An article on Forbes.com by Steven Covey entitled Work-Life Balance: A Different Cut provides some interesting findings on the inability of organisations to focus and execute on their highest priorities. The research is conducted by Harris Interactive and FranklinCovey consisting of 23,000 U.S. residents employed full time within key industries and in key functional areas. A few of their finding are that:
- Only 37% said they have a clear understanding of what their organization is trying to achieve and why.
- Only 1 in 5 were enthusiastic about their team’s and organization’s goals.
- Only 1 in 5 workers said they have a clear “line of sight” between their tasks and their team’s and organization’s goals.
- Only half were satisfied with the work they have accomplished at the end of the week.
- Only 15% felt that their organization fully enables them to execute key goals.
- Only 15% felt they worked in a high-trust environment.
- Only 17% felt their organization fosters open communication that is respectful of differing opinions and that results in new and better ideas.
- Only 10% felt that their organization holds people accountable for results.
- Only 20% fully trusted the organization they work for.
- Only 13% have high-trust, highly cooperative working relationships with other groups or departments.
Commenting on these findings Steven Covey states that:
“The bottom line is, when people are crystal clear about the most important priorities of the organization and team they work with and prioritized their work around those top priorities, not only are they many times more productive, they discover they have the time they need to have a whole life.”
The article provides the following four key disciplines that can go some way to addressing
- Discipline 1: Focus on the Wildly Important. This means you need to narrow your focus down to the one, two or three most important goals you must achieve. These goals are so important that if you don’t achieve them, nothing else you achieve really matters much.
- Discipline 2: Act on the Lead Measures. After you’ve narrowed your focus to the few key goals you must accomplish, you need to select the few key activities that are predictive of goal achievement and that you can influence on a weekly basis. These are called “lead measures.” These lead measures are 80/20 activities–that is, 80% of the results come from 20% of these activities. The 80/20 rule is also known as the Pareto principle.
- Discipline 3: Keep a Compelling Scoreboard. Once you’ve defined your goals and measures, you need to put them on a scoreboard so everyone knows all the time whether you’re winning or losing.
- Discipline 4: Create a Cadence of Accountability—a rhythm of team-based engagement and accountability.
As always, some great insights from Steven Covey….
Technorati Tags: Purpose, Meaning, Management, Vision, Leadership, Business, Research
Related posts:
drorengel (droren...
gdenni
{ 1 trackback }