Key "Take Aways" on the Four Biggest Time Wasters

There are 4 main signs of management deficiency:

1) lack of system foresight,

2) over-staffing,

3) mal-organisation, and

4) malfunction in information.

• Meetings should never be allowed to be the main demand. Meetings should not be the main demand of a knowledge worker’s time. If the meetings are producing results, that’s one thing. But if the purpose of each meeting becomes planning another meeting, you have a problem.
• If you’re spending too much time on interpersonal issues, it’s a sign of over-staffing. If you’re spending all your time on feuds and friction, and fighting over space, it’s a sign of over-staffing. Lean organisations stay focused on the results and either collaborate as a team, or at least don’t get in each other’s way (they’re too busy working on their own work).
• If you keep running into the same crisis, it’s a lack of system foresight. Surprises happen, but if you keep running into the same surprises, then there’s a lack of system foresight. It means you don’t know the system you’re in and you don’t know how it works and you’re not anticipating events in the systems.
• If you don’t have accurate, relevant, timely information, then you’re flying blind. People can’t do their jobs effectively without the right information. Bad information wastes everybody’s time. If you don’t have accurate, relevant, timely business information, then you can’t make effective business decisions.

You’re either part of the problem or part of the solution.