February14 – His company had been producing products for more than 30 years, so the CEO could not understand why new offerings took so long to get to market or why special projects/requests took so long to get done. He became frustrated that things were not getting done in a timely fashion and worried there was a flaw of epic proportions in his company’s culture, resulting in lower return on investment and profitability.

Production was on schedule, deliveries were 98 percent on-time, and sales were on target or better, yet the CEO had a gut feeling something was not right – an intuition the company was “stuck.” He sat down with his team and went through all special projects and all new product processes. Three hours later, the problem became obvious: many members of his team did not know how to plan. They blamed the problem on poor “time management.”

There is no such thing as “time management.” It’s impossible for us humans to “manage” time. Time is constant: 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, etc. Try as we might, time doesn’t stop or start because we say so. What we can manage are our “activities” within time.

The CEO and his team were not victims of poor time management, they were victims of poor “activity management,” and it was getting in the way of their flawless execution. Few on his team could provide the status of respective team projects, nor express the plans, the “how” of getting things done. Why? They were not strategic thinkers.

Only 12 to 15 percent of the workforce is naturally strategic and able to create plans that lead to flawless execution. Most simply take instruction/direction from an immediate supervisor and then dive right in, focused on the deliverable and getting “stuff” done without first planning the most effective path forward. As you can imagine, inefficiencies abound and there’s lots of finger-crossing and praying that everything somehow gets done on time.

Can you say “business as usual?”

As individuals, we often have great ideas for solutions and/or great ideas for new products. But that’s not being strategic – that’s coming up with ideas! Generating ideas and being strategic are not the same. A good definition of “strategic” is “relating to the identification of long-term or overall aims and interests and the means of achieving them.” Note the operative phrase: “means of achieving them.”

As a leader, if you do not teach your team how to plan, you set yourself up for undue stress, lower ROI and decreased profitability. Projects will get done through trial and error rather than through planning and flawless execution.

Luckily, planning can be learned. Here’s an approach to share with your team to teach/show them “activity management” before they attack their next project:

Step 1 – Ensure your team goals are SMART: (S)pecific, (M)easureable, (A)ction-oriented, (R)easonable, and (T)ime-sensitive.

Step 2 – For each SMART goal, specify the due date and milestones, including dates for follow-up meetings and specific progress deliverables.

Step 3 – List as many of the activities as possible necessary to complete the project (this also gives a sense/feel for the scope of the job ahead).

Step 4 – List the barriers to flawless execution you might encounter along the way. For example, if an activity is “to install new software and get people trained,” you may want to consider barriers such as availability of the software from the developer, the availability of training instructors, and/or availability of your employees to be trained. (Amazingly, many do not include this step!)

Step 5 – Consider the people involved. Make two lists: #1) those able to help on this project and how they can contribute; #2) those who will be roadblocks to success, for whatever reasons. For example, people on list #1 could be those on your team involved in a specific aspect of the project; and people on list #2 might be those in quality control, new product design or regulatory areas. (Interestingly, few companies ever consider people as either barriers or aids. Quite ironic, really, considering people do the work!)

You can lead and achieve random results, not controlling your outcomes, or you can be intentional with purpose in your planning and achieve your heart-felt desires. It’s your choice…

Stuart Friedman is president of Progressive Management Associates, Inc. He is a business visionary who helps his clients get their companies “Unstuck!” He guides organizations through cultural shifts by getting people aligned to strategic outcomes. He is a leading consultant, speaker, coach and author. Friedman can be reached at stuart@pma-co.com.)