Why Can't We Get Anything Done Around Here?: The Smart Manager's Guide to Executing the Work That Delivers Results : The Smart Manager's Guide to Executing the Work That Delivers Results

A proven system for ensuring that your business is productive--not just busy! Coauthored by the president and CEO of the prestigious international consulting firm Psychological Associates, Why Can't We Get Anything Done Around Here? Shows business leaders how to get bottom-line results with new methods for designing and implementing business strategies. These proven methods will help any business: Zero in on tasks essential to company success and assign them to the right people Motivate employees to achieve and maintain crisis-level performance without crisislevel stress and burnout Match tasks with technical, interpersonal, and decision-making skills

Accomplish so much more by focusing on how you organize and assign work

Sure, your people are busy, but is all their hard work achieving the goals that are essential to your department, your division, and your company? Most unproductive work in any organization stems from poor decisions about who should be assigned to do the task in the first place. Why Can't We Get Anything Done Around Here? shows you how to get bottom-line results, with a proven system for ensuring that everyone in your organization is working on the right task at the right time and being productive—not just busy!

Authors Robert E. Lefton and Jerome T. Loeb introduce the Task Management System, a simple and practical tool that any manager can use to make effective work assignment decisions. Illustrating each step of the task management process with live examples of good and bad decisions and practices, they describe a totally different approach to getting projects done effectively and identifying and rooting out unproductive work. Using this battle-tested system, you'll learn how to:

• Zero in on tasks essential to success and assign them to the right people
• Match tasks with people's technical, interpersonal, and decision-making skills
• Avoid the five management errors that keep you from getting things done
• Manage in a crisis mode—without the crisis
• Maximize your own productivity

Robert E. Lefton is cofounder, president, and co-CEO of Psychological Associates, a leading U.S. management and organizational consultancy servicing many Fortune 500 companies. He lives in St. Louis.

Jerome T. Loeb is former Chairman of the Board of The May Department Stores Co. He is currently adjunct professor of marketing at the Olin School of Business, Washington University in St. Louis. He lives in St. Louis.

Terms of Use 5 Want to learn more? 6 Contents 9 Foreword 11 Introduction 13 Chapter 1 Are You Getting the Right Things Done? 19 Getting Back to Basics 21 A Methodical Approach to Results 23 Run Faster by Running Smarter 26 Chapter 2 Going Beyond Style 29 Defining Style 31 Style Is Not Enough 33 Separating the Noise from the Signal 35 Chapter 3 Task Management Model 37 Three Questions to Ask for Every Work Assignment 38 From Black Holes to Gold Stars 52 You Make the Call 54 Chapter 4 Five Common Management Errors that Keep You From Getting Things Done 67 1. Allowing Black Hole Activities to Take Place 69 2. Paying Too Little Attention to Yellow Flag Activities 75 3. Allowing Big D (Discipline) Activities to Slow Things Down 81 4. Missing Gold Star Opportunities 85 5. Assigning Red Flag Activities 89 Don’t Be Pulled Off Course 92 Chapter 5 Managing in a Crisis Mode—Without the Crisis! 95 Crisis Response to a Bitter Pill 100 On Their Best Behavior 102 Crisis Mentality 106 Lessons Lost 110 Lessons Found 112 Sustaining the Crisis Mentality 115 Chapter 6 Back in Style Again 117 A Model of the Four Behavioral Styles 120 From Management to Leadership 133 Chapter 7 Checklist for Tomorrow 141 Prescriptions 145 Other Recommendations 150 Chapter 8 Working in Front of a Mirror 153 The Task of Managing Yourself 156 Black Holes 158 Red Flags 159 Big Ds 160 Yellow Flags 161 Gold Stars 162 A Task Analysis Guide 163 Develop Your Skills at the Getting Things Done Workshop 167 Index 169 About the Authors 177 This guide aims to teach business people how to become results-oriented by providing a system for how to determine tasks that are essential to the company's success and assign them to the right people. It also shows how to motivate employees to perform effectively in a crisis Coauthored by the president and CEO of the prestigious international consulting firm Psychological Associates, this book shows business leaders how to get bottom-line results with new methods for designing and implementing business strategies