Creating The Time Literate Organization
September 2nd, 2010
This week we asked Karen Leland, president of Sterling Marketing Group and co-author of Time Management in an Instant: 60 Ways to Make the Most of Your Day to give us her thoughts on time literacy and it’s impact on organizations. Here then is an excerpt from her latest article in Chief Learning Officer Magazine.
A busy executive checks his e-mail on a PDA during a presentation of key findings from a major project. The harried head of a department texts under the table during a companywide staff meeting. A vice president of human resources takes a cell phone call and leaves the room while an important training session is taking place. Common occurrences in any company today — and all of them send the message that multitasking is to be expected and paying full attention is optional.
There’s a productivity crisis brewing, and it’s resulting in a dangerous struggle to find the time and energy to focus on critical business goals and priorities. It is, in fact, a crisis of time literacy — the ability to understand, manage, prioritize and use time within varying contexts.
In today’s 24/7, wired world, many businesspeople have lost touch with the principles and practices required to be highly productive. One study by the Families and Work Institute found that 50 percent of us are either handling too many tasks at the same time or are frequently interrupted during the workday — or both.
But, as it is with most company cultures, management sets the tone for how the rest of the organization will behave. It’s no different when it comes to time literacy. Executives and managers who model healthy productivity have staff who mirror their attitudes and actions. Those who don’t create a chaotic environment where crisis rules and stressed-out workers are the norm.
How can today’s well-meaning yet overwhelmed leaders walk the talk of time literacy and set an example? When all is said and done, the art of time literacy is really the art of decision making. It’s the courage to choose what actions you are going to take, when you are going to take them and how you will get them done. It’s about choosing your most important goals and prioritizing accordingly. As a start, managers can make sure to promote, model and train themselves and their staff in the best practices of time literacy.
To read the rest of this article and see what these best practices are read Karen’s latest article at Chief Learning Officer Magazine.
Nevermind the stuff that they need to be doing. Employees are wasting valuable company time by surfing inappropriate web sites (pornographic, shopping, sports, stock trading, auctions, etc…), sending/receiving personal email, talking to friends or family via online chat, downloading illegal software and music, etc.. how do you deal with this?
The strategy doesn’t hold good when two individuals are being paid lower salaries.
Time literacy is even more important today than ever, you’re right. Rather, it’s a better option for companies to pay more to a single person who is capable of doing both works. This not only improves turnaround times, but also efficiency in operations.
Hi everyone. I have a question for my fellow business owners and professionals. My client has recruited a technically brilliant employee whose skills are indispensable. In his previous role as a self-managed employee with a large company, he was allowed free rein to do everything from his technical work to ordering supplies, customer service, giving quotes, and paying accounts.
While his new role requires him only to use his technical skills, he can’t stop taking on these extra tasks (for which there are suitably skilled staff), thus causing a great deal of tension. Despite many counseling sessions, he still appears not to understand his new role. Besides developing a specific job description, what else can I do to get the message across?
In a paper published by the American Psychological Association: “Executive Control of Cognitive Processes in Task Switching”, authors Joshua S. Rubinstein, David E. Meyer and Jeffrey E. Evans confirm what logic tells us – multi-tasking is counter productive. You can download the paper as a PDF at http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/xhp274763.pdf or read the press release at http://www.apa.org/releases/multitasking.html.
Although multitasking turns out to be counter-productive, multithinking (another word of mine!) is a different matter all together. Multithinking is thinking about completely different issues or tasks at the same time.
Whether you multitask or not, you almost certainly have numerous tasks awaiting your attention at any given time. And it is inevitable that your mind occasionally turns to one task while you are working on another. A multitasker would be inclined to switch tasks at this point. I recommend you stick to the task at hand, but keep a notebook – or at least some paper – nearby when performing any tasks. (Indeed, if you’ve been reading Report 103 for any length of time, you will know that I recommend having a notebook with you all the time). When the mind turns from the task at hand to another task, simply note down your thoughts in the notebook. Then return to the task at hand.
This simple action does several things at once. Firstly, It allows you to maintain your focus on the task at hand. By making a note of your thought, you are clearing your mind of the distracting idea. This can only improve your focus on the task at hand.
Secondly, when the action of performing task A inspires an idea relevant to task B, it is very often the case that the idea is a creative one that would not have come to mind had we been focusing on task B. In other words, multithinking often inspires creative ideas.
Thirdly, if performing task A provides inspirations for task B, you may come across synergies between the two tasks; synergies which reduce your overall workload – and actually improve your productivity. Such synergies are best discovered through multithinking. Indeed, when ideas come to mind. Do not simply write them down. Try to draw links between your ideas for task B and task A.
Frankly, one of the best places to multithink is during long, crowded meetings. During many such meetings, I have filled pages of my notebook on ideas relevant to other tasks – and have still followed the flow of the meeting.
On the other hand, even as I write this, I have one notebook on my desk and another electronic one open on my computer – and I am slowly filling them both up.
So remember. If you want to be more creatively productive. Don’t multitask. Multithink!