We\u2019ve been trained to keep these lists of reminders to help us organize our lives. The assumption is that if I have more than one task to accomplish, I might lose sight of my objectives and fail to achieve every last thing that I might otherwise be able to do. Clearly as our lives become more and more frenetic and over-scheduled the risk of forgetting things might increase. But what are the things we tend to forget? Are they the more important things? Not likely. Besides, I always found my To-Do list kept growing and carrying over from one day, one week, sometimes even one year to the next in what often turned out to be a \u201cwish list.\u201d And what about the things I should drop from my list?<\/p>\n
Steven Covey helped revitalize the \u201cbusiness planner\u201d industry with his famous \u201cFirst Things First\u201d paradigm. He observed that time management was actually \u201cpriority management\u201d and developed the now famous \u201cfour quadrants\u201d of levels by which we can set and organize our priorities. He noted that is isn\u2019t that we tend to forget the most important things on our to-do lists. The problem is that fail to set aside the time we need to accomplish them due to the myriad events that fill our days \u2013 and unless we schedule these \u201cbig rocks\u201d as he liked to call them, first, there was no space to place them once the small rocks, pebbles and sand choked-off our lives.<\/p>\n
The social activist and public-space artist Candy Chang placed large chalk boards titled, \u201cBefore I Die\u201d in cities around the world \u2013 elevating the \u201cto do\u201d list to a level that reveals the sense of humanity and hope shared in all walks of life and in all corners of the globe and serves as a reminder that our lives need to have purpose and meaning. No one writes, before I die \u2013 “buy milk.” The problem with to-do lists is that they tend not to be either aspirational or inspirational. Living life with a mundane guidance system leads to a mundane life.<\/p>\n
I believe Covey was correct in both his observations and in the mechanics of the tool he created. But like any tool, it is only as good as the person who uses it. The suggestion that we can all effectively prioritize the use of our time based on assessing relative importance and urgency is flawed. If we all felt and believed the same things \u2013 perhaps such a tool could be made to work in everyone\u2019s hands. But we all have different values. And we all see priorities based on who we are<\/em>. What\u2019s important to you may not be to me. The measurement of \u201ceffective\u201d is entirely subjective. And when two or more people need to interact or cooperate the flaws in this system become fully apparent.<\/p>\n The theory that we function most effectively when we reduce urgency through planning and preparation \u2013 and by selecting what\u2019s important from what\u2019s not \u00ad\u2013 may be helpful in organizing our personal calendar. But the theory falls apart as an organization-wide system \u2013 unless those in the same organization have a shared sense of purpose \u2013 or a great worthy cause.<\/p>\n Organizing ourselves does not directly translate to organizational efficacy. If my personal sense of urgency is to take a nap, go out for a walk and a long lunch and head to the local pub as close to five o\u2019clock as possible \u2013 I might not be aiming to accomplish what others in the organization and in particular my boss might deem to be important. Interestingly, it often either goes unnoticed or is simply tolerated. Some people manage to turn being unproductive into an art form.<\/p>\n If a company\u2019s aim were to be a High-Performance Organization (HPO) \u2013 less than fully productive behavior and poor performance would be unacceptable. Unfortunately mediocrity and lackluster performance is pervasive in far too many organizations. HPOs discover that there is a direct correlation between having a great purpose and employee performance. People who believe they are a part of something larger than themselves \u2013 even larger than the company \u2013 are more likely to perform at a higher level. They tend to be inspired by the cause \u2013 and feel real satisfaction in accomplishing something they deem to be important. And that kind of real satisfaction generally outweighs long lunches or late afternoons with their alcoholic beverage of choice.<\/p>\n When people can\u2019t find satisfaction in their accomplishments they tend to reach for distractions instead.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n When people can\u2019t find satisfaction in their accomplishments they tend to reach for distractions instead.\u00a0Distraction might be the modern world\u2019s single largest industry \u2013 including the majority of what\u2019s broadcast on television, found on smartphones, played out in sports arenas, fills the pages of trashy novels, drives the internet and drives sales of alcoholic beverages. Companies that provide meaningful accomplishments to their people through their work may be doing far more to benefit their lives than enriching them with a paycheck. They may literally be saving people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n All companies must earn a profit to exist \u2013 but profit should not be viewed as the aim or purpose, but as a result<\/em> accomplishing what is accomplished based on what the organization is designed to do. And what we choose to accomplish matters. Companies that see profit as a result of achieving a truly worthy aim have a better chance of creating and insisting on an alignment of values among those who work together to create a high-performance organization that serves their collective cause.<\/p>\n Purpose is what creates urgency and importance in an organization. A day planner will not make anyone conscientious or our work meaningful, but having a great worthy cause guiding us will. It\u2019s not the cause that provides meaning \u2013 it\u2019s our interpretation of why a cause is or isn\u2019t meaningful. Leadership is what makes things necessary and possible in large part by helping supply and shape that meaning so that we have something we can align with. And that leadership may very well come from within us.<\/p>\n Causes, no matter how worthy, don\u2019t speak for themselves. This is why all causes require people to lead them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Causes, no matter how worthy, don\u2019t speak for themselves. This is why all causes require people to lead them.\u00a0It is leadership that conveys the meaning and purpose to others and creates followers by offering people an inspiring sense that something is worthwhile following or not. Leaders are the \u201cmeaning makers\u201d and manage the meaning that drives their organizations forward. Leaders make a case for the cause and inspire others to follow along with them.<\/p>\n While what is truly “worthy” is inherently subjective – I think most people agree that what is worthwhile escalates when what we accomplish benefits others – and at a very high level excluding ourselves from any direct benefit. The indirect benefit is how we feel about contributing to such a cause. Being charitable works that way. Personal greed might be an attractive proposition for some people, but few find material wealth alone provides sustainable satisfaction and happiness. Profit may be necessary \u2013 but it is not a great worthy purpose.