To Do Doing Done: A Creative Approach to Managing Projects and Effectively Finishing What Matters Most - Softcover

Snead, G. Lynne

 
9780684818870: To Do Doing Done: A Creative Approach to Managing Projects and Effectively Finishing What Matters Most
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0684818876 ISBN 13: 9780684818870
Verlag: Touchstone, 1997

Inhaltsangabe

To Do...Doing...Done!: A Creative Approach to Managing Projects and Effectively Finishing What Matters Most focuses on the skills required to manage any project without getting bogged down in conflicts or sidetracked by unexpected changes or developments.
In this book are proven techniques for bringing any project to a successful and satisfying conclusion. The techniques provided in To Do...Doing...Done! are based on Franklin Quest's highly successful Planning for Results seminar, which has boosted the productivity of thousands of employees in corporations across the country, as well as in Europe and Asia.

Die Inhaltsangabe kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

G. Lynne Snead is Program Director of Planning for Results with Franklin Quest and has presented the Franklin Planning for Results project and workload-management seminar to thousands of employees in major corporations throughout the United States, as well as in Europe and Asia. She lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Chapter 1: Creating A Personal Vision

COMING ATTRACTIONS:

* Identifying values

* Governing values

* Values balancing

What you must dare is to be yourself.

Dag Hammarskjold

The subject matter of this chapter changed my life and made this book possible.

In 1985 I was a marketing director and project manager for a computer engineering company in Provo, Utah. The word that best describes how I was feeling at that time of my life is "overwhelmed," although "out of control" also comes close. I had recently taken on these new positions and really didn't know how to get the job responsibilities under control and properly managed.

One day the president of the company announced a new training program offered by a company then called the Franklin Institute. Not wanting to hear from his often outspoken staff, the president didn't tell us what the training was, just when and where to show up. Having seen many training initiatives come and go, when I walked into the conference room and saw a day planner and training guidebook at each seat, I remember thinking, What harebrained idea are we chasing this time?

Although I didn't realize it completely at the time, by the end of the day, my life had changed forever. During the session we learned how to use a day planner to get control of our time, to track and manage all those tasks that had previously slipped through the cracks. I also learned how to develop a referencing system that kept all that old-but-still-important information at my fingertips. I remember the excitement and the sense that I might be able to get my new job responsibilities under control by using this tool.

But one part of the training day bothered me a lot. The presenter talked about building our productivity on the basis of our own personal values. He led us through an exercise to identify our values, defining them as the principles and qualities we cared most about in our lives. His point was that if our productivity was based on something other than our personal values, then even if we managed our time better and became more productive, we wouldn't be more personally satisfied.

Being more productive may not mean being more satisfied.

Philosophically that made sense to me, and I was amazed that I had never identified and prioritized my values before. The problem came when I actually had my list of values in front of me. Here were the things that I thought were most important in my life, yet when I compared my list to the life I was living, they didn't seem to have much in common.

During that one-day training session, we didn't have enough time to fully develop and clarify our values, so during the next few weeks I finished the exercise. Working a little each day, I drew up a list of nine personal values, defined and clarified what they meant to me, and developed goals that related to each value. Since then I have added values to that list, but those original nine have never changed. They defined the qualities I felt were critical in my life, such as having a warm, healthy relationship with my son (at the time, I was a single mother of a seven-year-old), continuing my growth and development mentally and spiritually, financial security, healthy relationships, health and fitness, and so forth.

The hardest part of working with these values was ranking them. I realized that while they were all vital to me, some were of higher value than others. The value that became my number one priority surprised me at the time, but I couldn't have chosen a better guidance system for how I wanted to live my life. It was "Inner peace and well-being."

Once I had my values identified and goals defined for each, I could develop the list of specific dally tasks that would lead toward those goals. These tasks were plugged in to my day planner where they became more than just tasks; they were stepping-stones toward the life I wanted to lead.

It's hard to describe what happened, but my life today, twelve years later, bears little resemblance to the life I was living then. The changes came unfailingly, sometimes slowly and sometimes rapidly, sometimes in expected ways but often from completely unexpected directions. Hyrum Smith often mentions that a plane flying from Los Angeles to Honolulu may be off course as much as 97 percent of the time! However, because the pilot knows exactly where the destination is, as soon as the plane veers slightly off course, he makes a correction. Getting to our destination does not require perfection; it simply requires a clear picture of where we're going and a willingness to change course as often as it takes to get there.

* Ponder Point: Can you think of a time in your life when you were often off course but, through frequent corrections, wound up where you wanted to be?

One of my first changes came when I realized that my list of values was incompatible with my job situation. It took a little more than a year, but with my values list in mind, I was eventually able to find an employer who was a better fit with my life direction.

I also began to make progress on my other values, such as developing my intellectual and career growth through evening classes and reading as many books as possible, studying to become a practitioner in my church, focusing on health and physical fitness, and rearranging my schedule to have more time to spend with my son. None of this happened overnight, but gradually what I had clarified as my values steadily became my lifestyle. Now, as I look at my list of values, I can see that it has become my life, not just a wish list.

JUST SAY YES

Identifying and prioritizing our life values is the first step in developing a life purpose, a process that may be the most important work we do in our life. Purpose pulls us in the direction we want to go. Many popular reform programs are based on a philosophy of "Just say no!" Unfortunately, those programs generally are not very successful because saying no to something is not as powerful as saying yes to an objective that we are passionate about.

Purpose pulls us in the direction we want to go.

For example, a friend of mine, after several years of working as a sales manager, recently reached a crossroads. His company had gone public, which created a sizable windfall for him. While it wasn't like winning Super Lotto, it was enough money to give Kevin some options -- travel, luxuries, retirement, even possibly a few harmful indulgences.

But for Kevin the decision was easy because he had a life purpose. He had spent time identifying his life values, and he was clear about his biggest dream: establishing a camp for high-risk adolescents. He knew exactly what he wanted the camp to look like and how it would be operated. When the windfall came his way, he knew with great certainty what to do with it. Without that clear vision of his life purpose, Kevin might have used the money for things that would not have brought him the joy that building a camp for kids is now bringing him.

For several years the corporate world has emphasized the importance of mission or vision statements. Well-thought-out vision statements provide a road map to guide the actions and decisions of people throughout the organization. Exciting, challenging vision statements engage the energies and enthusiasms of people, often creating incredible levels of peak performance. Just as vision statements help guide and motivate organizations, personal vision statements help individuals reach their highest level.

* Ponder Point: Before continuing, write a one-sentence vision statement for your life. Notice whether this is an easy or difficult exercise. The more difficult it is, the more useful you will find the following material.

For a personal vision statement to...

„Über diesen Titel“ kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Verlag
Touchstone
Erscheinungsdatum
1997
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0684818876
ISBN 13 
9780684818870
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
256
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Simon and Schuster Netherlands BV
info@simonandschuster.nl

Herculesplein 96
Utrecht
3584 AA
Niederlande