The Leading Question Article Series

Did You Accomplish All That You Wanted To In 2005?

Do More By Doing Less in 2006.

So, what are your New Year’s resolutions? It’s a question almost universally asked during this time of year. Changing the calendar traditionally represents an opportunity for examination and reflection on what we accomplished or didn’t accomplish, as individuals and organizations, and what new things we can start doing to improve our performance during the coming 12 months.

In many instances the New Year also coincides with the beginning of an organization’s performance review cycle or fiscal year and is often a time for measuring our organization’s performance against our goals - did we get our electronic records initiative fully implemented? How about our enhanced patient care program? Did we provide enough support for our hospitals? Did we do enough to enroll our doctors in our strategic decision-making? The answers to questions such as these invariably put more things on our "to do" list, and the cycle repeats itself, year after year.

What’s wrong with this picture?

One practice we teach our clients is to slow down and focus not only on what you may not have accomplished during the preceding year, but why. What got in the way of increasing patient satisfaction? What distracted you from implementing an electronic patient records system? What caused you to unconsciously move exploring new growth initiatives to the backburner?

Many times leaders will find there are projects that aren’t working out the way they had intended or that some projects or activities are disproportionately using time, talent, and resources. And in almost every case, we find that many organizations start new projects and initiatives without ever "sunsetting" the old ones, thus diffusing focus and energy away from top priorities.

I suggest you have two lists – a "To Do" list of the most important projects and actions that will support your business goals and a "Stop Do" list – a list of those things that you will stop doing because they no longer add value or distract time, money or resources away from higher priority projects and activities.

Just as good personal time management depends upon dropping low priority items in favor of more important things, organizations, especially in this time of resource constraints, must uncover and drop activities that are no longer necessary or adding value to the organization.

We have found that most large organizations, especially in healthcare, are influenced by Newton’s First Law of Motion – namely that "objects (i.e. projects, activities, initiatives) in a state of uniform motion tend to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to them."

Leaders must act as that external force, regularly examining and challenging the useful life of projects and activities and reprioritizing to keep their senior teams free to pursue the opportunities that are of the highest priority. And when projects have run their course or the original circumstances and requirements have changed or been met – stop doing them.

What are some of the signs that a project may be a candidate for your "Stop Do" list?

• No conditions of satisfaction. Once the conditions of satisfaction have been met, the activity should be over or new conditions negotiated. Drop projects where there is no longer a clear understanding of the required result.
• Tasks that can be done by others. Are you pushing enough accountability and responsibility into your organization? Are there activities that can be handled (in many cases better and more efficiently) by the regions instead of the home office, and vice-versa?
• Busy work. Be courageous in addressing the real challenges in your organization instead of hiding behind popular, yet unimportant projects or activities.
• Tasks or requests that you should say "no" to. You have only a limited supply of energy and resources. Don’t be afraid to say "no" to projects that do not further your top goals.

If you began clearing away all of these extraneous projects and activities, how much more time, talent, resources would you have to apply to the really big ideas, the breakthrough thinking that will take your organization to the next level?

Slow down, refocus, and create a "To Drop" list of items that fit into the above categories.

If you are intentional about this simply, yet powerful exercise, you will find your organization getting more and better work done and next year’s answer to "did you accomplish all that you wanted to" becoming a resounding YES!

Have a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

For more ideas on how to increase the pace, success, and sustainability of change in your organization, please call 513-821-9580 or email me at michael@obriengroup.us.

Dr. Michael O’Brien
Founder & CEO
O’Brien Group