Good busy and bad busy

What should you call “work”? 

I define work as whatever needs to be done to reach a certain goal. If you work in a company, this outcome is usually about producing revenues and EBITDA.

Productive work is essential. On the contrary, producing an intermediate outcome is not work by itself. Communicating to your team that you have reached an intermediate task, or that you are in the middle of something but have not reached your goal yet: this to me is not work. People often delude themselves into thinking that they are really busy when in reality, all that they are doing is sending emails around.

Spending hours on tasks which do not contribute to reaching an outcome is not work either. Carrying out a repetitive task, which was defined as part of a routine some years ago in a specific situation, but brings no advantage or added value whatsoever is the present or the immediate future, is not work – at least from my perspective. This is sometimes called “bad busy“. 

What can be done to promote effective work? 

What can you do if you come to the conclusion that your team is doing work that is not leading to any substantial outcome?

The first step would be to analyse the situation: is your team working effectively? Is your team reaching its objectives? If not, there are usually 4 scenarios:

1. Wrong objectives. In this case, the first step towards a solution is obviously to communicate objectives that are meaningful and achievable
2. Right objectives, inadequate execution. In this case, objectives are not reached because you or your team are performing the wrong tasks. Focus on useful tasks, rather than losing time with repetitive, useless tasks or discussing intermediary outcomes
3. Right objectives, fear of failure. Do not fear failure, embrace it. It is part of working life. Think of the dire consequences of inaction
4. Right objectives, procrastination. Often the best solution is to stop altogether and fix and existing emotional problems. If one of your team members has emotional problems about work, do not assume that will improve with time. It will likely worsen. These types of problem are quite tricky to solve and it often is down to the individual concerned to make an effort towards a resolution.

Need for speed [Economics and Policy]

Ever since the country went into financial assistance mode, the Portuguese Government has cut costs essentially by reducing wages and pension benefits. Why is it so hard to admit that, inevitably, some Government institutions are less efficient than average and less efficient than in other European countries? Would it not make sense to conduct some benchmarking and implement reforms?

There is a pressing need for efficiency improvements and this would almost certainly involve merging the significant amount of small institutes, independent entities and regional authorities that were created in the past 20 years.

Hopefully for the better…

The advantages would far outweigh the disadvantages: fewer needless consulting committees, boards, and commissions. Increased efficiency, leaner organisations employing more qualified civil servants would all result in sustainable cost savings.

This Government’s stated aim of tapping financial markets ASAP could create the wrong incentive. This need for speed could well become a way to avoid deeper reforms which would result in a leaner Government sector.