If you enter an actual finish date for a task, Project calculates its percent complete to be 100%. To compare baseline and scheduled dates, on the View tab, in the Data group, click the arrow on Tables, and then select Variance. Baseline dates, however, are not affected by changes that you make to the actual or scheduled dates. Try it for a week and see what happens.Entering an actual start or finish date for a task changes the corresponding scheduled or planned date for that task. Apparently the benefit is greatest if you write rather than just think about it, and writing by hand is better than typing it into a computer (this is why leaders on our four-day Happy Workplace Leadership Programme now receive one of our Happy Planner and learning journals for planning and reflection). I often stop off on the way home too (though I do have the benefit of a short, 13 minute, commute).Įnd of day reflection: Or use the Harvard idea, and take 15 minutes at the end of each day to reflect. I either spend that time getting some writing done (yep, I’m in a café right now) or taking time to reflect before heading into the busy office. Take a break in a café: Most mornings, on my cycle into work, I stop in a café for a hot chocolate. She went on to list a dozen improvements that this had led to, resulting in less pressure and actually improving the service to patients. The core question was ‘what are GPs (our most expensive resource) doing that other people could do?” And we deliberately timetabled innovation time for them, even in what felt a very hectic schedule. “So we worked out who were the most creative people, best able to come up with new approaches. Everybody felt overworked and without any spare time to think about how to improve the service. Put people to work on improvement: A partner in a GP surgery in Exeter described how they took over an underperforming surgery. Don’t wait to break your arm – can you find the time? Instead he used the time to look at their processes and came up with new ways of working that resulted in efficiencies way beyond that three months in benefit. For three months he couldn’t go in the operating theatre. Then one surgeon mentioned that, a couple of years previously, he had broken his arm. It means our delivery is continually changing and improving.īreak your arm: As I worked with one group of NHS leaders, many described how they had no time in their hectic schedules to reflect. So every month our key people on our leadership programmes come together for 3 hours to look at what can be improved. They would then use this time to think about how to improve processes, ways of working, or develop strategies, for the school.īook in innovation time: One thing we learnt from doing this at Happy was that, if you want innovation and creativity, you have to set aside the time for it. On one project the result of the changes that resulted from this day led to a halving of costs and a 32% reduction in time to completion.ġ0 days a year at home: Another headteacher, this time from Gloucestershire, told me how they got their governors to agree to spending 10 days a year, during school term, at home. There are no meetings, no day-to-day tasks and email is turned off. More can be read on that here.Ī day a month for everybody: At GCHQ one day of every month is set aside to innovate. Each staff member is allocated 15 minutes a day to identify possible improvements. But they don’t expect it to happen automatically on a busy production line. Set time aside each day: At Toyota they expect, as part of continual improvement, that every person on the assembly line will come up with two improvements each month. Here are five large companies who believe in mindfulness, one of my most popular blogs. I find giving myself that space makes a real difference to how I feel during the day that follows. Mindfulness: For the last year I have been spending just five minutes each morning in mindful reflection. “In terms of the thinking I get done, it is the most productive part of my working week”. Walk in the woods with your dog: One headteacher from Hillingdon described to me how every Monday morning – in school time – she goes for a two hour walk in the woods with her dog. How much more could you get done if you took time to sharpen your saw? Here are some examples of how people give themselves time to reflect: It can feel like the story of the lumberjack in the woods, working with a blunt saw: When a colleague suggests it needs sharpening he responds “Don’t you see how many trees I have to cut down? I don’t have time to sharpen the saw.” But, too often we seem to be dashing around yet not always getting a lot done.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |