Saturday 25 February 2017

Are We Someone Else’s Problem?

I work with a variety of clients in different industries and at different levels.  Some come across as either more or less “organised”.  What all have in common, however, is their sense of priorities.

Everyone has different priorities based on their job, seniority, experience, personality, education and any number of other factors which vary from person to person.  What I’ve seen over many years’ experience is that we need to work out what:
  • Our priorities are;
  • Our colleagues’ priorities are;
  • Our boss’ priorities are;
  • Our customers’ priorities are.
From here, we then need to work out where (if anywhere) they overlap or coincide.  These are the areas in which we know we’re pulling in the same direction.

At times, we seem to have diametrically opposed priorities (although often they’re the same, just stated differently). 

At others, it may be the case that our priorities are getting in the way of others’.  I’ve encountered cases where a disorganised (for whatever reason) team member is the main cause of their team’s low performance and the key is how to “fix” this whilst preserving that team member’s self-respect.  This is all the more important if they are, after all, good at what they do.

I’ve found that the way forward in such circumstances is to:
  • Appreciate (our differences): they’re good at what they do, but may not appreciate that others find their way of doing things difficult.
  • Anticipate (where problems may arise): if we know that person’s always forgetting meeting dates and times, remind them in advance (several times if necessary).  If they tend to arrive late, pick them up from their desk well before the meeting (to give them time to gather their stuff, finish the phone call.  They may gradually come to “anticipate” us doing this!
  • Engage them: at the right time; find out what drives them and whether they’re aware that they may be preventing others from functioning efficiently.
  • Examine ourselves (the most difficult): could your way of doing things be the problem in that environment?
In the end, more than one person may need to adjust the way they do things.


I have spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in international financial services around the world  running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management.  I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services.  For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.

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Saturday 18 February 2017

"Urgent" vs "Important"

We’re all busy people.  Whether we’re “productive” is something I’ve discussed in a previous article, but this follows along the same lines.  Here I look at priorities and how to manage them.

The first time I encountered this concept was when I heard Hyrum Smith (CEO of what was then known as The Franklin Institute) talking about the “tyranny of the urgent vs the important”).  I recently learned that this was known as “The Eisenhower Box” or the “Eisenhower Matrix”.  His point was that things are:
  • Urgent and important
  • Not urgent but important
  • Not important but urgent
  • Not important and not urgent.
Our perception of which is which improves with experience.  “Busy” activities usually fall into the “Not important and not urgent” category.  If you find yourself doing too much of these, you’re not moving your business forward (as I’ve found out).

If you imagine the above descriptions as a grid with “Urgent” and “Not “Urgent” across the top and “Important” and “Not Important” down the left side, you can then start to “plug things into” the appropriate “box” described below:

1.     “Urgent and Important”:
These are the things that must get done NOW or there’s going to be a problem (lost business, fines, etc).  When your phone rings, even if you're talking to someone at your desk, it’s “urgent and important” until you find out what it’s about.

2.     “Not Urgent but Important”:
These are longer-term tasks that require more time spent on quality thought.  They’re what will drive the business in the medium to long-term and need attention - but when you have the time.  They include business-building, relationship-building or planning, going through the finances, staff counselling, meeting regulatory requirements, perhaps dealing with the press.  These are what should take most of your time and need undivided attention.  Yes, they may not interest us, but they’re still important…

3.     Not Important but Urgent:
The key here is “not important” - to you.  These are tasks that others can do, that you can delegate (if you have the staff).  If not, you then have to decide if they’re important enough to go to Box 1 or whether they can “wait a bit” and go to Box 2.

4.     “Not Important and Not Urgent”:
These you don't do.

Here’s a way to decide how “urgent” something is.  First ask yourself, “What would happen if I didn't deal with this right now?”  If the answer is “Nothing/very little/nothing I can’t handle later”, it isn't urgent.  Any other answer means it’s urgent and needs your attention (or someone else’s) – fast.