<\/p>\n Task planning is a system \u2013 and all systems need to be operated and be maintained by competent people \u2013 or they will fail. Systems need to be effective and efficient in supporting whatever outcomes they are designed to produce or support. When they are not, they are what Dr. Lee Thayer describes in \u201cLeadership: Thinking Being Doing” as \u201cdumb systems.\u201d Systems that are difficult to employ or maintain, are marginally effective or have become antiquated over time all tend to frustrate competent, accomplishment-minded people. These dumb systems also tend delight those who are looking for excuses fore their poor performance. It\u2019s handy to have a faulty system to blame when we fail to accomplish our aims \u2013 especially those aims that are assigned to us as duties to perform. And even smart systems exposed to incompetent users will only make these people less competent \u2013 by expecting the system to either compensate \u2013 or by causing the systems to break down. On the other hand, smart systems, when kept out of reach of incompetent people, tend to increase the effectiveness of competent people.<\/p>\n Covey\u2019s \u201cFirst Things First\u201d quadrants might be a good tool when in the hands of competent people. Especially when working with competent leadership. If there are shared beliefs around what is urgent and important founded in a great worthy cause, prioritizing our attention makes sense. Knowing both what to do \u2013 and what not to do is a critical distinction. Focusing on the things that are important but not urgent allows us to improve our thinking \u2013 and create better habits. The tool can be the foundation of what I call a \u201cTo-Be\u201d list.<\/p>\n Competent people are dedicated to continuously learning and improving their personal performance in the roles they perform and the performance goals they set in order to accomplish what\u2019s necessary. \u00a0People who habitually strive to reach and then expand their potential don\u2019t depend on \u201cto-do\u201d lists to keep themselves on track. They may use lists for planning and to communicate objectives and priorities, but know at all times what they need to do and why they need to do it. When things are necessary we tend not to forget them. But they can benefit from \u201cto-be\u201d lists. These are personal development or learning plans<\/em>. They are extensions of their performance goals and define what is crucial to learn in order to constantly improve their competence in how they perform their role.<\/p>\n While to-do lists contain things like \u201cpick up the dry cleaning, stop for milk, get the kids at the sitter\u201d \u2013 the to do list speaks to the behaviors that cause us to understand the consequences of the tasks on the do list. Things like, BE: more organized, more selective with my time, more focused or less distracted, more discriminate in my thinking, more efficient, more kind, more aggressive, more caring, more direct, more honest, more loving. Rather than ask, \u201cwhat do I do?\u201d when we ask ourselves, \u201cwho do I need to be in order to do this\u201d \u2013 we can actually learn to accomplish what our roles in life demand of us. We all have multiple roles we perform. In the workplace we have our job, but perhaps also mentor, company evangelist or keeper of the cause. At home we might be spouse, parent, neighbor, friend or volunteer. And every role we play is a leading role in our lives.<\/p>\n To Most People, What\u2019s Important Really Means \u201cWhat\u2019s Important to me?\u201d <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n If I don\u2019t care about the things that you care about, we will rarely share any sense of urgency. We may work alongside each other \u2013 but never work together. It is when I believe that you care about the same things I do, and that those things represent a sense of a purpose that is greater than our individual wants or interests, we can see the real power human potential emerge. Creativity and innovation is unlocked. Cooperation and competition elevate our individual performance and we form High-Performance Organizations. High-Performance Organization do what they do better than anyone else, and improve every day and faster than anyone else, in order to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage \u2013 and then use that advantage to make a meaningful difference in the world.<\/p>\n We are all leaders \u2013 if simply for the fact that we lead our own lives by the choices we make. If you want to improve the way you lead your life \u2013 or lead your company, it is not the things you place and check-off on your to-do list that counts. It is constantly working on your \u201cto be\u201d list \u2013 in order to become the kind of person who can accomplish whatever it is you are aiming for. <\/em><\/p>\n ###<\/p>\n Phil Liebman earned his Master of Leadership Arts and Sciences at The Thayer Institute – studying High-Performance Organizations and Competent Leadership under Dr. Lee Thayer. You can learn more about what it takes to become a more effective leader and building and growing sustainable high-performance organizations by visiting ALPS Leadership at<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>www.ALPSLeadership.com<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We\u2019ve been trained to keep these lists of reminders to help us organize our lives. The assumption is that if I have more than one task to accomplish, I might lose sight of my objectives and fail to achieve every last thing that I might otherwise be able to do. Clearly as our lives become […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadership-matters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpsleadership.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpsleadership.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpsleadership.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpsleadership.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpsleadership.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12315"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alpsleadership.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12317,"href":"https:\/\/alpsleadership.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12315\/revisions\/12317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpsleadership.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpsleadership.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpsleadership.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpsleadership.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}High-Performance Organizations Save Lives and Are Not Run by \u201cTo Do\u201d Lists <\/strong><\/h3>\n
Putting Profit in Perspective: <\/strong>The difference between necessary and purposeful<\/strong><\/em>.<\/h3>\n
The Critical Need for Competence<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Unlocking Human Potential<\/strong><\/h3>\n