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Hi,
I've been hooked on MT for the last 6months and have learned loads - its brilliant. I started weekly O3's towards the end of December. I had been doing them for about 2months and they were going well.
Recently things have been very busy (I have only got 1 day/week to do any management/admin work, the rest of the time I am doing the work the rest of my team are doing). I only have 4 direct reports so O3's were just taking 4hours out of the working week. This was however more than half of my admin time per week. I wanted to keep them going but my boss hads told me to reduce them to monthly as it was resulting in too long a waiting list for appointments at my work.
What should I do now? I think monthly is better than not at all and I felt I was improving things by doing them weekly. However I have been told to do them monthly.
At my work I am a manager but I am given very little time to actually manage the staff (I'm sure the same for many other managers).
Any suggestions/tilps would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Stuart.
I want to do them weekly but told monthy!
4 directs should only be 2 hours per week. You can do that.
If you're getting the performance from your team and getting your own work done, why is your boss trying to manage your schedule to that level of detail?
John
I want to do them weekly but told monthy!
What is the nature of your work?
Those appts. your missing due to 03's may be important to your boss, but not to you.
What about meeting 1/2 way by doing bi-weekly 03's?
Monthly 03's are not effectiveFi =
1. You typically spend an 30 minutes to an hour preparing for each
2. Each 03 ends up taking an hour at least instead of 30 minutes
3. It will take you three times as long to develop a relationship, trust, and communication with your team, thus slowing down the potential productivity gains.
I want to do them weekly but told monthy!
Do them weekly.
If your people know you're swamped with work, and yet you STILL make time to meet with them individually for 30 minutes (not 60), they'll love you even more.
Cheers,
BJ
I want to do them weekly but told monthy!
It sounds like your boss wants you to make your appointments. Once you can start doing that, you'll be in a better position to say that your way works. From where he's standing, he sees you in a lot of meetings that result in a long waiting list.
This isn't about monthly or weekly O3s. It's that you're not meeting your other commitments, so your boss stepped in. You might have a great relationship with your team, but you're not getting your boss the results he expects.
I want to do them weekly but told monthy!
Downplay them a little with your boss (he might be a little jealous of your innovation :) )
Even if you have to go a bit "below the radar" keep doing them weekly.
Make sure your directs believe they're getting value from the time spent. Think about RESULTS you can trace to the relationships you've built using O3's.
And keep them to 30 minutes (your math suggested you might be spending an hour on each?).
If you're sure they're working, hang tough. But don't rub it in the bosses' face - and NEVER tell your directs that you've been getting any heat about it...
-Hugh
I want to do them weekly but told monthy!
I wasn't very clear - my O3's take 30mins each. But this means 30mins of my time and 30mins of my directs time, so works out as 1hour of appointments lost per O3 (I am a vet in a charity field so that equates to 8 consultations missed per hour so 32 per week) We have a waiting list of 1-2weeks at a time and this is why my boss wants me to reduce the frequency of the O3's.
I agree with TomW, my boss needs me to meet my targets. However it was me that went to my boss as I knew my hospital was not meeting the targets. I need more staff (who doesn't?) and was feeling the strain. I asked my boss for a little help and I have been told to reduce the O3's as this would free up 32 extra appointment a week.
Thanks for all the comments.
Cheers,
Stuart.
I want to do them weekly but told monthy!
Let's see, 5 of you could skip lunch every day, that's 25 hours a week saved. 25 x 8 would be 200 extra meetings.
And if you cut out bathroom breaks, figure 30 minutes a day per employee, that's 12.5 hours, 100 meetings.
And if you came in an hour early every day, and stayed an hour later, that would be an additional 400 meetings.
And if you worked Saturday, for 8 hours, that's an additional 1600 meetings.
Obviously I'm not being reasonable. I'm extending a very reasonable thought to unreasonable ends. But the point is that some things are necessary. Not everything that isn't meeting directly with a client is "wasted" time. O3s are not wasted time.
What's your employee turnover? Is that going to be reduced with good management? How many meetings is that worth?
I want to do them weekly but told monthy!
Perhaps shifting the discussion towards the *quality* of the appointments rather than simply the *quantity* is in order.
To what extent can one argue that with O3s the quality of your directs interactions improve leading to greater satisfaction among those you serve?