Tracking Down People For Follow-Ups, Answers, Reminders: Creating An Effective Babysitting System
Modern business protocols often
require high levels of teamwork in
order to achieve the company's
goals. More than ever, workers
interact like cogs in a machine, and
most of us have to mesh with lots of
other cogs in order to get our work
done. Fair enough, assuming
everything runs smoothly. But as we
all know, human beings don't always
work together with mechanical
efficiency. Occasionally, things get
caught up in the metaphorical gears,
causing work to slow—or even stop.
This might happen, for
instance, if someone doesn't get a
piece of information to you when you
need it. Similarly, if a supplier
can't provide a certain part or
computer program, you may be stuck
waiting. And if a project needs
approval to proceed, and you don't
have it, then find yourself at
someone else's mercy. If these
people don’t follow up in a timely
fashion, you can forget to keep in
touch with them, putting you further
behind.
Whatever the cause,
these bottlenecks make your workflow
uneven at best, and may even cause
it to grind to a halt. Clearly, you
want to minimize such occurrences;
and you can't count on anyone else
to keep your workflow machine in
good repair, either. So how do you
grease the gears? By setting up a
reminder system—basically a
babysitting mechanism—a schema that
helps you get the answers,
approvals, and resources you need
when you need them. That way, you
can always track down all the people
you depend on to keep you active,
and urge them along as necessary.
Breaking Through
Bottlenecks
Have you
ever been driving along on the
highway and hit a traffic
bottleneck, where an accident or
construction narrowed several lanes
down to one? You can go from zooming
along at a steady 60 miles per hour
to a near-standstill in seconds. No
matter how efficiently everyone
drives, your progress inevitably
slows down.
This can happen
in the workplace as well, but you
can't allow such bottlenecks to
hamper you for long if you expect to
maximize your personal productivity.
Immediately analyze the cause of any
workflow "traffic jam" that occurs.
If you find you create the
bottleneck yourself through your own
behavior or from a breakdown in a
process or system, then jump right
in and take steps to clear it. Sure,
it may require some hard work; but
if you can take care of the matter,
then do so without hesitation.
However, not all bottlenecks lie
within your purview.
Dependencies—blockages you have
little or no direct control over—may
also hinder your progress.
Dependencies occur when you have to
wait for others to do their jobs
before you can move on to the next
step in your own workflow. Sometimes
they emerge from below, from end
users or subordinates. More often,
however, dependencies arise from
lateral sources (co-workers at
roughly your own level in the
corporate hierarchy) or trickle down
the chain of command from above.
Like it or not, you often have
to depend on others for answers to
questions, for approval or sign-off
on work already done, for buy-in on
projects or strategies, or simply to
put work on your plate. Even though
you have little control over these
bottlenecks, you can't just sit
there and wait. So let's look at a
few ways you can smooth your
workflow and maximize productivity
even in the face of such
frustrations.
Streamline Your Dependencies
While you can't eliminate all
the dependencies constraining your
productivity, you can certainly
eliminate some of them and make the
rest easier to deal with. First of
all, always make sure that the lines
of communication remain wide open
between you and the other person,
and do your best to communicate with
crystal clarity. Don't beat around
the bush, hem and haw, or couch your
requirements in vague terms. Provide
specific details up front, to limit
the possibility of misunderstanding.
Once you've told your
dependency exactly what you require
and when you need it, work on
getting buy-in on both points. This
commits the person to action and
helps solidify the deadline in their
mind, so it has more urgency. In
addition, express your willingness
to work with them if something comes
up that might threaten the integrity
of your deadline. In all your
dealings, be polite but firm and try
not to badger. Just get an estimated
completion date to commit to action
and move on to the next bottleneck.
If an individual blocks your
progress repeatedly, for whatever
reason, you have two choices for
dealing with the person. If
necessary, you can attempt to find a
work-around that bypasses them
altogether. If you go that route,
try to avoid conflict; leave going
over their head as a last resort.
Otherwise, try the direct approach:
simply ask, politely, "What can I do
to help get this done?"
When
confronted this way, most people
respond in one of two ways: either
with anger (a reflection of the
attitude that caused the bottleneck
in the first place) or with
complaints about the factors
actually causing the bottleneck. In
the latter case, immediately offer
to pitch in and help them clear the
blockage. You may find that you only
have to implement a minor procedural
change or requisition a new piece of
equipment to set things right. So
don't hesitate to take a helping
hand, if doing so can eliminate
further problems for you.
Realize that you can't clear every
dependency in your workflow process,
especially if you lack direct
control over the people involved.
Just deal with those you can, accept
the ones you can't, and move on.
While you don't want to forget about
them, you don't want to worry,
either.
A Tickle for
Your Thoughts
In
addition to streamlining your
dependencies, you'll need to set up
a system to remind you when to
follow up with them. You can
approach this task in many different
ways: for example, you might use a
chalkboard or whiteboard to track
your follow-ups and reminders, or
create a simple Excel spreadsheet
that you check periodically. It
doesn't matter what method you
choose, as long as it keeps you on
your toes and "tickles" your brain,
providing timely, reliable reminders
about specific tasks, goals, and
other information you need to see to
at specific times.
Many
people favor the classic tickler
file: a series of individual cards,
files, or folders that rotate
through a chronological paper filing
system. Most paper ticklers use the
simple "43 folders" approach. For
instructions on how to create one,
click here.
