Shut the window.

I've been re-listening to the audio version of Steven Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People", which is a treasure trove of insights and tools for effectiveness. Just because it's sort of a basic primer and I read it at least once before, hardly means I've fully extracted the benefits from it.

One of his illustrative stories is of a time when he was on a writing retreat. He had two windows open to allow the cool air to circulate. His work was arranged on a table in piles of papers. As he was working, the breeze started to pick up and before he knew it, his work papers were being blown around. As he chased them wildly trying to recollect the flying pages, he realized that he'd be further ahead if he took 10 seconds and closed the window.

What's stacking up. Covey talks about P / PC balance in which "P"= your production or what you can personally get done. "PC" = Your production capability or your production capacity. Generally I find that the things that I need to do create my "stacks." I often find that I place myself in the position of "tasks only I can possibly do." I stack up my "P" or my personal production. Are there too many things that only you can do?

Stacks ready to blow away. When I get overwhelmed, I feel like Covey did - my stacks are starting to blow away! I have to scramble to chase the stacks! I have to work longer and harder just to keep everything on the table! The worst feeling is that I can't do anything about it because I'm only one person with only so many hours in a day. Ever feel like that?

Close the window. Chasing the blowing papers from stacks of things "only you can do" is the equivalent of running on a treadmill: You get tired, but you don't get anywhere. If you want to "close the window" you have to increase your production capacity, your "PC".

Here are the top ways to increase your Production Capacity:

1. Train your staff. Training feels like a big waste of time because you know you could have the job done in half the time it takes to show someone else how to do it. True, BUT you have to look downstream. If you take twice as long ONE time to train someone else to do the task, then you NEVER have to do it again, you are way ahead. Training is an investment in your time and your staff's skills.

2. Delegate. After training your staff, assign them to task and resist with all your will the urge to ever do it again. Especially at the beginning, right after training, your people will have the tendency to toss the task back to you knowing that you will often just take it back and do it. Coach them along the way to success, soon they won't remember you ever doing it.

3. Build systems. Ever wonder how you and your people keep forgetting to order this, mow that, spray here, or pick up those? Build systems to handle all tasks that are even remotely routine. This is the toughest of all, because it takes the longest to develop. It might take a year or a season to get your system in place for ordering or cleaning, but the investment is worth it. With systems, it gets easier and easier to train new people, because you're training them in the system, not just in "things they should do." Systems must be built with accountability. We like checklists and initials - someone is supposed to clean, they do the job, check it off and sign their initials.

4. Leverage technology. What lead me to today's email was a "window closing" using technology. So many people asked for order sheets for a new product that I was scrambling to write and email, attach the document, send it and track it in our system. I realized this and spent 15 minutes making an email template that auto-filled the client's name, attached the document and tracked it. Now, after 15 minutes of "window closing", I can send it instantly to clients with one-click.

We leveraged technology with Salesforce.com to track each of our maze clients, the progress on their designs, GPS cutting, scheduling, ordering, extras like t-shirts and more. We can get instant views of how we're doing and if we're on time. We just brought our GPS cutter Tim into the system, which took some time and training, but now we can see his work schedules instantly and he knows when we've added new locations. It has allowed us to grow our business without growing staff, but it took hours of trial and error and training, even a bit of arm twisting.

Close the window. If you feel like your stacks of papers are blowing in the wind and you'll never get them all gathered up and reordered, take some time to "close the window", train, delegate, systematize and leverage so when things get really busy, you have the capacity to handle it all.

If you hear yourself saying, "I don't have time to build systems. I don't ahve time to train people. They'll never get it anyway." You need to work on this more than ANYTHING else you are doing right now.

Have a great week.
Hugh