The other day a senior executive with whom I was working told me that one thing he strove to do was turn “make work” projects into “make work for you” activities. One example: the performance review. For too many organizations, performance reviews are onerous activities that managers and direct reports go through because they have to, not because it adds value to the organization.
The opposite was true with this executive’s company, where performance reviews were tied explicitly to performance metrics themselves tied to corporate objectives. His company had managed to keep the review from becoming another pro forma exercise.
This lesson has merit for every manager struggling to optimize operations, especially at a time when managers are continually challenged to do more with less — fewer people, fewer resources, and less time. Sometimes you can find points of leverage by finding ways to turn what some perceive as useless activities into productive ones.
Here are some suggestions.
Itemize what you do. Do a task assessment to identify how people are really spending their time. They may be working hard, but are they doing what the team needs them to do? How much time are they spending on processes — and which processes? Sometimes we are so busy with tasks that we lose sight of the big picture.