Saying 'Yes' Means Saying 'No'

One of the frequent problems I encounter from both managers and their employees is a lack of clear priorities.  When this topic comes up I see eyes roll and I hear voices drop in resignation. These workers are strung out trying to manage more and more items on the ‘to do’ list.  The sense of being overwhelmed permeates the conversation.  

Back in the late 90’s I was a general manager for a service company. We were awarded a contract to provide a new service in another part of the country with the project kick-off just 30 days away. To meet the deadline required a total commitment by management on this one project.  My boss, John Schaeffer, understood the project requirements and he allowed us to focus on just this project.  He made sure that we had everything we needed.  Schaeffer kept other things from getting in the way.  Most importantly, he gave us permission not to do other unrelated tasks but rather give them to him to handle.  As a result of the ability to focus on the new service, the project exceeded customer expectations and we were awarded more contracts. 

Managers are responsible for establishing and maintaining priorities.  They are accountable for sustaining the effort by safeguarding employees’ focus on the priority.  To do this, managers need to say ‘no’ to other demands.

Saying ‘no’ to an additional requirement is foreign to some managers.  These are the same managers who are finding themselves and their staffs pulled in too many directions.  Effective managers evaluate a new requirement in light of existing priorities/ resources.  When it doesn’t pan out to take on the new task, they communicate no by saying - ‘I can’t support this request at this time’; ‘We are already committed on a high priority’ or ‘Working on this new project will require me to modify work on this other priority.’  As far as being concerned about telling the boss these things, most managers want to hear the truth as it helps avoid doing something that doesn’t make sense.

An analogy for setting a priority is asking employees to do something hard, for example asking them to climb to the top of a mountain.  If the manager decides that after they get half way of the mountain to tell them this is the wrong mountain (priority), expect the following reactions – anger, frustration, loss of confidence.  Most critical, manager credibility takes a hit.

 

If something is going to be added to the pile of things to do, then something needs to come off the pile in order to free up resources for the new task.  If a shift in priorities is required, the manager needs to be deliberate so employees understand the new priorities. 

 

Saying ‘yes’ to a priority, means having to say ‘no’ to other tasks.  Doing this will produce better results by focusing on the priority task.

Being Easy is Relative

When I started my business, I decided I could save some money by developing my own web page. I kept encountering phrases like, 'easy to use' and 'you'll be up and running in no time'. Needless to say, none of it was easy.

I kept running into jargon - domain name, hosting - that didn't make sense. I tried the on-line help and had the same experience. Finally, I called technical support and asked for help. They used lots of web speak which was frustrating. After walking me through the web page design process, the results didn't work because the company was having technical difficulties. I called back a day later and was told to discard the process I was instructed to use previously. So, we started the process all over again.

What is easy for one person may not be easy for someone else. I can recall when I’ve asked to have something done which I thought was easy, to only find out that there were significant problems encountered. These challenges led to delays in completing the task and frustration by the people trying to accomplish the task. I was unaware of these problems until after the task was completed or had gone badly off track.

I tried to apply these lessons by using the mental phrase, 'It is always easier when someone else has to do it'. This helped me to remember that it is important to include the person who has to accomplish the task in the planning discussion. I found that when I did this the likelihood of accomplishing the objective increased significantly. Sometimes the plan I thought would work was greatly modified as result of this process. The resulting plan ended up being more complete, realistic and had buy-in from those who had to execute it.

This planning process led to better results with fewer challenges. I sought out the folks who had to carry out the task to both recognize their efforts and to find out what challenges presented themselves. This interaction produced even more lessons learned and facilitated better planning for the next project.

Using this method doesn’t eliminate all the potential problems but it does help significantly to reduce the chances of them occurring. It takes time to do this but I have found it well worth the investment. There might be concern that this process will lead to modification of the objective or the deadline. Yes it can, but only if you choose to after weighing all the information. By simply being involved in the planning process, higher levels of commitment by those who have to carry it out will be realized.

Using the approach of including others in the planning stage will return much better results. And after all, this process is easy.