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Organising your work for maximum effectiveness!
Frank Julie
April 08, 2007

The importance of a work plan!

In "The Practice of Management" Peter Drucker said that "The job of a manager does not begin with managing other people. It begins with managing himself. If that is not done, nothing else is likely to be achieved. It is not difficult to be an effective manager. All it needs, bluntly, is hard work. It needs the willingness to acquire the right habits, and the practice to make these habits second nature."

The necessity of leaders in non-profit organizations to consciously organise their work is becoming more and more vital. The importance of work plans has been seriously downplayed reflected in the behaviour of certain leaders and managers I worked with over many years. This is what I observed in my experience:

1. A focus on just keeping busy for the sake of keeping busy.
2. Managers do their own thing without any relation to their agreed area of work responsibility.
3. A lack of focus on the quality of their output.
4. Managers become side tracked by unforeseen developments.
5. A lack of prioritisation on what is important and what is urgent.
6. A lack of division of labour, i.e. two or more people would be doing exactly the same thing.
7. Undisciplined members piggy back on the hard work of others.
8. Important tasks are left in abeyance without any reasonable explanation.
9. Self-development is either absent or feature as a necessary evil.

When managers are required to supervise the work of other members, it becomes imperative that they pay urgent attention to the practice of organising their work in order to be more effective.

Why a work plan is important

1. IT IS YOUR COMPASS:

Can you imagine walking in a constantly changing and unknown jungle trying to reach your destination without a map? Well, a work plan is a map in the organization helping you to reach your destination. And your destination is to deliver the results in relation to the commonly agreed objectives of the organization that are linked to your strategic focus and vision. If you fail to take your map seriously, spend time to prepare it, study it and revisit it regularly, then you are going to get lost. The results you deliver are then by default and not by design. In this case you will mostly dissipate your energies and lose focus. This is why some managers can go to work most of the time without any idea of what they will be doing.

2. FOCUS ON YOUR CORE TASKS:

It allows you to focus on your core tasks, i.e. the tasks for which only you are responsible. This is what you are paid to do. A principle of effective management is never to do something that someone else can do.

3. IDENTIFY AD-HOC TASKS:

These are tasks that arise in the course of your work. Most of the times these are tasks that can be performed by other people and that is when you learn to delegate to the right person and follow up because it remains your task until it is fully completed. When you delegate please make sure that:

1. You delegate to the right person
2. The person understands what needs to be done
3. The person has the capacity to deliver
4. The person has access to the resources necessary to complete the task
5. The person knows where to get support if required
6. The person understands the deadline to the task
7. The person understands the importance of the task
8. The person understands what will happen if the task is not completed
9. Follow up is done to check task completion

4. DEALING WITH THE UNFORESEEN (RESPONSIVE TASKS):

To deal with the unforeseen you need to see and understand what you must do and more importantly, what NOT to do. That means you need to know that which cannot be chopped and changed. In this way you can prioritise between what is important and what is urgent. Since no plan is perfect, work plans must allow for flexibility to deal with the unforeseen. At least 25% of your time must be devoted to the unforeseen. So, it does not help to keep busy just for the sake of keeping busy! In management the focus is on quality of work and not quantity. The higher up in the organizational hierarchy of responsibility, it is more important to do less but to achieve more. That means that it is not important how busy you are but what you are busy with in the first place. The question that must guide you is: "Am I adding permanent value to the organization and its work or just killing time?

5. SELF-MONITORING AND EVALUATION:

This is self-explanatory. A plan always allows you to monitor and evaluate your own work. In this way you can take self-responsibility for your own work instead of expecting others to constantly supervise you like a policeman or woman. To expect this is to suffer from a dependency syndrome. Of course this does not obviate the need for external monitoring and evaluation. But it must start with you first. If you do not know how to do it, ask other managers to help or guide you.

6. OBSERVING TRENDS IN WORK STRUCTURES:

Work plans allow management to observe trends in the work structures of members. Here they look for changes that are once off or continuous. When the latter happens then intervention is required in terms of long-term change of a work structure. It may mean appointing a new person or getting a volunteer to take on some of the tasks of an individual. It could also mean redeployment or a change in the responsibility of a member. The cumulative effect of such changes directly influences your staff development programme. It also allows one to check whether a staff member lacks focus or whether the focus of the organization in a particular area of work is unclear. Correct identification of the problem is therefore facilitated. This enables you to the cause of a work (performance) problem and not its symptoms.

7. FACILITATE SELF-DEVELOPMENT:

An important component (if not the most vital one!) in your work plan is your self-development. No organization employs one half of a human being. They always employ a whole human being. So your development must be holistic. It is not only important to focus on your job responsibilities but also you as a tool to execute those responsibilities. For example, of what use is someone with a beautiful and impressive work plan but not able to execute it due to perpetual bad health? This is useless!

I used to work with someone who suffered from diabetes. And we all know it is partly a lifestyle sickness. Strangely, the section dealing with self-development in his work plan was usually always empty! I always asked him of what value he thinks his work plan was if he is lying in a hospital. Well, physical health (regular exercise, eating and drinking right, adequate sleep) is important. Mental health (reading, writing, studying, reflection, planning and visualizing) is important! Relationships are important! Proper handling of personal finances is important! And so on (read section on personal money management).

The Practise of work plans

Managers who plan to use a work plan as a tool of organising their work must please note the following procedure based on my experience: (You can adapt this procedure to your own rhythm in your organization.)

1. A work plan is submitted every three months, i.e. four times per year. It is submitted in the 2nd week of the new quarter for discussion and clarification.
2. A work plan is filed after corrections have been made and feedback provided.
3. An interim evaluation is conducted after the first 8 weeks to check that you are still on track and to intervene if necessary.
4. A final evaluation is conducted in the second week of the new quarter.
5. Your work plan must ensure that your planned tasks are linked to the strategic vision of the organization.
6. There must be continuity between your new and previous work plan.
7. Your work plan must clearly identify your core, ad-hoc and routine duties.
8. You must constantly refer to this map to check that you are still doing the right thing.

In my experience there are not many organizations that attach much importance to people organising their work properly in an NPO. Needless to say, in the corporate sector this is vital. You must justify yourself as a cost to the company otherwise you are out! Remember what Drucker says. If you want to become effective, start practising the right habits. And as a leader and manager right habits start with organising your work and taking responsibility for it. That means, taking your work plan seriously!

Your team members don't care how much you know until they know how much you care!

Have the right people in place then step back and let them own their work!

The trouble with doing nothing is that you never know when you are finished!

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are!

Success is not measured by the position you have reached in society but by the obstacles you overcome to get there!

The great thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in which direction we are moving!

Written by: Frank Julie, independent development consultant and author of "The Art of Leadership and Management on the Ground" (A practical guide for leaders and managers to develop sustainable organizations for permanent social change).

To read more about the book, view its detailed contents and comments from community leaders and academics around the world, please go to www.frankjulieblogspot.com. To order the book and get a free list of donors in South Africa, please e-mail Zandile Stols (PA) at frankjulie@telkomsa.net.

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