Why being busy can stop a business growing

“If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it” is apparently credited to Lucille Ball. It’s a lovely piece of homespun philosophy that’s actually completely untrue. I would suggest a couple of updates “If you want something done, you will eventually do it yourself “ or secondly “ask someone else to do it, but make sure it’s worth their while.” Everyone is busy, busy, busy and there is no way round it.

Technology was meant to make our lives easier; in fact, it’s been the complete reverse. Every new piece of business technology takes up more time, we never realised what bliss being unconnected was. Now, we are meant to linked in and cc’ed on e-mails that have no bearing on our lives, but we feel compelled to read them. It makes us work longer hours and we are always in touch, but not always communicating properly.

Being busy has become a default response in business. I now meet a lot of people from different walks of life and they are all manic. It’s the equivalent of commercial BO to admit you have a bit of time on your hands. Evidently some people are busy, but if it’s often a default response. It probably comes down to poor organisation and an inability to prioritise and delegate rather than sheer volume of work.

I suspect we also claim to be busy because careers are competitive and being busy now equates to being important. Secondly, in straightened times being busy means that you are valuable to you company. The third reason is more fundamental and I believe has a profound effect on corporate performance.

There is a general tendency to be obsessed in the now, and it means you can avoid thinking about the future; which is difficult, imprecise and risky. Think about your own schedule, divide what you do into four areas; internal and external contact, then secondly, the now and the future. I would bet the biggest sector will be the now, and probably internal.  The issue is that people often focus on the least profitable area rather than the long term future of the business. Time spent with clients is probably the most valuable and long term planning is more important than short term management.

Now, I’m not saying that the short term doesn’t matter, but it’s probably more valuable to set the strategy and closely manage a competent team rather than trying to micro manage everything yourself (and I’ve seen many senior managers who can’t leave detail alone, they usually create more problems and frustration than they solve.)

I am also a firm believer in the benefits of new knowledge, especially for senior people in an organisation. I’ve always found that half an hour in the company of an inspirational or creative thinker is far more valuable than the same time answering e-mails.

Yet we often default to the short term, we sit in conferences surreptitiously on the crackberry; rather than listening to the wisdom of other peoples’ experiences. I think one of the greatest dangers to the productivity of businesses is that senior people are being exposed to fewer, genuinely inspirational ideas and the people we hold in high esteem aren’t the challengers or the mavericks, but often people who were extremely capable at writing code at Harvard.

Here is my anti busy-ness mantra:

• Make sure you spend 10% of your time away from the mundane and being inspired. Build it into the culture of your business. Get in clever thinkers and speakers, and perhaps take people to interesting events (for example, Intelligence Squared.)
• Make meetings shorter, punctual and focussed. I used to go bonkers in pointless status meetings where people drifted in 10 minutes late and then spent 10 minutes getting coffee or tea. Create a culture where meetings are short, sharp, punctual and there is a very clear agenda. I think 20 minutes is the perfect time. If you want short meetings, don’t sit down!
• In service businesses, people are often controlled by their diaries, rather than managing it. Try to get it under control and carve out time to think and discuss the business. Then act on it.
• Do what you hate first. Always. Get the difficult and crap things out of the way immediately.
• Delegate effectively. People are usually more capable than you give them credit for, give them a chance to fly you will be amazed and be prepared to allow them to fail.
• Absolutely minimise internal communication by e-mail. Face to face is far better. Get the best possible firewall and eradicate spam and try and only use e-mail for external communication. Try to check e-mail only twice a day and create a culture of not having to answer everything.  
• Try to get out the habit of saying you are busy, it’s a communication barrier and possibly rude. Try to make time to have conversations, however short, with people who want to talk to you.

   

The Hippo vs. The Llama

We came across the HIPPO Principle the other day, it’s highly relevant to smaller, private businesses. HIPPO means the Highest Paid Persons Opinion. The opinion of the Grand Fromage is the most important. It’s prevalent in most organisations; the pressures of time, the insecurity of power, the arrogance of experience all mean that the leader of group often imposes his or her will on a group of co-workers without thinking through the consequences. Even worse, employees try and double guess the view of the HIPPO and only bring ideas and solutions that will win their approval. It’s potentially disastrous, think of behaviour of Sir Fred Goodwin at RBS and his single minded management style to realise the danger of a management culture that doesn’t accept constructive challenge well. 

It’s a real issue in small businesses. Firstly, the HIPPO in a private business is usually the owner and senior manager, meaning they are all powerful. Secondly, the founder of private businesses have often set the business up in their vision and don’t necessarily want to accept challenge or change. Therefore it’s often easier to surround yourself with people who agree with you, rather than encouraging the difficult git who comes up with a brilliant left field idea that challenges the whole status quo of a business.

However, it’s critical that businesses have processes that encourage self evaluation and challenge themselves. Smaller businesses often succeed by being visionary and the thought leaders in their sector, but to do this they need to constantly evolve and stay ahead of bigger competitors. If they merely follow the pack, they lose any real purpose.
How, as a busy business owner, can you keep ahead? We have a new principle; not from Africa, but South America, the LLAMA principle:

The LLAMA principle: Listen, Look, Analyse, Mentor, Action.

People can confuse leadership with dictatorship. If a leader who shows any sign of weakness or vacillation, it indicates poor management skills. Conversely, our view is that one of the greatest management skills is the ability to listen. Failing to listen to new ideas and advice often stops businesses developing and inhibits growth in value. So it’s important to find ways to actively listen to people within (and outside) a business.

So how do you get employees to contribute good ideas?

It’s a conundrum; I’ve been to countless ‘awaydays’ in boutique hotels around the M25, where people are encouraged to cast off their shackles, think freely and “push the envelope” (I believe it’s called ideation.) Often they are based on false principles, such as there is no such thing as bad idea (which is patently rubbish.) I can honestly say that after having been to more than 100 awaydays, I’ve rarely come across a truly actionable idea. I've heard great thinking from very bright people, but usually the best ideas fail to be implemented.

Why? Largely because unfettered thinking produces unrealistic solutions. We can only come up with ideas that deliver actionable results if we think within practical boundaries of a business. We need to exploit our experience, use real data, speak to other experts and, perhaps, borrow ideas from other places. We need to strike a balance between suffering from closed minds and encouraging people to come up with loads of impractical ideas on the basis that you might eventually find a nugget of gold.

If "awaydays" are ineffective ways of generating ideas and analysing business problems, what’s the answer?  Firstly, get people together in small groups and have a very clear & defined brief. Have frequent, short meetings with clear tasks and roles. Set a defined agenda and make people actively prepare. Then LISTEN to them, don't interrupt, don't challenge, just LISTEN. Check their recommendations with external experts; and possibly research the outcomes. This is what we mean by LOOK; try to think in the widest possible context about how their recommendations could work in your specific market.

Then take the ideas away and ANALYSE them, maybe only focus on two or three that might be actionable. Put together small Action teams (who might be different from the Ideas team) and task or MENTOR them to come up with actionable plans that can be implemented. Then find ways to ACTION the ideas and bonus both the team that came up with ideas and the people who made it happen.

Our view is that if you follow an ordered, open process (with an animal based acronym) you have a chance of keeping your business fresh. The most important part is LISTENING.
This leads us to the IGUANA Principle. IDEA GENERATION, UNDERSTANDING AND NEW ACTIVITY. But that’s for another day.