Important but not Urgent

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.
- Peter Drucker

First, a question: how do you find yourself spending your time these days? Hundreds of emails, meeting after meeting, and conference calls that start early in Europe and end late far to the west? In this environment, leaders must actively allocate their time to the activities that are aligned with their most critical business objectives. But, we’re all too familiar with Covey’s Urgent-Important matrix – and studies still show that the typical leader spends 50% (or more) of their time in the Urgent quadrants, and less than 15% of their time in the Important but Not Urgent quadrant. So as a service to our readers, we are dedicating this newsletter to the topic of Important but not Urgent, with some thoughts around current macro-trends in business, and their potential impact to your organization.

We have selected the trends below because of their far-reaching implications, and their potential to create both opportunities and challenges for large organizations. They may be more relevant to some than others, and you may not agree with the implied direction (or importance) of each. But consider this a chance to sit back, reflect, and (even if only for five minutes...) pursue a purely intellectual exercise to uncover hidden opportunities that might otherwise be missed.

The Free Agent Nation. The employee-to-employer relationship continues to evolve, and clearly, 20+ years at a single company is the rare exception these days. With average job tenure below 4 ½ years, and CEO tenure well below that, there is clearly a fundamental and continued shift to a free agent mindset — where individuals see themselves as the business entity – “Jane Doe Incorporated” — to include taking control of their own career development and growth. And, this means that executives are finding it more difficult to build mentor-type relationships, and often look for these kinds of relationships outside of the company.

Now, consider the implications as free agency extends beyond the traditional realm of independent experts in IT, HR, and other back office functions, and potentially lands in the executive suite. As some of the best talents in financial strategy, marketing, sales, and even general management turn to free agency, will your organization be prepared to leverage this new model? If you can only build a business with W2 employees in all of the key leadership positions, you will undoubtedly miss out on some talented individuals — and, probably not move as quickly as you otherwise might with a “free agent” mindset. In the future, we believe that organizations will move faster and more effectively by using the free agent model at all levels to quickly adapt to changing business conditions, and to new opportunities and challenges.

Public Sector Growth. Persons 65 years or older numbered 36.3 million in 2004, or 12.4% of the U.S. population. By 2030, there will be about 71.5 million in that category, representing about 20% of the population. And there are other long-term population trends, regulatory needs, anti-terrorism initiatives, and other factors that also point to a slow but steady increase in government services. When you combine all this with the well-documented “Human Capital Crisis” in our federal government — with half the workforce eligible to retire in the next 5 years (70% of which are senior executives), there is certain to be an continued imperative to “do more with less.” For government leaders, these trends create urgency in many dimensions, most notably in the areas of leadership development and productivity gains. For business leaders, these are long-term market opportunities in areas that are not yet fully tapped. Ultimately, government and industry will need to put more substance behind the concept of “public-private partnerships” in order to avoid this impending financial (and service delivery) crisis. As just one example, consider the current trend in outsourcing. In the long term, the optimal mix for service delivery will be a mix of public and private expertise — probably to include a healthy dose of “free agent” leadership and management talent to go with the usual cast providing domain and/or technology expertise. Some might argue that they are providing this type of capability; we would respond that current initiatives are still at least “an iteration away.” The challenge for leaders on both sides of this equation is to innovate and find the “sweet spot” that can deliver on complex public sector needs, without undo risk or “breaking the bank.”

The Connected Economy (or, The World is Flat). As the world becomes an increasingly smaller place, one of the key characteristics that results is an accelerated pace of change. You can’t help but notice reduced cycle times in nearly every aspect of our lives – with products going from drawing board to production much faster than ever before. So beyond time-to-market and the strategy itself, how else does this accelerated pace of change impact your day-to-day business? First, consider your own management and leadership style. How do you use the tools and technologies of the connected economy – voicemail, emails, conference calls, etc. — and is it a conscious decision or just something that “happens”? And, is your leadership “model” in synch with the pace of today’s business? Annual planning cycles may not be enough any more; or more likely, planning that attempts to look out five years (or even three years) may generally be a waste of management’s time. Think about the ways in which you ask your leadership team to spend their time, and whether some of those activities are holdovers from an era that has passed us by. How quickly is your leadership team able to adapt and change course? Also, think about how new technologies can spur this kind of adaptive change; for instance, are you using blog technology yet as a communications tool?

(As an aside, readers that have gotten this far might be interested in picking up a copy of Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat, an interesting analysis of the 21st century connected economy and its implications for business, politics, and our global future. Click here to find it on Amazon.)

Summary
While each of these trends is monumental and complex on its own, what we find intriguing is how they relate and build on each other – the free agents of the world pushing the pace of business through technology and innovation (and even competing with big business as they never could have just a few decades ago). And, the soon-to-retire baby boomers fueling the need for increased public services, but also continuing to participate in the work force... likely as free agents.

Hopefully this has been a short but worthwhile diversion from the usual thoughts of the day. Now, go back to your regularly scheduled programming...

Back to top		read previous newletter

© 2006 Suntiva LLC. All rights reserved.