keep everyone on their toes. Don’t let them become dull or routine.
- follow up quickly. Don’t assume everyone shares your understanding of what was agreed or is going to be happen next. Ask each individual to summarise the key messages and actions from the meeting. Establish clear accountabilities for action and review progress at the next meeting. And be prepared to “name and shame.”
If in doubt about the value of meetings, stop holding or attending them, and see what happens. www.effectivemeetings.com
Know what to do next. You’ve finished one task. Don’t pick up the next thing on your desk. Take a minute to stop, think and decide. What is the highest priority task that, if achieved, will advance your goals? Then do it.