How Do Time Management and Organizational Culture Go Together?

Once a year I lead a Time Management session at a nonprofit conference. Every year the same themes surface – having too much to do, living with constant interruptions and trying to keep too many plates spinning in the air. What struck me as participants talked was this frustration was as much an organizational culture issue as it was a time management issue.

As employees we talk about what can we do to manage our time better, but we don’t get to the heart of what do we need to change about our workplace expectations, so we don’t have to focus on fixing the symptom through time management.

There are a few conversations that will help your organization create a culture where you can talk about your workloads without fear of being viewed as a slacker or of letting important projects drop because the team is too busy to do their jobs well. Those conversations include discussion around:

• What do we want our top three priorities to be? How will we ensure that we give each other permission to say no to other opportunities that sound amazing, but that don’t help us accomplish our top 3?

 

• What systems, processes or organizational norms can we put in place to ensure we are functioning at our highest capacity? Most often when we don’t have the right systems and processes in place, the immediacy of every person’s crisis becomes your crisis. If that’s the norm for your team, you aren’t being as efficient as you could. What can you do as a team to make sure you are being proactive and not reactive in these situations?

 

• How can you create a consistent culture where people are allowed to push back and say the hard things without people’s feelings being hurt? How can you tie priorities back to your unifying top priorities and say things like, “I’d love to help you, however what you’re asking for right now, keeps us from accomplishing the goals we set for this quarter. Let’s revisit that next quarter and see how it fits into our priorities then.”

 

I’m often surprised at the number of people who feel helpless when it comes to initiating these conversations on their team. It’s sad to think the organizational culture, which everyone longs to thrive, is held back by our lack of open communication about our needs and the needs of the organization.

The two things are not mutually exclusive, however many of us have made them feel mutually exclusive. If you haven’t created time and space for these conversations with your team, it’s time well spent. Your investment up front will save you a lot of wasted time later.

For those of you who love tools, Stephen Covey’s Urgency Matrix is a fantastic tool for helping teams figure out if they are spending time on the right things. This article gives a nice highlight of the tool.  Using a common language and tool amongst team members gives you a neutral starting point for the tougher conversation of how do we create a culture where we focus on the cause of the issue, not how do I fix the symptom through time management.

Your challenge for the week is to initiate a conversation with your team (and maybe even your family) about organizational culture norms that create time stressors on your team. You may be surprised to learn your expectation is not what the other person intends or even wants for you.

Keynote speaker, trainer, and consultant, Sarah Gibson, helps organizations leverage the power of communication, teamwork and diversity to improve engagement and transform teams. To buy her book or inquire about her speaking programs, please visit www.sarahjgibson.com.