INNERGISE!

Each month Innergy research an area of business that is pertinent to our customer database, carrying out a brief survey and providing some practical ideas that can be immediately implemented to help individuals, teams and organisations overcome some of the key challenges they face.

Conflicting priorities and being too busy were the two most significant answers we got when we asked what the biggest block to effective planning and implementation into the business were, let’s look at what can be done to overcome them.

When we ask business leaders the question “What are the top three objectives in your business?” more often than not, the answer is vaguer than it should be and/or different from what their fellow senior executive colleagues say. Inevitably the consequence will be conflicting priorities as the decision makers understandably develop their own agendas and priorities and communicate them accordingly.

There is normally a gap when we carry out online assessments of businesses between how well the senior management team think they have shared the strategy and business goals and how clear the other people in the business are about what they are (i.e. the senior managers think they have shared it really well and the rest of the business don’t quite share that opinion!).

Successful businesses are just as pressured and busy as everyone else – and also have only 24 hours in the day – however they reduce conflicting priorities though excelling at being able to:

1. Develop clear focus and direction
2. Align activities and goals
3. Create clear accountability and ownership of results

In other words, they have a clear and well thought through strategy with prioritised goals and individuals and teams accountable and clear on what they need to deliver.

Prioritised goals are important. Every time we run a strategy development session with a business, the list of actions and activities that emerge is often unachievable and the ability to focus on and prioritise ‘the few’ that will really impact is key. Putting names next to actions does not equate to effective goal setting, without understanding the capacity of people in the team.

One thing we ask of delegates on our leadership programme is to describe the time when they were performing at their very best over a sustained period of time. Among the top five answers that we are given every time are:

• I knew where I/we were going (direction)
• I know my role and objectives (accountability)

Not creating the clarity and focus impacts individual performance as well as reducing how efficient we are as a business.

As for being too busy, planning is an investment of time that saves time. Planning things makes them to be more likely to happen (ask anyone who does it well) whether it is longer term strategic planning or shorter term planning of activities. Planning is no more than structured quality thinking and who can argue against quality thinking, as long as it is followed by focused action.

Once recognised as a key business activity and one that we all need to excel at, the discipline of diarising and carrying out effective planning becomes easier.

Here’s a simple test for you in your business (or in your department/team) – ask the question what are our top three priorities? and see how consistent a response you receive.