Overworked? Lighten your load. (In the Trenches).

KEY COMCEPTS

* Creeping Task Migration

* Downsizing Your Workload

* Making Small Changes

* Changing Expectations

* Getting Rid of the Ineffective, Inefficient, and Redundant

* Looking for Orphan Projects to Cut

Managed care and clinic overload have made you a victim of creeping task migration, putting in too many hours for few appreciable results. Your boss has just delivered a stiff lecture on "pitching in" and "teamwork." Both will surely add to your workload. Short of changing jobs, what can you do to get control of your work and your time? This has become one of the most important issues in health care, brought on by too few people trying to do too much, It's a big problem for managers who absolutely must get the work done.

The only way you'll lessen your workload is to take charge, analyze, and act. Your boss doesn't care about the details. HR has no time to examine your job and suggest changes. They just hope to keep the place staffed--more or less. Don't wait until you're so stressed, stretched, and otherwise disgruntled that you'll explode (or start looking for a new job) if your boss asks you to do some minor task. The straw and camel response is very poor politics.

Downsizing your workload

Here are some ways to downsize your workload while not reducing your output. Your boss's knowledge or permission isn't necessary.

1. Compare your priorities with your boss's

Are your priorities and your boss's identical? We doubt it. What's probable is that you've added tasks and priorities that your boss is glad you're doing but isn't passionate about. They are never mentioned in a performance review (unless you bring them up) except under that catchall phrase: teamwork.

For instance, physician managers tell me that much of the morale building they do never shows up on a boss's screen. Another example: Your boss got you involved in a community organization that takes time both during and after work. He's moved on to other interests and you suspect he doesn't remember what his interest in the group was. Without saying a word, lessen your involvement. Make excuses. Do everything short of resigning from the organization. If you want out completely, ask your boss if he or she still thinks XYZ agency is worth $X to your organization. You obtain $X by multiplying the number of hours you spend annually on the activity by one hour of your pay plus benefits.

Expect a denial and a gasp. "We're spending thousands a year on those people? Forget it!" The problem with many "show the flag" activities is no one calculates cost against results. They assume the individual assigned is taking those hours out of his or her leisure time. Squash that idea.

2. Lighten up on the perfectionism 

Good enough really is better than perfect. Since when do routine tasks need to be perfect? Who benefits and is it worth the money? A client who works for a hospital CEO was charged with setting the agenda and taking notes at executive committee meetings. It took ten hours per week for her to do both, always agonizing over the tactfulness of her summary. One day she overheard a member of the executive committee refer to her as a "frustrated secretary." That was the end. All further reports are in outline form with bullets. No one has complained. They like shorter, less structured reports.

3. Change expectations

"It's always been done that way" means it's time for a change. Why must someone--perhaps you--worry about coffee and treats for the weekly staff meeting? Post a sign-up sheet and if people don't sign up, assign them a date for which they're responsible. You don't need authority to do this, just an appeal to fair play. Don't be surprised if people decide they'll skip the cookies--better for their health, of course! People easily give up expectations that mean extra work, known in management speak as "shared sacrifice." Pick one expectation a month to challenge. Don't do all of them in the same week unless you want a storm of protest.

What will co-workers, especially peers, think if you change your routine and do things differently? Don't they expect consistency, especially if you're a manager? Change is more easily accommodated if you warn those who'll be affected what's likely to happen. Say, "Next month we're doing bi-monthly, not monthly, reports. Remind all those whose help you need that change is coming. Never surprise them and never explain unless it's to say, "We've got a new procedure." Less explanation is always more in these instances. If hounded for an explanation, talk about the dollar cost of what you've cut.

4. Target orphans- those projects that nobody is invested in

Knowing that people loathe change, keep the political turmoil at a minimum. That means picking your targets with politics in mind, For example, don't even consider attacking department-wide meetings that your boss is emotionally invested in. Don't decide the CEO should excuse your HR department from the Crusade of Mercy campaign--always an onerous task--even if HR is struggling to fill 500 openings. The CEO's peers expect him to do his share. Instead, look for orphans, those products, projects, tasks, and services that nobody is really invested in but no one has the courage to euthanize or that have developed lives of their own. Every health care organization has a plethora of them.

We recently conducted a needs analysis for a clinic. We asked the questions we'd want you to ask: "Why this report? Why this meeting? Who benefits from this project? Who assigned it and when?" No answers. Some of the department's biggest projects had come from departments and managers who'd been downsized two years ago! What are you doing that has become an orphan or is about to become one?

5. Don't target symbolic events

Remember, too, that it's political suicide to attack symbolic events. You're not going to kill the company-wide summer outing, no matter how much of your time and their money is involved. We think of company-sponsored black tie dinners as the ultimate sacred cow. Unless well lubricated, nobody has ever been known to enjoy such events but the same nobody would not hear of canceling it. "Look how much the company cares about us to give us this $250 per person evening at the Upper Crust Hotel." Leave the symbolic issues alone unless you can get a task force together to confront them head on.

6. Use logic to drive change

Logic can be a powerful political tool. No one, particularly in senior management, wants to be tagged as illogical. The logical argument is best made after the fact. You cut department meetings to twice a month but your boss is concerned because they've always been held weekly. Point out that "Since we've cut the staff twice this year, we can accomplish the same agenda in less time. They're all using broadcast email anyway." The logic argument may not succeed in getting rid of something, but it will highlight issues you may get modified. So, how about meeting every ten days?

Conclusion

If you spend the next few months getting rid of the ineffective, inefficient, and redundant, you'll be ahead of the game--for now. This is an ongoing task, and much easier done every three or four months than once a year. Small changes are always more acceptable and less disruptive than sporadic upheavals driven by desperation. 1

Marilyn Moats Kennedy is Managing Partner, Career Strategies, Inc., Wilmette, illinois, and a long-time member of the ACPE faculty She can be reached at 1150 Wilmette Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois 60091, 847/251-1661, via fax at 847/251-5191, and via email at [e-mail].