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Michigan Institute for Educational Management
Volume 1
Number 4
Steps 3 through 6 of The Six Steps to Success
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From Mr. Jim Mathis, Leadership Consultant ... we continue with the "Six Steps to Guide You in Planning Ahead for Your Success."
As you may recall we have been running a series of articles on the "Six Steps to Success. If you missed steps one and two, please see the October and November issues of The MIEM Connection.
Step Three: Priorities. The next step will happen almost automatically. You and your staff will begin to re-evaluate your priorities and find out what you need to be about in the year ahead. You’ll be surprised to find consensus when you have eliminated useless activities that don’t accomplish your mission or goals. Determining your goals and activities will help you establish clear priorities for the time period you are planning. It will help you enforce the “If it doesn’t support or goals, we’re not doing it” rule.
Use the Paretto Principle to establish priorities: “Eighty percent of our activities produce 20 percent of the results, while only 20 percent of our activities produce 80 percent of the results.” Vilifredo Paretto was a 19th Century Italian economist who established a rule for economics that works in almost every realm of planning. It is simple: List your top ten priorities in order, then circle the top two. Concentrate planning on those two and the other eight will take care of themselves. More organizations waste time on useless trivial activities that produce almost no results. The wisdom of life consists of eliminating the non-essentials.
Step Four: Time Estimates. How long will it take? How much time will each activity require to get you closer to your annual goals? The key to successful planning is to plan both work and time. Start to determine what will take big blocks of time, how many people will be required to get it done and where will the resources be needed to accomplish each task. Next look at the smaller blocks of time and find out how they can be batched together to eliminate waste in funding and time. Where are the wasted time slots? How can they be reduced or wiped away completely?
Determine what time of the year is the peak performance time to get each task accomplished. Where are the slow periods annually that you can get more “behind the scenes” work done? When is your “showtime,” when visible tasks are best accomplished? Remember these are only estimates but they will give you a good idea as to when you need to be concentrating on the right tasks at the right time.
Step Five: Scheduling. Now look at your actual calendar. Things that are scheduled tend to happen on time. Things that are not scheduled may never happen. As I said earlier, most managers tend to schedule first in an effort to fill the calendar and eliminate gaps. Knowing what you are about, why you are about it, and how long it will take will be the greatest ally you have in putting things on in ink.
Use this guideline for scheduling: Flexibility in time: Start early on major efforts, Big blocks come first; smaller jobs/activities come second; and group items that are similar in nature. Scheduling along these lines will do more to eliminate wasted time in your calendar. It will allow for the time estimates to become realities and your people to know what they are doing, why they are doing it and how it fits into your overall mission/goals.
Step Six: Flexibility. Allow time for error and the uncertainty. This can only be done if you have set out to allow the proper amount of time for big projects. No one can predict the future (although we seem to have an abundance of philosophers, pundits and fanatics who attempt to do it every day). A well-known television economist spent the first two months of his new program telling everyone not to buy home improvement company stocks (Lowe’s, Home Depot, etc.) then was forced to retract every prediction when they soared following the devastating hurricanes in the Gulf Coast areas. One good rule: Don’t take advice from anyone who isn’t personally invested in the suggestions they are giving. You probably have example in your own life of people who said to do one thing only to change when things weren’t as certain as they assured you. Don’t get stuck paying the bill for their mistakes.
Planning flexibility allows you to adjust your schedule as needed. It allows you to drop back and re-evaluate your intentions and redistribute resources and personnel in key areas as are required. Be flexible about your schedule, but not your results or goals. Times change and although you can’t predict the future, the great leaders are able to see through the present times and prepare for both good and bad events. Those with the best outlook on life are always expecting the best, but prepared for the worst, just in case. To deny that problems will arise is foolishness.
In summary, our ability to control our time is directly related to our attitude toward controlling our environment. Now you are in control of your schedule. You determine what to do and when to do it based on a simple rule: What results do we want? Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you are right.”
Jim Mathis is an International Speaking Professional and Trainer. To subscribe to his free personal and professional development newsletter, please send an email to subscribe@jimmathis.com with the word subscribe. An electronic copy will be sent out to you every month. For more information on how Jim and his programs can benefit your organization or group, please call (888) 688-0220, or visit his website: www.jimmathis.com.
MIEM really appreciates the efforts of some of our presenters at the 19th Annual Support Staff Conference for Administrative Professionals which was held in Grand Rapids on November 10-11, 2005. These presenters generously provided their PowerPoint or handouts for online access for conference attendees. The Support Conference attendees have received an email noting how they can access this information electronically.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER ONLINE
Aspiring Superintendents
Start: 01/26/2006 • End: 01/26/2006
Part II Open Registration
Michigan's education leadership organizations -- MASA, MASSP, MEMSPA and MASB, are committed to identifying, developing and supporting future school leaders.
Labor Relations/Employment Law
Start: 01/10/2006 • End: 01/10/2006
Understand the major state and federal employment laws that apply to public schools. This workshop includes collective bargaining, wage and hour, discrimination, COBRA, Family Medical Leave Act and federal and state retirment issues. 0.6 SB-CEU's pending approval.
2006 Safety Legislation Webinar - Must Choose Site
Start: 01/26/2006 • End: 01/26/2006 On January 1, 2006
On January 1, 2006, Michigan School Districts must comply with a series of 18 Public Acts (PA 121-139 of 2005) which amend the Revised School Code, Teachers’ Tenure Act, Criminal Code, and Sex Offender Registration Act. This webinar will address both the legal and practical implications of these new laws.
2006 NCLB Compliance: Update And Overview - The Current NCLB
Start: 01/31/2006 • End: 01/31/2006
This session will provide an update on where we are from the state perspective in relation to complying with NCLB, what is happening at the national level -- and what’s coming that local districts, public school academies and intermediate school districts need to be aware of.
Highly Qualified Teacher Compliance
Start: 01/31/2006 • End: 01/31/2006
9:00 a.m. to Noon. A moderated panel of experts and practitioners will provide an update on: 1) what’s new/critical to keep in mind about teacher qualifications from the federal level, 2) what’s new/critical to keep in mind from the state level, 3) what’s happening/needs to happen at the local level and 4) how teacher preparation programs are preparing teacher education candidates.
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