July 9, 1997

Searching for the time to add value

By CLIVE SHEARER
Management and Marketing

One of the main complaints in offices today is that time is wasted. But time is an irreplaceable resource, a constant over which we have neither influence nor control. What can be wasted, however, is effort and opportunity.

Most time in the workplace is spent on mundane activities, much of which adds little value to the end result. Writing letters that confirm a conversation,controlling scopes of work, tracking budgets and schedules and monitoring production are all vital business practices, but are usually carried out using standard procedures by means of a checklist, or worse, by default.

As much as I endorse the merit of standard procedures and checklists, they do tend to inhibit creativity, the very creativity that can add value to the end result.

Be aware, however, that creativity can be risky. For example when you are next taking a commercial jet, and the pilot goes through her FAA mandated checklist prior to takeoff, you would not want her to suddenly become creative. It is stability and reliability that you are looking for at that point. So a balance between adding value, and maintaining stability and reliability is important. Work carried out in a perfunctory manner may stem from the worker's perception that there is no pay-off other than getting the work done.

Most managers are reactive, jumping from task to task, and paying attention to the most recent request, need or event. Instead of keeping focus on the high value tasks their use of time loses focus and they become largely ineffective as managers -- somewhat like puppets controlled by circumstances, instead of puppet masters pulling the high value strings.

If you keep thinking about adding value to everything you do, whether it is in your personal life or at work, you will amazed at the incremental improvements that gradually emerge. And you will find that the time it takes to do high quality work can be reduced. This may not only add value to the end result, but it adds small bites of value to your operation, and often to your life.

But let's now focus on the opportunities to add huge chunks of value. These opportunities are often not recognized as they too are perceived as mundane. One occasion occurs during planning. To grab the value one must take "what if" mental leaps. When a chess grandmaster studies the board it is not just the next move that is being evaluated, the grandmaster is considering the opponent's range of possible responses to a move three or more steps away -- and every move is taken in the light of the overall strategy of the game.

This is how we must plan work.

Another opportunity is when you encounter a problem. Again, the solution may be a simple fix or a repair, but a treasure chest of value comes from going beyond the simple fix by looking at the big picture, finding causes and resolving the situation in a way that will prevent that problem from arising again.

Many readers may be thinking, "I don't have the time to do anything other than fix the problem."

The result of this perception is often rework, undoing, often at great cost, what was poorly done the first time. These resurfacing difficulties are like a u-boat that you failed to sink coming back to torpedo you.

Remember that half-hearted repairs to fix one aspect may worsen another, such as a pipe repaired at one location that springs a leak at the next vulnerable spot --one which is much more inconvenient to reach than the first location.

So it comes back to an acceptance that both time and quality are the overriding issues in business today, and this means that you should think about actively controlling time as much as you do quality. And this does not just mean telling your staff to do it faster, because then quality will suffer.

How about a Time Assurance Manual? This boils down not to just doing the right thing right the first time, which is reactive, but rather doing the right thing right at the right time. Doing the right thing at the right time -- simple as it sounds -- might take your organization to a new realm of success.

Previous columns:

• Don't wait for a fire to build a fire station, 06-11-1997
• Four reasons to stay with the firm -- or to leave, 05-14-1997
• THE DETERIORATION OF SYSTEMS OVER TIME, 03-12-1997
• FOLLOW UPS CAN MAKE OR BREAK A BUSINESS, 02-12-1997
• LEARNING THE RULES OF THE GAME, 01-08-1997
• 1997 REGIONAL ECONOMIC FORCAST, 12-11-1996
• BEWARE THE LURE OF MISSION STATEMENTS, 09-11-1996
• PHONE ETIQUITTE FOR THE CONSULTANT, 08-15-1996