You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘Priorities’ tag.
I put a whole lot of work into contracts during my career. More than I care to admit.
It occurred to me that it was a whole lot of time spent on something which rarely had to be used! I was working with partners, customers and suppliers, yet it was rare that we had to enforce anything. I never took anybody to court.
So what’s the point?
Read the rest of this entry »When I was in the corporate world, I experienced so much pressure to treat everything as high priority.
This is much too common. You start off listing tasks as A, B, C, then discover that most things are A priority so now you create A1, A2, A3 to separate them apart.
But then you see that most everything becomes A1, so you throw up your hands in despair. Or is it just me?
Read the rest of this entry »There are some horrendous fires going on in Nebraska right now, so it was the whole topic of discussion this weekend when I was talking with friends who are affected.
It reminded me of work that I did in disaster planning, and a conversation I had with my wife in 2013 when fires came within just a few miles of our house.
The question is: How do you possibly save what’s important? In fact, what is important?
Read the rest of this entry »Any time I see a “proposal” or “recommendation”, I cringe a little.
The problem is that this almost always entails adding work into whatever system we’re talking about. Want to improve marketing? Add more money, more people, more work. We should start this valuable program? More money, more work, more time.
That’s how we get overloaded.
Read the rest of this entry »When you get down to it, the most important things aren’t complicated.
You have a few things which guide your personal choices. Your organization’s purpose is actually pretty straightforward.
Now, you may DO a lot of things, and follow processes which have a zillion steps which contain many hazards. I get that.
Read the rest of this entry »The word “should” is a great alarm bell for drawing attention to the decision-making process.
I should get this done for my boss. I should take more time with my kids. I should drink 8 cups of water every day.
The problem is that each describes a situation where you’re giving up control over your decisions to an external force, usually a person. The question is: do you want to give up that control? Do you choose to?
Read the rest of this entry »22 years ago, the world came to a halt.
I expect that almost all of us remember where we were that morning, even those of outside the US. We had no words.
The important question, though, is: What did we learn about ourselves?
Read the rest of this entry »Our work is SO serious! SO important!
So can we allow ourselves a little fun in our work? Why not?
OK, so sometimes the work really is super serious. I want my surgeon to know as much as she can and not play around with my life. But even in this example, you’ll find that medical professionals often develop a wicked sense of humor, to take the sting out of the weight of their work.
Read the rest of this entry »We’re the absolute best at what we do! In the world!
Is that really true? And more importantly, is that what our customers and stakeholders need from us?
It’s good to step back and ask this kind of question periodically, because it’s easy to fall in the trap of trying to be the absolute best at something people don’t really care about.
Read the rest of this entry »The real world never lines up the way you’d like it to. There are always imperfections.
Of course, this is incredibly frustrating – even if you don’t think of yourself as a perfectionist.
This comes to mind because I’m currently working on a yearly budget. And I don’t dream in spreadsheets.
Read the rest of this entry »
The Values-Based Business 