Trigger Question #150:
Another day, another app. A new day, a new structure. Tomorrow, a modified get-things-done routine. And so on and so more.
Exciting, isn’t it?
Except that we get so carried away with what the latest latest is that we ignore what the latest latest is for. What it must achieve. What it must do for us.
We drool over the latest gadget instead of over the results of using the gadget. We personalize the latest productivity system instead of being personally productive. And so on.
This obsession with the latest is-ness bleeds into other areas at work. We polish our plans instead of implementing a strategy. We massage our budgets instead of managing our cash flows. We attend the latest meeting before attending to the issues raised in the previous meeting.
We get so wrapped up in the process we follow that we don’t process the outcome that follows. (For example, did we succeed? If not, why not? Did we achieve what we expected? What did we learn? And so on.)
To drive my point home, let me share a pet peeve. We get so hung up about doing a performance appraisal, so caught up in the process itself, once a year the HR way, that we forget why we are doing it. We forget we do it to help someone to improve.
Don’t mistake the app you click, the process you follow, the technique you perfect, for the goal that matters.
Start with your goal, then find the means. Not vice versa.
Welcome to my side of the nonsense divide.