There is an old joke about the technique to use when dining on an elephant. If you’re running a business, overseeing a group or team, you’re probably dealing with an overwhelming and overflowing inbox, multiple projects, and a series of last-minute surprises and have asked yourself the question, “How do you eat an elephant?”
Everyone who manages any facet of a company or institution faces elephants. The elephants are the massive tasks and challenges we face, seemingly every day (or the staggering number of tasks and details that somehow land on your desk):
That mountain of paperwork to do!
The seemingly impossible odds!
Customers are demanding ever higher levels of speed, service and quality.
Staff who have questions, ideas, due dates and requests
Suppliers to consider
The endless details of running our business and personal lives!
It’s a whole herd of elephants!
So how do we turn our daily elephants into something manageable in size?
- Determine the end results and focus on the key points.
- Prioritize those key points (most important/easiest to achieve/highest return on investment/etc.)
- Delegate as many tasks as possible to people who have the skills and time to do them correctly and on time (and if they’re dealing with elephants themselves, help them out by showing them this list). NOTE: Create deadlines or you will have even more things on your list.
- Develop a timeline – Combine time needed and time allotted with checkpoints to ensure adherence to schedule.
- Divide the project into digestible, manageable and tasty parts.
- Start with task #1 and work your way up.
- Review and reprioritize the list as new tasks arrive
If you don’t take this methodical approach, every day is chaos, constantly behind schedule and out of breath, with the result that some tasks either don’t get done at all or are finished sloppily and poorly, which means they’ll keep coming back. on your desk to finish or redo them, which means you’ve wasted time and effort the first time, leading to more chaos, more heartache, more overwhelming. Better keep eating the elephant.
When the task is an elephant (and isn’t everyone?), break that big guy down into manageable chunks that are focused on a timely outcome. In other words, “One bite at a time!”
Soon you will be ready for a delicious dessert.