There is a great saying in the portfolio management industry.
“The trick to getting things done is knowing what to leave not done”.
Funny though. We keep being told to “do more with less” or “be more efficient” or my personal favourite “work smarter not harder”. These are often the pleas or “motivating speeches” of the leaders of businesses in tough times.
Why?
Why is it that if we know that getting things done effectively relies on prioritising what you allocate your resources to that we simply put more pressure on everyone to do everything?
In my view this is simple. Too few people really know how to prioritise. So that you are not seen as making a bad decision, you make no decision at all! By doing everything frantically something will work and you’ll look like a genius, right?
Wrong!
No matter how hard you push a task that takes a day to do will take a day to do. You can’t bake a cake faster by simply putting more people in front of the oven (or telling the oven to “bake smarter, not harder”). You also can’t bake several cakes at once in an oven that is only big enough for one at a time.
How do you really make good decisions on what is more important than something else? This is what experienced Portfolio Managers do. Portfolio management is not just juggling money (or trying to manage lots of projects at once….that’s a common misconception) it’s about making sure that when you have limited resources you get the best use of them to achieve your goals. At a time like now when value is critical for business continuity it seems more important to do things very effectively.
Instead of making emotional choices it is always better to make sensible and information based decisions. The longer you wait, the greater the chance you’ll burn that cake and waste the ingredients that could have been the basis of a celebration. Maybe you’re a great baker with lots of experience in dealing with a half empty pantry.
It’s more likely though that you could benefit greatly with specialist help to improve your ability to achieve.
