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.