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Here's Stephen Covey's new book Predictable Results in Unpredictable Times and blog focusing on what you can do to win even in uncertain times. Enjoy.
“This
book gave me more insight about how to get the right things done in an
organization than any other management book I have ever read. It is
delightful to read and simple to see how its principles can be applied.”
—Clayton M. Christensen
“I work at a Fortune 500 company. Each year we have layoffs so
more work is given to each of us; no pay increase. This additional work
adds 5-10 hours per week. Last year I averaged 60-70 per week and am
working more this year.”
“I have worked in Manufacturing for nearly 30 years. Our plant
had 4000 employees when I started. Today we have 187 people left, 72 of
them are on the executive team. We are expected to come to work an hour
early, work through lunch and stay two hours late everyday.”
“I work as a Web Producer for a publishing company. Over the
past 6mo. they’ve laid off 50% of our staff. . . . So, now we’re stuck
with a limited staff, each one doing 2-3 times as much work, most of
which we’re not qualified or experienced in.”
These actual postings from www.cnn.money illustrate
one of the key hazards of these unpredictable times: Trying to do more
with less. Of course, the concept is a virtuous one—everyone wants to
get more return from fewer resources. That’s what productivity is all
about.
But real people are paying a real price for unintelligent application of this principle.
The problem is too many companies lay people off and then expect the
survivors to pick up the slack, doing two or three jobs at once. The
obvious downside is spikes in stress, burnout, quality problems, and
disengagement. You can’t expect overwhelmed people to do quality work
or to get engaged in what they’re doing.
Everyone wants to do more with less. But the real question is, “more
of what”? More of the same? Or more of the kind of work that your
customers really value?
In our recent book, we focus hard on this question. The turmoil we live in is displacing
workers in unprecedented ways, and companies are paying a heavy price
for mindlessly shedding numbers without re-thinking the business model.
Service levels drop, quality plummets, and revenues slide.
On an airliner, serving peanuts to everyone might be in the flight
attendant’s job description. But in turbulent air, you really don’t
care if the flight attendant does that job. It’s not as important as
caring for the safety and well-being of the passengers. Maybe you can
do without serving peanuts for a while.
Isn’t it time to stop asking people to do the impossible by trying to work two or three jobs at once? Isn’t it time to push the re-set button and ask what work really adds value and forget the rest?
We’d like to hear from you. Are you trying to do “more with less”?
Are you like the people we’ve quoted above? Or are you doing more of
what really matters and less of what doesn’t?
Last week in our webcast, The 4 Key Principles for Getting Predictable Results in Unpredictable Times,
we had several questions submitted that we didn’t have time to answer.
We thought we would take the next few posts and answer some of them
here. One of our participants, a hospital administrator, asked, “How do
you keep employee morale up when you’re asking them to do more with
less?”
The answer: Don’t ask them to do more with less.
Instead, ask them to do less of what doesn’t matter and more of what does matter.
Morale has little to do with how hard people work or how tough the
job is. People will do extraordinary things and work incredibly hard if
they feel their contribution matters. (more…)
