WHY ARE YOU DOING WHAT YOU ARE DOING?

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

Many leaders in many firms right now are having retreats, forming task forces, forming committees, hosting lunch & learns, bringing in trainers – - all of this focused on getting things done THAT NEED to be done at the firm.

Have you ever considered that you might just need a Stop Doing List? I received a lot of positive comments on the post I did on this topic back in September, 2009. Take a minute or two to click on the link and read it.

This came to mind as I was reading a post by Seth Godin, titled, What’s the Point? It’s short so I will quote it here:

An idea turns into a meeting and then it turns into a project. People get brought along, there’s free donuts, there’s a whiteboard and even a conference call.

It feels like you’re doing the work, but at some point, hopefully, someone asks, “what’s the point of this?”

Is it worth doing?

Compared to everything else we could be investing (don’t say ‘spending’) our time on, is this the scariest, most likely to pay off, most important or the best long-term endeavor?

Or are we just doing it because no one had the guts along the way to say STOP?

Are you doing work worth doing, or are you just doing your job?

If you haven’t had your retreat yet, consider addressing fewer topics. Pick ONE or TWO and go much deeper into the subject. Leave the retreat WITH A WRITTEN ACTION PLAN of how your ideas will be implemented.

If your retreat is over and your to do list is long, maybe it’s time to ask, how many of these can we REALLY do well?