To decide if it’s important ask, “Does it require my attention or can someone else do it?”  If the answer to the first part is “Yes”, go back to the first question to determine if you need to drop everything or if you can/must do it later (this afternoon, say) when you have an uninterrupted hour and can concentrate.  If “No”, decide whether to “delegate or delete”. 

Take the example of the phone call during the meeting at your desk, it could be your partner asking you to pick up a loaf of bread on your way home, or the police calling to tell you that your child has been in an accident and is being rushed to Intensive Care.  Until you answer, you don't know.  It’s Urgent and Important until you get this information. 

In the case of the loaf of bread, it isn’t important or urgent right now (but if you forget on the way home…) and you carry on with the meeting.  If your child’s been in an accident, your view would be very different. 

Another example: you receive a letter of complaint from a customer.  You decide that if this matter isn’t handled now, it may result in bad publicity and lost business.  Urgent and Important.  Customer complaints must be investigated and resolved quickly.  You investigate, respond personally and the customer tells their friends about the brilliant service they received and that they’ll always be loyal to your business.  You may have delegated the investigation to one of your staff and dictated the response to your PA to be printed for your signature, but the result is the same.

There are different ways of prioritising and handling things.  The key is to select the most effective one for the situation.  If in doubt, remember Dwight Eisenhower’s words: “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.”




I have spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in international financial services around the world  running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management.  I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services.  For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.

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Wednesday 8 February 2017

Reasons vs Excuses

Things go wrong – that happens when we deal with other humans or with systems or processes designed by humans.  Anyone expecting to go through life with no problems will be disappointed. 

My own view is that what counts is how we react to the problem and how quickly we put things right.  After all, if an unhappy customer gives free feedback about what we can put right, we should welcome it.

I’ve seen two reactions to a complaint: to give an excuse or to give a reason for why things went wrong. 

O’Dell Consulting provide this excellent explanation of the difference between an excuse and a reason:

A “reason” is an explanation for why something is the way it is, with everyone involved taking accountability for their part in a situation. An excuse is an explanation for why something is the way it is, that always involves the blame being put on someone or something that isn’t involved in the conversation, and not able to share their side of the story. What’s the difference? The accountability.

… some examples. Common excuses for why restaurants, or other businesses, fail include:

  • Our employees were stealing from us
  • Our purveyors were cheating us
  • Our concept was too progressive for the market
  • The market didn’t appreciate good food 
  • Our landlord was unreasonable

 The list is endless.  There are as many excuses for failure as there are failed businesses. If a person were to take accountability for their decisions and their actions, those excuses could be seen as the real reasons for failure, and they would look more like this:
  • We didn’t have a reliable system for evaluating good help, and we didn’t supervise our employees as effectively as we could have, so we lost a lot of money from theft;
  • We didn’t know anything about negotiating purchasing, and ended up paying prices we couldn’t afford to pay;
  • We didn’t research our market well enough to find out what the market wanted, so we ended up giving them what OUR idea of good food was, not theirs;
  • We failed to communicate what made us special compared to the competition, and the market didn’t respond – or – We didn’t realise that our market doesn’t have the same ability to notice quality that we have, and we were really banking on them realizing our food was better;
  • We didn’t negotiate a good lease.

 You probably notice a trend here. For every excuse that an owner can give for a business failing, there is a real reason that points back to something THEY did or didn’t do.

Basically, a reason takes accountability for the results (even if it means the speaker looks “bad”).  An excuse is usually defensive and tries to exculpate the speaker from any accountability for the incident in question.

When we give an excuse for something, we attempt to give the customer a reason to relieve us of accountability for what happened.  If the listener then excuses us, we’ve dodged any penalty or consequences (e.g. loss of business, etc) that might have been due.

A reason is the logical path we took that resulted in the complaint occurring, along with an explanation of the causal relationship of our actions relevant to it.  It doesn’t assume we’ll be excused, and should be complete.

Excuses are usually more common than reasons, especially as they make us look better.  The problem is, they’re easy to see through and only irritate the customer more. 

  


I have spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in international financial services around the world  running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management.  I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services.  For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.

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