When Multitasking Might Make Sense

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Do you consider yourself an adept multitasker?  At a WPO (Women Presidents Organization) meeting, I learned something interesting on this subject from my friend Carol Richards, president at Northcoast Education Service. The topic of our WPO meeting was time management and juggling priorities. Carol explained the difference between associative tasks and cognitive tasks.

Associative tasks are things that you can do more than one of at a time. For example, most of us can drive a car and carry on a conversation with the passenger at the same time. However, if the weather suddenly turns bad and we are in the middle of a hazardous rainstorm, all of our concentration must be focused on the task of driving. Cognitive tasks require full concentration. They take all of our focus and keep us from being able to do anything else in combination with the task. 

This helped me to understand why I enjoy the feeling of accomplishment that comes from doing multiple “associative” tasks at the same time. I find it a good way to gain momentum and a feeling of accomplishment before having to focus and tackle the bigger ‘cognitive’ task that requires focus and concentration.  How about you—are you the same way?  

People Spend Time on What They Believe They Can Change

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I had the opportunity to hear Marshall Goldsmith speak at the WPO (Women President’s Organization) Annual Conference last week in Dallas.  He presented compelling results from research he did on the topic of employee engagement.  He explained that when employees’ are asked typical employee engagement questions in a passive format, their answers tend to produce more negative results and they blame their external environment, management, etc.  As an example, the questions “do you have clear goals?” and “do you have a friend at work?” are asked from a passive viewpoint. 

In contrast, when those same questions were posed as “do you do your best to set goals at work?” and “do you do your best to be happy at work?” the respondent’s replied more positively.  This is because the same essential questions asked in a different way implied the individual is responsible for the outcomes.  The perspective changes from a ‘victim mentality’ (what my company hasn’t provided to me) to one of being responsible for the outcomes (I guess I haven’t put enough attention on that subject and I can make it better).  

Selling Solutions Requires Linkage to Implications

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Have you ever noticed that sometimes no matter how diligent you’ve been working with a potential client, they have every excuse in the book to not make a decision? 

You’re asking all the right questions, and getting all the right answers to indicate a fit between their problem and your solution—but somehow the dots are just not connecting? 

Assuming that you’ve correctly identified the problem, the missing piece is the connection between solving the problem and the value of the benefits that will be received.  Implication questions can help to uncover this link.

Framed as “what would be the implication of not taking action?” or “how would making this change impact your (name the performance indicator such as: sales, profit, expense, etc.). 

Asking implication questions helps the prospect think through the impact of the investment and can provide the justification needed to commit to the solution.

Determining What to Do is the Easy Part: 5 Phases of Successful Project Management

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When it comes to planning for your business, figuring out what to do is generally the easy part—it’s figuring out how to do it that’s hard.  

Business owners frequently tell me they’ve figured out what needs to happen in their company to achieve their growth goals. What they can’t figure out is how to get those important things done, especially those bigger, capacity building projects. 

The missing competency in many smaller companies and non-profits is project management. A project is generally defined as a temporary endeavor with a defined beginning and end in which constraints are scope, time, quality and budget. Bigger capacity building or game-changing projects are typically what organizations need to get to the next level. 

The process of directing and controlling a project from start to finish can be divided into 5 basic phases:

1. Project conception & initiation: determining the scope of the project

2. Project definition & planning: project outline, budget & timeline

3. Project launch & execution: task & responsibilities are assigned

4. Project performance & control: track progress to actual plan & adjust as needed

5. Project evaluation-evaluate results & identify take-aways for future projects

If you lack internal resources with competency in project management, you may want to consider training existing team members. Most community colleges have project management curriculum. Outside consultants can also provide project management support on an as needed basis.

Departments Need Mission Statements Too

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Everyone knows that companies need vision statements. 

A company vision statement paints a picture of the desired future for the organization.  It guides current decision making by providing a guidepost to evaluate decisions. What is less recognized though, is the value of vision statements for individual departments. While departmental visions need to be consistent with the organizational vision, they can further refine how the company vision statement cascades out to departments.

So for example, if the organization’s vision statement is, “To be the world’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they may want to buy online at a great price,” the purchasing department’s vision statement might be, “To find the very best products in the global marketplace combining high quality with value.”

A good vision statement whether at the company or departmental level should be future oriented and aspirational.  When people in the organization or department read the vision, it should resonate with them and provide the future state they’re moving toward.