Workarounds That Work: How to Conquer Anything That Stands in Your Way at Work

the inevitable conflicts that arise between vision and the structures that emerge to institutionalize it.

Managing an Overwhelming Workload 1. Challenge each item on your list: • Why is this on my list? • What goal, objective, or management process does this support? • Does it still matter? • What would be lost if I stopped doing it? 2. Review your list of tasks that are no longer relevant with your boss for agreement. 3. Make a new, shorter list of on

You can start by taking a comprehensive look at the list of things you have on your plate and then simply asking yourself three questions: “Why is this on my plate?” “What difference does it make?” “Who would notice if I didn’t do it?”

whenever you encounter a roadblock of any kind, look to yourself first. I suggest that in just about any situation, your ability to respond (response-ability) will be a function of your ability to control what you can, to influence what you can, and to simply respond to the rest.

Start by reviewing your list of tasks, projects, or to-dos, and then ask these three questions about each item you have cited: 1. Who needs this done? 2. Why do they need it? 3. What difference will it make?

What do exercise and refrigerators have to do with workarounds? In the world of work, unfinished tasks, projects, and objectives all hold a certain amount of your mental energy, attention, or focus. When you get something done, whatever energy, attention, or focus you had invested in that incomplete item is released and becomes available to you. In

If individual leaders lose sight of the larger purpose and vision, they will tend to become a bit myopic in their focus on unit performance. In extreme cases, unit performance can outstrip the larger goals of the organization. Oddly enough, the more myopic or narrowing of focus, the more the number of priorities is likely to grow.

Accountability is simply a way of owning the outcome, recognizing what’s in front of you, and then taking the next best step you can.

From there, he is said to have issued a dictum that if you were producing something for which you saw no apparent reason or value, you had permission to stop producing it and engage in a conversation about purpose, value, form, and substance.