I found these tips on The Little Rules of Action on Zen Habits.net and have found them personally helpful to me. Thus, I would like to share the goodness, particularly with the incoming administration and the N.O. City Council. They can ignore the tip about not getting bogged down in perfectionism. They've long mastered that one. The following three, however, are relevant:
1. Meetings aren’t action . This is a common mistake in management. They hold meetings to get things done. Meetings, unfortunately, almost always get in the way of actual doing. Stop holding those meetings! [except for the ones required by law, of course].
2. Talking (usually) isn’t action. Well, unless the action you need to take is a presentation or speech or something. Or you’re a television broadcaster. But usually, talking is just talking. Communication is necessary, but don’t mistake it for actual action.
3. Planning isn’t action. Sure, you need to plan. Do it, so you’re clear about what you’re doing. Just do it quickly, and get to the actual action as quickly as you can.
2 comments:
I had read an article about meetings and the perception that they are/aren't work. Typically managers view meetings as their primary work - while non-managers view meetings as a waste of their time, because no actual work gets done (from their perspective). Unfortunately, I cannot find a link to the article, but it was presumably software-related, since the industry is generally over- and mis-managed and no programmer understands what managers think they are achieving with the plethora of meetings.
Cade, that sounds like an interesting article. It seems that that difference in perception between management and non-management folks has been the case no matter where I've worked.
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