Dates, Times and Your Bottom Line New Priorities Bring Success
Dates, Times and Your Bottom Line
One of my long-term clients and I were working on some communication and conflict challenges within the technology
department of his organization. During one particular meeting, I was listening as the Director of Technology talked
with his staff about missed deadlines, re-doing work, and not being efficient with their time. He described a problem
that sounded fairly common. Basically, his tech staff, which consisted of 18-20 people, was having difficulties getting
their wide area networking (WAN) and their local area networking (LAN) plans completed on time. As a result, larger
projects would go over budget and miss deadlines, future ordering of essential components wasn't getting done in time,
and manpower wasn't being utilized effectively. As an afterthought, the Director also noted that the crew who maintained
the WAN and LAN networks was also suffering. They were having a hard time planning, due to the inconsistent time frames
presented by IT. Clearly, some things needed to change.
When I met with this Director and his management team, they all seemed to have a very good understanding of their field.
All present had years of education and experience and were highly regarded within their industry. These were obviously
smart people who just needed a bit of help to clean up their use of time and improve their communication. The specifics
of their dilemma weren't solid yet, so I agreed to observe and possibly co-facilitate at their upcoming yearly planning
meeting which was scheduled for a few days later. Perhaps, with information from that meeting, my input could help them
refine their time and efficiency issues. Since we had already found success with our other projects in their organization,
they gladly accepted my observation skills in this area.
The yearly meeting started with people talking about short- and long-term projects. No one actually had calendars out.
They were just talking, it seemed. But, very soon, I realized, few if any people were writing things down. I heard
comments like, "We are going to try and have those switches in by mid-July." Or "We are going to get those servers
installed by the end of June." After a short while, I asked if I could offer some suggestions and they agreed.
I got a flip chart and a big calendar and asked people to be precise with their dates and times (i.e., not "mid-July,"
but specifically when: the 14th? the 16th?). When I heard, "I will have that switch at location X by July 14 at 4pm,"
suddenly people started to communicate. One person said, "No. We can't do it on the 14th because we will be at ABC location
on that date." Adjustments were made and charted in the moment for all to accept or dispute. People immediately got their
personal day planners out and started talking about precise times and dates. As a result of these two small but invaluable
techniques (writing down what was said and aligning calendars), the department members were communicating their needs and
expectations much more clearly. I heard these types of productive comments:
"If we are going to have ABC project finished by
June 10th, then we need to order the components by
April 1st."
"I am going to take my vacation on June 18th. I will
need to start that project by June 1st, so I can have
everything finished for me to fix any unknowns before
I leave."
"I will be out of the county working with Mr. EFG on
the 8th, so if you have the system all connected by
then, I can be back on the 9th to help you run the
tests and double check the system."
I didn't know much about technology, so much of what they said to each other was in a vocabulary foreign to me, but I
could see clearly how their levels of stress and confusion were reduced as they used these structures. They agreed they
had made great headway that day by adopting these basic communication structures. They agreed that they valued - in the
moment - being precise with dates, times, and staffing commitments.
All that was left for us to do was to practice these new structures across environments and continue to measure the
outcomes. The results of that first meeting clearly reinforced the value of writing things down and checking for consensus
on commitments. So when the whole department met with me again two weeks later, our topic was to discuss any additional
successes and challenges they were facing with timelines and communication. At that next meeting, we learned what had
worked (charting, being specific and writing down staff commitments at large group meetings) and what didn't (sometimes,
when conversations dealing with timelines and communication were more casual, there was a belief that just putting off
using these strategies until later that day would be okay). But, it was mutually discovered in that debriefing meeting
that old habits do take a while to change and it would take real practice to remember to use these time and communications
structures in every setting, every time. The main thing they learned was to be precise about timeframes, get things in
writing, and talk with each other, often.
New Priorities Bring Success
Some weeks later, when they regrouped with me again, it was clear that there was direct connection between their new habits
and the improvements of their bottom line.
Their success was clearly due to their willingness to pay attention to the details in the moment. Because they had decided
to prioritize those two minutes of time here and there throughout their days for setting clear timeframes, calendaring their
agreements, and checking in with each other, they had saved themselves countless hours of repeated work. Their Director was
very pleased, as were they. This realigning of priorities (stopping in the moment to write down agreements and timelines
and not procrastinating in this area even for seemingly minor events) had significantly lightened their stress loads. They
improved their bottom lines, keeping on target with their many and varied deadlines. They were up to date with ordering. The
crew that maintained their networks appreciated their new reliability, and their highly skilled workforce was focused and
ready day in and day out.
By all measures, they were back to being able to do what they did best: getting IT done.
