Speed and Focus

Two separate events occurred yesterday at work - not end of the world bad, but bad enough that it made me take a moment and look at what I did - personally - to not catch them.

As I reviewed the situation, what I realized is that it relates to two factors: speed and focus.

The reality is that in this current economic clime, doing more with less - the "lean manufacturing" concept - is all the rage. This, in turn, leads to each individual being required to do more, more quickly. What this then leads to - inevitably -is that less time is available to do the same amount of tasks; therefore less focus is given to each individual task. Instead, even as task is being worked on the mind is racing to the next responsibility to be performed.

Again, I'm starting with myself. The reality is, I can't change my place of employment or their attitudes. All I can change is how I do my work - speed, intensity, focus. Unfortunately, getting all three of these in one package requires resources - people, time, tools: the very thing that is anathema to so much of the industry. And this too is something that is beyond my control to magically make appear.

So what am I going to do this morning? And tomorrow? And the next day?

Simple. I'm going to starting making myself very unpopular by taking the time, by doing one thing at a time - and ensuring that it is done right.

They can argue with the turnaround time, they can argue with the priorities - but they cannot argue with work done right.