Which is more important to first get right: Effectiveness or efficiency? Intuitively many choose first to be effective: Just get it done, worry about doing it properly later. This approach may produce short term gain but it is disastrous in the long run. Even though some things may get done, doing them inefficiently takes away from the enjoyment of our work, depletes our energy and momentum, and causes ineffectiveness; this is true for individuals as well as teams.
Yet a principal responsibility of managers—shareholder proxies—is to ensure the long term sustainability of the businesses entrusted to our care. We give ourselves every chance of success when we focus on efficiency first, and then effectiveness. Form before function. Quality before quantity. How before what. Efficiency results from following the correct form. Effectiveness produces an intended result. [click to continue…]
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Whenever I can I like to spend time with customer care people, trainers, sales people, and those who support our products in the market place. Why? Because as a manager I must always be aware of how our products are being portrayed to customers and users: Over the ‘phone, in emails, in Help and FAQs, in training, in sales demo’s, everywhere.
In his book On War, published posthumously by his wife in 1832, von Clausewitz wrote, “We fall into error if we attribute to strategy a power independent of tactical results.”
Is your strategy being made impotent by rudeness over the ‘phone, poor grammar in emails, incomplete or inaccurate Help, dour trainers, or over-promising and under-delivering sales people? You need to find out.
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