DND’S

I wish I could have more time!!

If you have not uttered these words most of the time in your life and if you have not heard these words frequently from others, you must not be living on the planet earth. In my professional career of over 40 years transforming organizations around the globe from struggling to benchmark status, I have heard this universal lament from people at all levels. Whether they were trying to lead or follow, they all lamented about the shortage of time. Higher their struggle, louder and longer their lament was.  

From the very inception of humankind, dearth of time to accomplish what need to be accomplished has been cited as the main reason for our failures and inadequacies. From time immemorial, there is an ongoing attempt to harness time and make it last longer. Recent techniques (time management, project management, cycle time reductions and others) and evolving experts (time gurus, inspirational pundits and spiritual mystics) have made a fleeting dent, but have not silenced this lament, and so, the agony continues. 

The most prevalent method used by individuals and organizations to deal with critical issues/opportunities in a timely manner is to create a list of all items called MUST DO’S (MDO’S), prioritizes them and organize efforts around those MDO’S. As the highest priority item is completed, the efforts are shifted to the next higher one and so on. Although, this discipline helps us to organize, prioritize, and execute better, nevertheless, the list never ends as more issues/opportunities invade our world and get added to our list. The net result is that the list of our MDO’S remains endless and we continue to justify our failures by blaming on the cruelty of time. 

In order to shrink the list of our MDO’S and accomplish more in our lifetimes, I have successfully used and propagated an uncommon but simple approach called DND’S (DO NOT DO’S).  Looks like an alien word, but it has the power of making our lives more fruitful and enjoyable. DND’S are a twist to our habitual conditioning of being engulfed in dealing with our endless MDO’S. Think for a moment, all of our time and energy is expended in working on our must Do’s, but we do not make an earnest effort to identify and discontinue our habitual activities and practices which do not add any value to our goals and aspirations and they continue to rob us of our precious asset- the time.

 

Let us do a simple exercise. Please write down 5 most critical things you have to do in the next 5 days and also write down 5 things you should not be doing as they add no value to your priorities and goals!! If you are like most people, it will take you approximately 3 to 5 minutes to write down 5 critical items to do and it will be a real struggle and will take hours for you to identify (if you are lucky) those 5  non- value adding things you keep on doing habitually and robotically.  

Why it is so?  Because, firstly, our mind is all focused on what is urgent (MDO’S) at this moment and we do not have any motivation to think about anything else how important it may be. Secondly, we have not conditioned our mind to continuously identify and evaluate those non- value adding activities because they have become a part of our system. The fact of the matter is that until and unless, we identify and eliminate those DND’S (non- value adding activities/practices), we can’t have adequate time to accomplish to our full potential.

“DND’S are a twist to our habitual conditioning by encouraging us to undo part of what we are cultured and ordered to do

To emphasize the importance of DND’S, let me share with you a true episode of my professional life as follows:

 Effective immediately, I am discontinuing my weekly staff meetings and will let you know when we will need our next staff meeting.

My above message to all of my staff (direct reports) was nothing less than an earthquake as it initiated speculations and concerns. This declaration of mine came just a few months after I took charge of an extremely large but very struggling organization.

In all organizations, weekly staff meetings are mandatory rituals like going to the church, temple, mosque or shrine on a fixed day of the week. Managers at all levels of organizational hierarchy have to conduct these meetings. In all organizations (with very few exceptions), any disregard of this ritual may lead to reprimand or outright removal of a manager/leader from his/her assignment.

Well, the earthquake and its aftershocks subsided and eventually disappeared. For the next two and a half years, I led that struggling organization through a transformational journey without those formal weekly staff meetings, and that organization became the envy of its counterpart organizations. 

In the case of the above-stated practice of weekly staff meetings that I discontinued, what I discovered was that the harm done by that ritual far exceeded the benefit it was providing for the organization. Let us look closely at the mechanics of those weekly meetings:

·Each member of my staff presented their current state (progress), most of which I had already known. They overstated their accomplishments (to impress me and their peers).
 

·They focused on excelling through presentations (mostly excellent presentations for a lousy performance).

·They provided an update on the actions generated in the last staff meeting (mostly dictated by me).

·They listened and made notes of the actions for the next weekly meeting (again mostly dictated by me).

What was really happening in those staff meetings (mandatory ritual)?

·I was being told most of what I already knew (a waste of a precious asset- time).

· I was managing their processes by telling them what to do (stifling creativity).

·I demanded their progress update on actions mostly imposed by me (fostering compliance).

·I was giving them solutions and subsequent actions for their issues and opportunities (creating dependence).

·I was allowing them to make presentations a mesmerizing act to impress me and their peers (encouraging exploitations and manipulations). 

Now you be the judge ! By conducting those staff meetings (a mandatory ritual) in a structured and formal way, I myself (the so-called esteemed leader of that organization) was wasting organizational assets, stifling creativity, fostering compliance, solidifying dependence, and promoting exploitations and manipulations!

By all standards of fairness, for the first few months, I was not the savior or a leader of that organization but a meek puppet or a blind follower of organizational formalities. Most leaders following harmful, structured, and formal practices deserve to be fired, but in the realities of organizational functioning, they get applauded for discharging their responsibilities faithfully.

By eliminating the formality of that weekly ritual—the staff meeting—we created better avenues of utilizing our time and energy in a more helpful, creative, and facilitating way. Although on rare occasions, I used to conduct meetings with my staff (not formal, not structured) to discuss some critical issues, but, I initiated more personal interaction with them on a one-to-one basis by going to their land of action (their areas) and sincerely encouraging them to see me if they needed to. This way, our relationship became more open and honest without authoritative ego and fear of authority. The miraculous transformation of that organization in a short span of time was due to many strategic and tactical movements of the turnaround journey, but the removal of that harmful practice (DND) was a significant catalyst for the momentum of that transformational journey.

By narrating this episode, I am not advocating that all staff meetings should be  discontinued to enable any organization to achieve the pinnacle of success, but the fact of the matter is that in our individual and organizational lives,  there are countless habitual and formal activities that do more harm than good and we are neither cultured nor disciplined to question, evaluate, refine/eliminate them. DND’S provide us the courage and discipline to undo all or parts of those harmful habits and formalities.

Individuals and organizations alike can do themselves a great favor by incorporating formalized practices and policies to treat DND’S with the same urgency as the MDO’S. By sincerely doing that, they will be pleasantly surprised how quickly the endless list of their MDO’S is going to shrink and their arch enemy (time) is  going to become their friendly ally. Which DND’S to focus on depends upon the situational realities of a particular individual or an organization. This is a discovery and not a standard list which can be copied, borrowed or stolen from others. An objective and a honest evaluation of all habits/ practices/policies with the yardstick of value can lead to the identification of those DND’S which are specific to a given individual or an organization.

 

 

Challenging long established habits and practices is like daring to touch the sacred cow.

Since our mind is not conditioned to even think about DND’S and we are laser focused on our MDO’S,  it may look like a titanic task or a mission impossible! But, in reality, yes, it is hard but not impossible. It can be done. Take my word for this. I have done it and have made many individuals and organizations to do it. What is required is the humility to accept its need, sheer determination to get started, and a firm discipline to practice and follow through. As you move on this path and your journey becomes difficult at times, remind yourself of the following:

“What lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do”

                                                                                                 Aristotle

 

In conclusion, curb your ego of being too smart, take a pause from your overindulgence with MDO’S and start embracing and executing DND’S with equal vigor and passion. By doing so, not only your lament for the inadequacy of time will be quelled significantly, but, you will also experience a real boost in your self-confidence to achieve much more than what you have ever imagined.