How Time Planning Training Is Useless in Poorly-Run Organizations
Stop Teaching People to “Organize” When Your Organization Has No Clue What Actually Should Be Priority: How Time Organization Training Fails in Poorly-Run Organizations
I’m about to dismantle one of the biggest widespread misconceptions in organizational training: the idea that teaching staff improved “time organization” techniques will solve time management challenges in workplaces that have no coherent direction themselves.
With seventeen years of working with organizations on time management challenges, I can tell you that task planning training in a poorly-run company is like instructing someone to arrange their belongings while their building is literally on fire around them.
Here’s the fundamental reality: most organizations experiencing from productivity issues don’t have efficiency issues – they have leadership problems.
Standard priority organization training believes that workplaces have well-defined, reliable objectives that staff can learn to identify and work with. That belief is totally disconnected from the real world in the majority of modern companies.
The team worked with a large marketing firm where workers were constantly expressing frustration about being “struggling to prioritize their work properly.” Leadership had poured hundreds of thousands on priority management training for all staff.
The training featured all the standard approaches: urgency-importance systems, ABC classification approaches, calendar organization techniques, and complex work management systems.
But performance kept to get worse, staff overwhelm instances rose, and project quality schedules got more unreliable, not better.
After I examined what was really going on, I learned the underlying cause: the company as a whole had absolutely no consistent direction.
Let me share what the normal experience looked like for workers:
Regularly: Top executives would announce that Client A was the “highest focus” and each employee must to concentrate on it immediately
The next day: A another senior executive would send an “urgent” message insisting that Project B was actually the “most important” objective
Wednesday: Yet another department head would organize an “immediate” meeting to announce that Initiative C was a “must-have” deliverable that needed to be completed by end of week
The following day: The initial top manager would voice disappointment that Project A was not been completed enough and demand to know why staff were not “prioritizing” it as instructed
Friday: All three clients would be delayed, various deadlines would be not met, and employees would be held responsible for “inadequate task management skills”
This pattern was occurring constantly after week, regularly after month. No amount of “task management” training was able to assist staff navigate this systemic chaos.
Their core challenge wasn’t that workers didn’t know how to manage tasks – it was that the organization at every level was totally failing of creating clear priorities for more than 72 hours at a time.
I persuaded management to scrap their emphasis on “employee time management” training and alternatively establish what I call “Organizational Focus Clarity.”
In place of trying to show staff to organize within a constantly changing organization, we focused on establishing genuine organizational clarity:
Established a unified senior leadership group with specific authority for determining and preserving organizational focus
Created a systematic priority review system that happened monthly rather than daily
Developed clear standards for when projects could be adjusted and what type of sign-off was necessary for such changes
Created enforced coordination procedures to ensure that all priority changes were shared clearly and to everyone across each departments
Established stability periods where no focus disruptions were allowed without extraordinary approval
Their improvement was immediate and substantial:
Worker stress rates decreased dramatically as employees for the first time knew what they were required to be working on
Efficiency increased by nearly 50% within a month and a half as workers could genuinely work on delivering tasks rather than constantly redirecting between competing requests
Project completion schedules got better substantially as staff could coordinate and execute work without constant interruptions and redirection
Client satisfaction increased substantially as work were consistently finished according to schedule and to requirements
That lesson: before you train people to prioritize, make sure your company actually possesses clear strategic focus that are worth prioritizing.
Let me share one more approach that time management training doesn’t work in dysfunctional companies: by presupposing that staff have real power over their work and tasks.
I worked with a municipal department where workers were repeatedly receiving blamed for “inadequate time management” and mandated to “productivity” training workshops.
The reality was that these employees had almost absolutely no control over their daily activities. Here’s what their typical workday seemed like:
Roughly the majority of their schedule was taken up by mandatory sessions that they had no option to skip, regardless of whether these conferences were necessary to their real work
A further one-fifth of their workday was assigned to processing bureaucratic forms and paperwork obligations that contributed absolutely no benefit to their actual responsibilities or to the citizens they were supposed to help
Their remaining 20% of their time was expected to be used for their actual job – the work they were paid to do and that really made a difference to the organization
But even this small portion of availability was constantly invaded by “emergency” requirements, unplanned calls, and bureaucratic obligations that were not allowed to be delayed
Under these constraints, absolutely no degree of “task planning” training was going to help these employees turn more effective. This issue wasn’t their personal time organization techniques – it was an systemic framework that made productive activity virtually unachievable.
We worked with them create structural changes to resolve the real impediments to efficiency:
Eliminated unnecessary conferences and established specific requirements for when meetings were genuinely necessary
Streamlined paperwork obligations and removed duplicate form-filling requirements
Established protected blocks for real work tasks that were not allowed to be interrupted by non-essential demands
Developed defined protocols for deciding what represented a legitimate “emergency” versus standard requests that could be scheduled for designated times
Established delegation systems to make certain that work was allocated appropriately and that zero single person was overburdened with impossible demands
Employee effectiveness improved significantly, job fulfillment increased notably, and their department actually began offering better results to the public they were meant to support.
This crucial point: you won’t be able to fix efficiency challenges by showing employees to operate more productively within chaotic systems. Companies must repair the organizations first.
Currently let’s address probably the most ridiculous element of priority management training in poorly-run organizations: the belief that staff can magically prioritize work when the management as a whole shifts its direction several times per week.
I worked with a software startup where the founder was notorious for experiencing “innovative” ideas multiple times per period and requiring the whole company to instantly pivot to pursue each new idea.
