Jan 24, 2009
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Choices, Management and a Tip on Productivity
A friend once commented that there are only two things we do our whole life: What we must do, and what we choose to do. The truth of this becomes even more significant when one takes an honest look at just how little of our daily activities fall into the first category. Our choices about what we do and how we do it determine nearly everything in our lives.
Time management and project management are similar in many ways, not the least of which is directly related to choices. In project management, the manager makes choices about the use of their own time, and also the use of time by the other members of the team.
Years of experience in managing people has reinforced an essential approach to management: to systematically remove the barriers affecting the optimum performance of the team. By choosing to spend time making the work of the rest of the team more effective, the project manager usually optimizes his or her own productivity.
Sometimes the barriers are small, seemingly insignificant issues that, like the butterfly effect, create negative impacts on productivity far out of proportion to the apparent cause.
At one job, productivity and working morale were greatly improved by simply placing message baskets on the outside of each office door. The team members were always a bit frazzled and distracted by the constant interruptions to their work flow as other team members dropped over to deliver and discuss whatever that team member was working on. It seemed that once a piece of paper was in a member’s hand, they would not let it go until it was dealt with. By instituting the baskets on the doors, hall traffic decreased noticeably, interruptions were nearly eliminated, and the quantity and quality of the team’s work improved dramatically. Team members were also much more relaxed, and felt more valued.
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