What is Time Really Worth & Is it Worth Your Time?

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Do you measure your, and your team’s, Return on Time (ROT)? Yes, it can be hard to measure. Who wants to be recording every second they’re spending on something? How long should a non-mechanized, white collar type task really take? So, I suggest starting simply - and meaningfully. Since much of our time is spent in meetings, start there. Let’s say you have a meeting with 5 of your top performers for 1 hour. There must be a great reason for having that meeting, right? Figure out the hourly salary for each of you in the meeting and add that up. Did you accomplish something at that meeting that’s worth that amount?

I have a few meeting policies:

• No agenda = Deb doesn’t go (ideally I like agendas 1 week before);

• Clearly state the reason for the meeting and expected outcomes;

• Don’t leave the meeting without specific tasks, owned by specific people, with specific due dates and definition of what ‘done’ means and how you will follow up;

• Recap to the attendees within 24hrs with the tasks, etc.

There are a few more - like I like making the agenda items into questions instead of statements (e.g., “What are the issues and successes of X to date?” vs. “Status of X”) because it focuses the discussion on action versus theory. Anyway, this week, start thinking about your personal, and your team’s, ROT, quantitatively and qualitatively. See what happens! Let me know!

You Want a Meeting for What‽

Clock over door to Honby library, Liverpool central library Picton reading rooms ℅ alamy.com

How’s zooming going? It’s fascinating how pre-COVID, so many shunned virtual meetings and now we’re over-meeting virtually because it’s ‘easy’ which has led to even more meetings! So, let me share a client’s habit for any and all of their meetings. It’s made a big difference ~ PPO (not PPP or PPE).

PPO is Purpose, Process and Outcome.  When you want a meeting, clearly state the Purpose, the Process to be used and the desired Outcome.  Here are examples from 2 recent client meetings:

Prioritize the top tactics for a key strategy:

• Purpose: Decide the top 2 tactics to be executed by 7/1/2021 for Strategy 1;

• Process: Take our current list of the top 6 tactics and prioritize those to the top 2 that have to be done immediately and why;

• Outcome: The plan for the 2 top tactics including each tactic’s champion, definition of ‘done’, due/done date, metrics, 90-day action plan of who is doing what when to reach the 7/1/2021 deadline and the tracking/monitoring schedule.

 Finalize who will be accepted to a leadership program:

• Purpose: Select the 5 people for the 2021-2022 leadership program;

• Process: Applying the program’s criteria along with each applicants’ career plans, prioritize the list of applicants to the 5 we will accept;

• Outcome: Final 5 identified with personalization verbiage of acceptance letter for each one, to be copied to their manager, and personalized letter of rejection to the rest to be sent by 2/25/2021.

This seems like a no-brainer, something we read in all the ‘effective meeting’ manuals, right‽ So, given our level of zoom fatigue, why not try it? Creating a PPO forces us to see if we really need a meeting, who really has to be there, and what we have to get done. It shouldn’t (ideally) take a lot of time to create the PPO.  And, it provides focus, choice and clarity – something we can all use these days! Try it this week!