Are we treating causes or symptoms?

 This week's message continues our quarterly conversation on "Deep Work Time." For last week's message "Do you have control of time?" click here. 

“Time is the scarcest resource, and unless it is managed, nothing else can be managed”  - Peter Drucker  

Calendar Mapping = Are we treating symptoms or causes?

Prior to the pandemic our teams spent quite a bit of time discussing our use of time. The pandemic clearly knocked some of our maps out of balance. Last week, we discussed Calendar Mapping is a Team Effort reiterating the value of planning for, evaluating, and tracking time. Indeed, calendar mapping will remain an essential part of building your team's collaborative circadian rhythm. At the same time, calendar mapping alone will only take your team so far. What occurs during the time that is mapped out on your calendar is the real "Deep Work." Without a clear way to map out our priorities through powerful action plans we are forced to make too many decisions. This is where decision fatigue can take a heavy toll on our capacity to sustain momentum and stay focused. In short, the more decisions we make day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month about our priorities and use of time, the more energy and time we will waste. 

"Did it go down with a loud crash? Or was it slowly and quietly suffocated by other competing priorities? By the time it finally disappeared, it’s likely no one even noticed. What happened? The “whirlwind” of urgent activity required to keep things running day-to-day devoured the time and energy needed to execute your strategy for the future!"  - From Four Disciplines of Execution 

Quarterly & Annual Backpack Planning = Treating Causes 

Backpack planning and priority alignment are not new to our conversations as we have been on a three year journey in learning (See How did we get here?). Yet, over the past four months we have doubled down on learning about process engineering and re-focused our energy on developing a planning process that better defines and aligns priorities, goals, and actions. A year from now, Quarterly and Annual Backpack Planning will be the one-thing that impacts all other things. 

Celebrating our Shared Pursuit of Clarity and Simplicity 

Our introduction to quarterly and annual backpack planning conversations the past two weeks with principals have been a strong first step in developing more clarity, alignment, and autonomy across teams. Like Calendar Mapping, Backpack Planning will become a Team Effort. Indeed,Quarterly Backpack plans will generate significant value in determining the "Deep Work" that needs to be done and will essentially drive the calendar mapping process. Importantly, this transition moves our work further away from a focus on treating symptoms, towards a focus on proactively treating causes. 

Thank you for your leadership!