Yesterday, my 7 year old daughter was doing her chores around the Mountain House. I set her up with chores a few months ago and she earns $5 a week for doing them. She loves being a "big girl" and participating around the house, and I’m sure she loves the paycheck as well.
As she was sweeping the floo
rs I begand to notice that she was more interested in the activity of sweeping rather than the actual end-result that one might seek from this task, which is clean floors. This reminded me of what I sometimes see in the corporate world.
Over the years my work has taken me behind the walls of many large corporations to work with their employees and managers in the areas of workplace performance, leadership, and strategy. Oftentimes, inside these companies, I see individuals who get caught up in their daily "to-do" list. This is a list that many people have learned to use to help organize their day’s activities in order to be productive. It’s a great concept but what can happen is that we get overly focused on the activity and doing the activity and we sometimes forget the end-goal, which is to get a result from that activity.
I find this happens to me sometimes too. I’ll make my "to-do" list and then begin crossing off items as I do them but then the goal of that item gets pushed to the back of my mind. Here’s an example of what I mean. The other day I had an item on my list to call a colleague. Well, I picked up the phone and called him, got his voicemail, left a message, and then crossed the item off my list. Yes, I performed the activity but I didn’t accomplish what I needed to with the call. Perhaps that’s an overly simplified example so here’s another one: A while back I was doing my taxes. I picked up the latest version of Turbo Tax, organized all my files and receipts, began plugging all of the appropriate items into the software, and once completed I clicked the "Finish" button. This button finalizes the tax returns and then prints them for you. Once I did this I promptly went over to my "to-do" list and crossed that task off, happily!
The tax example is a good one because I did a ton of work that day and for the most part I was finished with the ridiculous task of doing my taxes. However, I didn’t mail the Returns that day so from the perspective of the IRS I didn’t do anything. There was NO RESULT.
Years ago I might’ve thought that perhaps this was something only I did. But now I know that many of us allow ourselves to become overly honed-in on the activity rather than the end-result of that activity.
Managers inside of businesses suffer from this as well. They delegate tasks and activities to their employees without explaining the details of what that particular task is supposed to accomplish. Their employees will scratch that item off their list and move on to the next one and then say, "Hey, look how productive I am!" Being productive and efficient is one thing, getting results and being effective is another.
I don’t know, maybe today I’ll replace my "To-Do" list with a "Results" list.
"Most men would feel insulted if it were proposed to employ them in throwing stones over a wall, and then in throwing them back, merely that they might earn their wages. But many are no more worthily employed now."
- Thoreau -
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LOVE the idea of a results list. Actually started doing that last weekend and it really does reframe my priorities in a much clarifying way. Thank you, Joe!!