3 Quick Wins to GET THINGS DONE in your startup

Here is a cheeky checklist for you. If you check off 3 or more on this list, this article will be useful for you, so keep on reading. If you have less than 2, I'm sorry for me, but I have to say that you may want to conserve your time and click away ??

• Do you find that you’re not getting a lot of the “important stuff” done and spending more time on putting out fires instead of strategic planning and managing?
• When giving work to employees do you feel that you have insufficient feedback on their progress and reassurance that they will complete the task? 
• Do you feel like you and your team are jumping from project to project and never really finishing each one before you move on?
• Do you dread going on vacation or taking time off because you feel that your employees won’t be able to run things while you’re away? 
• Do you often redo the work of your employees or instruct them to do it in another way? 

?? Quick Win 1: Keep Them Accountable

Let me tell you a story...

There once was a founder in a startup in a legendary city called Merlin. They had a lot of good people working for them, however the people were full of magical surprises. Whenever they or their teams ran into problems, the founder would only find out after it's too late. The people always had a good excuse "Sorry, but I ran into a problem...". The founder would listen to their problem, help them solve it, and then move on.

Little did the founder know...an insidious norm was solidifying around "How work is done around here". The good people working for the founder are learning "It's okay to magically surprise them. If I have a good excuse for not being able to complete the task, I'll just stop what I am doing, turn my attention to something else, and then wait till the founder shows up! I can explain the situation then, and the founder will help me solve it."

Does this story hit uncomfortably close to home? If it does, congrats this quick win would work for you! Here is your quick win:

Make the expectation clear that once a responsibility has been given, there are only two acceptable paths. Path 1: The good person needs to execute to completion as planned. Path 2: If they run into a problem, they need to immediately inform you. No magic surprises. If they decide that another job needs to be done instead, they call you.

And thus, the magic of surprise was significantly reduced. How do you think this quick win will impact your work?

???♀? Quick Win 2: Focused Deliberate Work

Let's face it, your title and your leaders' titles are probably "CEO, interim COO, Head of BD, unofficial decision maker, fire fighter and reluctant baby sitter". Jokes aside, limited resources in a startup often means that people wear multiple hats. As a result, its easy for people to be reactive and bounce between competing priorities. When that happens, you may find yourselves going weeks or even months without moving the business forward tangibly.

We throw the word agile around like it is a miracle drug to solve all problems. However, the need to be agile and flex to new information and new priorities does not mean that priorities should not be set and rigorously pursued. In fact, it means that work on the priorities needs to be extra focused and extra deliberate, so as to deliver impact fast enough before the priorities shift. This way you and your team don't spend weeks turning their wheels and wasting resources on projects that are started and not completed.

If this feels a little like your company, here is your quick win! (It'll take about 4 hours, but it's still definitely faster than a culture change plan ??)

??Step 1: List down all of your and team's open projects right now and do the exercise below:

Every team member fills in the following for each of their projects:

1. Purpose (linked to strategy/mission)
2. Expected Outcome ("What does success look like?")
3. Key milestones (A helpful way to start is to organize work in 2 week sprints per milestone)
4. Task Breakdown + Time estimates on each task
5. Total time needed

??Step 2: Work as a team to prioritize what needs to be done for this quarter. The priorities and accompanying accountability ?? should be clear on a team and an individual level. A good rule of thumb is that the total time estimated for projects per person should not be more than 50% of the person's capacity. The other 50% needs to be reserved for alignment meetings, ad-hoc fire fighting, recurring time blocks like 1-on-1s and other claims on our time.

One helpful way to prioritize would be to use the Eisenhower matrix and prioritize work according to what is important or urgent. An important dimension that I would add is IMPACT.

??Step 3: Everyone blocks time in their calendars for each the tasks identified and schedules check-ins for their milestones in the next quarter. Tip: A good way to signal to others that the time is sacred, is to have a code word in the title e.g. ALONE TIME ??. Communicate this rule to the entire organization, and enjoy your focused, deliberate time.

?? Quick Win 3: Communicate Clear Expectations

It's story time again... (this time it's a real story ??)

Two health researchers, Steve Booth-Butterfield and Bill Roger at the West Virginia University were tasked with a mission "Get people to eat healthier". Decades of public funds have gone into inserting a food pyramid into every elementary school textbook, PSAs with awful jingles and health-ed lessons which show blocked arteries. However, the average American diet hasn't gotten healthier. Why?

Steve and Bill quickly found that people didn't continue to eat unhealthily because they didn't care about their health or are "lazy". They didn't know how to begin. Which foods should they start/stop eating? Should they eat more chia seeds? How much is too much fast food? Paralyzed by uncertainty, they simply spun their wheels ??.

To address this, Steve and Bill identified one clear and concrete behavioral change that would make the most impact. They found that if Americans switched from whole milk to skim 1% milk, the average diet would immediately attain USDA recommendations for saturated fat levels. After their campaign, the market share of low fat milk in their intervention area rose from 18% to 35%.

What's the secret? Crystal Clear Instruction.

If you find yourself having to do several iterations with your people on projects, or find that employees are having trouble getting started on change initiatives, give this quick win a try:

When delegating a project or pushing change: Follow this framework to ensure that you are communicating with Crystal Clear Instruction.

When trying to inspire people to change or act on a higher level goal: Identify one to three behaviors that would be impactful and simple to do for your employees. You'll be surprised how many wheels stop turning, and start driving.

For example:

Mission: We need to be more cost efficient

Behavior: All leaders should get three different quotes for a product/service and choose the most cost effective one; All employees should be more mindful of travel expenses on work trips; All team leads should conduct an evaluation of their needs and eliminate any tool subscriptions, supplies or resources that are not being well utilized by the team

If you don't want to dictate the HOW, perhaps you could hold a session with your people to co-create and document the key behaviors you'll all undertake for the mission's success!

To Close Things Off...

Quick win 2 and 3 may take a couple of hours to set up. However, can you imagine how empowered and accomplished your team would feel if they had clarity on what great looks like, and the ability to focus and deliver great?

With quick win 1, you also get to marinate in the feeling of trust that your team will deliver, or let you know if something is not on track.

Do you feel relieved?

Resources:

Heath, Chip, and Dan Heath. "Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard (2010)." Made to Stick: Why some ideas take hold and others come unstuck (2008).

Patterson, Kerry. Crucial conversations: Tools for talking when stakes are high. Tata McGraw-Hill Education, 2002.

Delegation Tips by Mindtools, Accessible at this link: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_98.htm