Workers would come at their jobs on any given day with a clear awareness of their objectives for the day, only to learn that the leadership had determined over the weekend that all work they had been concentrating on was suddenly not important and that they needed to immediately begin concentrating on a project totally new.
Such behavior would happen numerous times per week. Projects that had been announced as “critical” would be abandoned before completion, groups would be continuously re-assigned to different initiatives, and massive portions of time and investment would be squandered on initiatives that were never finished.
The organization had spent heavily in “adaptive work organization” training and sophisticated task tracking software to help employees “respond quickly” to changing priorities.
Yet no amount of education or software could solve the fundamental problem: you cannot effectively organize continuously changing objectives. Constant change is the opposite of successful prioritization.
The team helped them implement what I call “Disciplined Objective Stability”:
Implemented quarterly strategic planning sessions where important direction changes could be discussed and adopted
Established clear standards for what constituted a legitimate basis for adjusting set objectives apart from the scheduled assessment sessions
Implemented a “objective stability” time where zero modifications to established directions were acceptable without exceptional circumstances
Established clear notification protocols for when priority changes were genuinely required, featuring thorough consequence assessments of what projects would be delayed
Established written sign-off from multiple decision-makers before each substantial strategy modifications could be approved
This improvement was dramatic. In a quarter, measurable initiative delivery rates rose by nearly dramatically. Employee stress levels decreased significantly as employees could at last work on finishing work rather than constantly starting new ones.
Innovation actually increased because groups had adequate time to fully develop and evaluate their concepts rather than constantly switching to new initiatives before any work could be fully finished.
That reality: effective prioritization demands directions that remain stable long enough for employees to actually concentrate on them and achieve significant outcomes.
This is what I’ve learned after years in this field: priority planning training is only effective in organizations that genuinely have their leadership systems together.
When your organization has stable strategic direction, realistic workloads, functional leadership, and systems that enable rather than obstruct effective performance, then task organization training can be beneficial.
However if your organization is marked by constant crisis management, unclear directions, inadequate organization, excessive expectations, and crisis-driven decision-making approaches, then priority management training is more harmful than useless – it’s directly damaging because it faults personal choices for systemic incompetence.
Stop squandering time on time planning training until you’ve resolved your systemic priorities initially.
Start establishing companies with consistent strategic focus, functional management, and structures that really support meaningful activity.
Company workers will manage tasks extremely effectively once you give them priorities worth working toward and an organization that really supports them in completing their work. overwhelmed with unrealistic workloads
Employee productivity improved dramatically, job happiness got better considerably, and their agency actually started providing higher quality results to the public they were meant to serve.
That important point: organizations won’t be able to solve efficiency problems by training people to function more efficiently within chaotic organizations. You need to improve the systems initially.
At this point let’s examine possibly the greatest absurd component of time organization training in dysfunctional workplaces: the idea that workers can mysteriously prioritize tasks when the organization at leadership level changes its focus numerous times per week.
We consulted with a technology business where the CEO was well-known for experiencing “innovative” insights numerous times per day and demanding the whole company to instantly shift to accommodate each new direction.
Staff would show up at their jobs on any given day with a defined knowledge of their tasks for the day, only to learn that the management had decided suddenly that everything they had been concentrating on was no longer important and that they needed to right away start concentrating on a project entirely different.
This behavior would repeat multiple times per month. Initiatives that had been declared as “essential” would be dropped before completion, groups would be constantly redirected to alternative initiatives, and enormous quantities of resources and work would be lost on initiatives that were ultimately not completed.
Their startup had poured significantly in “adaptive work organization” training and complex priority tracking systems to assist employees “adapt rapidly” to evolving priorities.
Yet zero amount of education or software could overcome the core problem: you won’t be able to efficiently prioritize perpetually shifting objectives. Perpetual shifting is the antithesis of effective prioritization.
The team helped them implement what I call “Focused Priority Consistency”:
Implemented scheduled priority assessment sessions where major direction modifications could be discussed and adopted
Created firm standards for what constituted a valid reason for modifying agreed-upon priorities outside the scheduled planning cycles
Implemented a “priority consistency” period where no adjustments to established directions were permitted without exceptional approval
Implemented specific coordination systems for when direction changes were genuinely required, including full impact analyses of what projects would be delayed
Required written approval from several stakeholders before each substantial strategy shifts could be enacted
Their improvement was outstanding. Within 90 days, actual project delivery rates rose by more than dramatically. Worker frustration instances dropped significantly as staff could actually concentrate on completing tasks rather than continuously beginning new ones.
Innovation remarkably improved because groups had sufficient resources to fully implement and test their solutions rather than continuously changing to new directions before any project could be properly completed.
The point: successful organization demands directions that remain unchanged long enough for people to actually work on them and accomplish significant progress.
This is what I’ve discovered after extensive time in this field: priority planning training is exclusively effective in companies that currently have their organizational priorities working properly.
Once your organization has stable business direction, achievable expectations, functional management, and systems that facilitate rather than prevent efficient work, then task organization training can be beneficial.
Yet if your organization is defined by perpetual crisis management, conflicting messages, incompetent organization, unrealistic expectations, and crisis-driven leadership styles, then time organization training is worse than pointless – it’s directly damaging because it holds responsible employee choices for organizational incompetence.
Quit squandering money on priority management training until you’ve resolved your systemic direction first.
Focus on establishing workplaces with consistent strategic focus, competent decision-making, and processes that actually enable meaningful activity.
Your employees will manage tasks perfectly effectively once you give them something deserving of working toward and an workplace that actually supports them in accomplishing their responsibilities.
In the event you beloved this article as well as you want to be given more details concerning Servant Leadership Skills i implore you to stop by our own website.