You can
easily translate the tickler file
concept into electronic formats.
Spend a little time exploring your
email client to discover how it
handles reminders and notifications;
this should take no more than a few
minutes.
If your company uses
scheduling or calendar software, you
can create reminders very easily.
Let's take a look at how to do it in
Microsoft Outlook 2010, the most
commonly-used software of this type.
You can handle the task in several
ways, though I consider the
following the two easiest methods.
First: for appointments or meetings,
go into the Appointment or Meeting
tab, find the Reminder drop-down
list in the Options group, and
simply select how soon before the
event you want the reminder to
appear (e.g., an hour, two hours, a
day, etc.). For tasks or emails, go
to the Home tab, find the Tags
group, and click Follow Up. A
drop-down menu appears, offering a
number of options, including Add
Reminder. Just click it and follow
the simple directions. In both
cases, a notification pops up on
your computer screen at the
appropriate time.
You can
also use something like Nudgemail, a
"freemium" email service currently
in beta testing. Nudgemail lets you
set up your reminders using a list
of simple, intuitive commands that
you just type into the address
header of your regular email client
before hitting "Send." You can tell
Nudgemail to send you an email a set
number of days, weeks, or months
from now, or you can specify a
precise amount of time before you
want to see the reminder: say,
exactly five hours and 23 minutes in
the future. As I write this in
mid-September 2011, you can still
use the Nudgemail system for free;
but the creators intend to charge a
nominal monthly fee once they
present the system to the general
public.
Contact
Management
Even the
best reminder system is useless if
you can't track down the people you
need to buttonhole. Therefore, your
babysitting system also requires a
second component: a detailed contact
list. Collect every last bit of
contact data you can for each of
your co-workers and colleagues:
office phone number, cell phone
number(s), email address(es), office
or cubical number, physical address,
their assistant's contact info (if
they have an assistant), even their
IM address. Link that to their
office manager's contact
information, just in case you can't
find them in any other way.
Once you have all that contact info
in hand, track it in some form of
contact management list, whether
paper or electronic. You don't need
anything fancy, as long you make it
easy to search (alphabetical is
best), update it regularly, and can
condense it into a portable form.
You can always invest in the latest
contact management software and
schedule calls from there (we use
Sage ACT! in our office). Or maybe a
paper contact list stored in your
Productivity Pro Day-Timer works
better for you. You can always
upload everyone's business cards
into a capture service like
Evernote, which includes OCR
(optical character recognition)
capabilities that make it easy to
search for the info you need.
Cautionary Tips
If poorly handled, your
babysitting system can morph into a
nagging system: an
annoyance to your co-workers that
generates resentment and actually
slows down your workflow. If misused
with subordinates, it can easily
turn into a micromanagement system
that quashes individuality and kills
productivity.
So don't overdo
it. Schedule reminders for basic
mileposts and important
requirements, not minor details.
Never set a reminder just to bug
someone in the middle of the task.
And when you do track down someone
for a reminder or to ask a question,
and they response less positively
than you hoped or expected, don't
bother them incessantly without
giving them time to get the work
done or find out what you need to
know. Just check back occasionally,
trying to be politely persistent
(within reason). If they refuse to
respond, you may have to go around
them or over their head to get what
you need.
While you can't
avoid occasionally bumping heads
with other people, treating them
with politeness and dignity while
implementing your babysitting system
does make the inevitable clashes
less common.
Adventures in Babysitting
However you arrange things, your
babysitting system should not only
remind you to track people down when
you need to, but also ensure you
can track them down, no matter
what. Like it or not, you have no
choice but to take responsibility
not just for your own actions, but
for the actions of the people you
interact with professionally as
well—at least to the extent that
their actions affect your workflow
process.
No matter how
well-intentioned, most people soon
lose track of you and your issues in
the daily struggle to handle their
own...unless you make a sincere
effort to remind them otherwise. So
if you value your productivity, keep
an eye on your dependencies, and
don't let them forget about what
they owe you.
Make it a productive day!
(TM)
If you enjoyed this article, you can register for the August 30, 2011 webinar on exactly how to do this! http://www.theproductivitypro.com/2011webinars.
(C) Copyright 2011 Laura Stack. All rights reserved.
© 2011 Laura Stack. Laura Stack is a personal productivity expert, author, and professional speaker whose mission is to build high-performance productivity cultures in organizations by creating Maximum Results in Minimum Time®. She is the president of The Productivity Pro®, Inc., a time management training firm specializing in productivity improvement in high-stress organizations and the 2011-2012 President of the National Speakers Association. Since 1992, Laura has presented keynotes and seminars on improving output, lowering stress, and saving time in today’s workplaces. She is the bestselling author of four books: SUPERCOMPETENT; The Exhaustion Cure; Find More Time; and Leave the Office Earlier. Laura has been a spokesperson for Microsoft, 3M, Xerox, and Office Depot. She is the creator of The Productivity Pro® planner by Day-Timer and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, CNN, and the New York Times. Her clients include Starbucks, Cisco Systems, Wal-Mart, and Bank of America. To have Laura speak at your next event, call 303-471-7401 or visit www.TheProductivityPro.com to sign up for her free monthly productivity newsletter.