Martine looked at the agenda, then at the clock. No way. As everyone else continued to add items, she wondered how they would ever get through it all in one meeting. Back from her reverie, she spoke up.
"I have another item — decide what to address today, and how we'll ever get to the others in this lifetime." A few chuckles in the room. Humor always helps, she thought.
Peter, her best buddy, added, "Put down 'Extending my lifetime.'" More chuckles.
Figuring out which problem to address first — triaging the problems — could probably be on many agendas. Here are a few tips for setting priorities.
- Hunt like the lion hunts for zebra
- Zebras run in herds to confuse the lion. Since the number in the herd of problems you face is a problem in itself, work on reducing the numbers. Single out whatever you can, focus on it, and eliminate it. See "The Zebra Effect," Point Lookout for January 31, 2001, for more.
- Use the Pareto Principle (80/20 rule)
- Find out which 20% of the problems account for 80% of the costs, and focus on them first. Use the resources you free to address the rest. See "Don't Worry, Anticipate!," Point Lookout for October 3, 2001, for more.
- Apply the leaky rowboat model
- A rowboat with a leak above the water line won't leak. You can ignore some problems because the conditions that make them troublesome are provably absent. Address those problems later.
- Lighten the load
- When several issues
are equally urgent,
how do we decide
what to do first? - Some problems, if repaired, render others irrelevant. Perhaps you have some cargo, which, if jettisoned, will make the rowboat float high enough so that its leaks will be above the waterline. Addressing some problems can move others above the water line.
- Understand why the lottery works
- The Lottery works because we understand $30 million much better than we understand one chance in 50 million. Humans tend to overvalue consequences, and undervalue likelihood. Consider both consequences and likelihood.
- If you plan to re-sod the lawn, take advantage of it
- If you plan to re-sod your lawn, the fact that the patch over by the flower beds is now a mix of different grasses is no big deal. Don't fix what you know will be obliterated by an imminent upgrade.
- If you plan to re-sod the lawn, prepare for it
- In that same patch, re-sodding probably won't help if there are weeds with deep roots. Before you re-sod, get rid of deep-rooted weeds.
- Check the sod
- Make sure the sod has the right kind of grass and no weeds. Don't plant new problems.
- Remember Butch and Sundance
- At the top of the cliff, Butch proposes to Sundance that they jump to the river far below. Sundance is afraid because he can't swim, but Butch points out that the fall will probably kill them. Once you commit to a strategy, don't fret about issues that arise only if the strategy works. Go for it.
One thing to avoid: exhaustive inventory of all your problems. Get started — one of them might nail you while you're still counting. Top Next Issue
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Related articles
More articles on Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness:
- At the Sound of the Tone, Hang Up
- When the phone rings, do you drop whatever you're doing to answer it? Do you interrupt face-to-face
conversations with live people to respond to the jerk of your cellular leash? Listen to seemingly endless
queues of voicemail messages? Here are some reminders of the choices we sometimes forget we have.
- Should I Keep Bailing or Start Plugging the Leaks?
- When we're flooded with problems, and the rowboat is taking on water, we tend to bail with buckets,
rather than take time out to plug the leaks. Here are some tips for dealing with floods of problems.
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is not to be overloaded. Here's a contemplation of the state of overload.
- Heart with Mind
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we regard as unachievable. What are our choices when achieving the goal is difficult?
- Disjoint Awareness: Systematics
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understandings of what each other is doing. Performance management, politics, and resource allocation
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See also Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness and Personal, Team, and Organizational Effectiveness for more related articles.
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