How to accomplish what we've planned

Do you ever find in your team that you plan to do one thing, but at the end of the week/month, you've only made minor progress toward your goals, while routine and "essential important tasks that must be done" have consumed the rest?

If this sounds familiar, read on.

I've encountered this both personally and when working with teams. I've tried many approaches and eventually developed a robust framework that works and keeps both me and my team focused on what’s important.

I've previously written about our individual board, where each team member can keep their tasks and goals aligned, including those delegated to others.

Now, let’s talk about how this works at the team level.

It's quite simple (BTW, complex frameworks generally don't settle well and tend to deform when implemented). Suppose you've set a goal for the month, or it has been communicated to you from above. Your task with the team is to define the outcomes you want to achieve at the end of each of the 4 weeks of the month. IMPORTANT - focus on outcomes, NOT TASKS. There might be many tasks, but being busy doesn’t guarantee results. I love the quote from the book “Hyperfocus” which says that productivity is about achieving what you planned, not just completing a bunch of tasks.

So, you have 4 weeks, each broken down into interim results (milestones), which Covey in his "4 Disciplines of Execution" refers to as Key Goals, which should ultimately lead you to your goal.

Next, it's crucial for each team member involved in actively achieving the goal to plan their personal expected outcome for the end of the first week for their part. By the end of the first week, you should have a set of key goals from team members, which you need to synchronize and ensure they are indeed optimal. At some group sync, briefly discuss these key outcomes among participants and secure public commitment. During the week, perhaps on Wednesday and Friday, have a brief sync on progress. And again - discuss the progress towards the goal achieved, not the tasks completed. By Friday, you should have a final picture that will form the basis for the next cycle the following week.

And the next week, adjust your expected results for the new week according to the current progress and remaining time.

As you can see, the main task for a team leader is to shift the focus from completing tasks to achieving results, which includes a different angle of thinking in the team. And this is the most interesting part, about forming a culture of real productivity and proactivity in the team. Even if you prefer micromanagement for various reasons - this allows you to keep progress on track through basic project management.

This approach, in a fuller and more productive format, is detailed in Covey's book “The 4 Disciplines of Execution”. Here, I've presented a simplified adaptation that also works. Undoubtedly, Covey's full framework performs much better, but it is also somewhat more complex and requires a bit more time for implementation.

What do you think? Do you use any of these methods in your work?