Alysa Bleau

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How Time Planning Training Is Useless in Poorly-Run Organizations

 

End Teaching People to "Manage Tasks" When Your Organization Has Absolutely No Idea What Actually Is Important: Why Priority Organization Training Fails in Poorly-Run Organizations

 

 

I'm going to destroy one of the most widespread myths in organizational training: the belief that training employees more effective "prioritization" skills will fix time management issues in organizations that have zero consistent priorities themselves.

 

 

Following extensive experience of consulting with businesses on productivity problems, I can tell you that priority planning training in a chaotic company is like teaching someone to arrange their possessions while their home is actively collapsing around them.

 

 

Here's the fundamental problem: nearly all companies suffering from efficiency crises do not have time management challenges - they have leadership failures.

 

 

Conventional priority planning training assumes that workplaces have consistent, stable goals that employees can learn to understand and concentrate with. This idea is entirely disconnected from the real world in most contemporary workplaces.

 

 

We consulted with a significant advertising company where workers were constantly expressing frustration about being "struggling to organize their responsibilities successfully." Management had spent massive sums on time planning training for each employees.

 

 

Their training featured all the standard techniques: urgency-importance matrices, task ranking methods, time blocking techniques, and sophisticated work organization software.

 

 

But efficiency continued to drop, employee overwhelm instances increased, and project quality results got worse, not more efficient.

 

 

When I examined what was really occurring, I found the underlying problem: the company itself had absolutely no clear direction.

 

 

Let me share what the normal reality looked like for workers:

 

 

Regularly: Senior executives would announce that Client A was the "top objective" and each employee should to focus on it right away

 

 

The next day: A another executive executive would send an "immediate" communication declaring that Client B was actually the "highest critical" focus

 

 

Day three: Yet another department head would call an "emergency" session to announce that Initiative C was a "critical" requirement that needed to be completed by immediately

 

 

The following day: The first senior leader would express anger that Project A hadn't been completed sufficiently and insist to know why staff were not "prioritizing" it correctly

 

 

Friday: Each three projects would be behind, various commitments would be not met, and workers would be criticized for "poor time planning techniques"

 

 

That cycle was repeated continuously after week, regularly after month. No degree of "time organization" training was going to enable staff manage this systemic dysfunction.

 

 

This core problem wasn't that workers couldn't know how to organize - it was that the agency as a whole was completely incapable of establishing consistent priorities for more than 24 hours at a time.

 

 

I persuaded executives to abandon their focus on "employee task organization" training and rather establish what I call "Leadership Direction Systems."

 

 

In place of working to teach workers to manage within a dysfunctional environment, we concentrated on establishing real strategic clarity:

 

 

Established a central senior decision-making committee with defined responsibility for setting and enforcing company direction

 

 

Created a structured project assessment process that took place on schedule rather than constantly

 

 

Developed clear standards for when priorities could be changed and what level of authorization was required for such adjustments

 

 

Implemented required communication procedures to make certain that each project changes were communicated systematically and uniformly across all departments

 

 

Implemented stability periods where zero focus modifications were allowed without exceptional circumstances

 

 

This transformation was instant and substantial:

 

 

Employee stress rates fell substantially as people for the first time knew what they were required to be focusing on

 

 

Efficiency increased by over 50% within a month and a half as employees could actually work on delivering tasks rather than repeatedly redirecting between conflicting demands

 

 

Work quality times decreased considerably as departments could coordinate and execute tasks without constant disruptions and redirection

 

 

External relationships got better substantially as projects were consistently finished as promised and to standards

 

 

That point: prior to you teach staff to organize, ensure your leadership genuinely possesses consistent direction that are worth focusing on.

 

 

This is one more way that task planning training doesn't work in poorly-run companies: by presupposing that staff have actual authority over their work and priorities.

 

 

We consulted with a municipal organization where workers were constantly getting criticized for "inadequate time management" and sent to "productivity" training sessions.

 

 

This truth was that these workers had virtually no authority over their work time. Here's what their typical day seemed like:

 

 

Roughly three-fifths of their time was taken up by mandatory conferences that they were not allowed to decline, regardless of whether these conferences were relevant to their real work

 

 

A further significant portion of their workday was assigned to processing mandatory reports and administrative tasks that provided no benefit to their actual responsibilities or to the people they were meant to serve

 

 

This final small portion of their schedule was meant to be used for their core responsibilities - the tasks they were hired to do and that really was important to the organization

 

 

But even this limited portion of time was continuously disrupted by "urgent" requests, unexpected meetings, and administrative requirements that couldn't be delayed

 

 

With these constraints, no degree of "time organization" training was able to enable these staff get more effective. This issue wasn't their employee priority planning techniques - it was an organizational structure that ensured meaningful work almost unattainable.

 

 

We assisted them create structural reforms to fix the underlying barriers to productivity:

 

 

Eliminated pointless conferences and created specific requirements for when meetings were genuinely necessary

 

 

Reduced bureaucratic requirements and eliminated unnecessary form-filling requirements

 

 

Established reserved time for actual work tasks that would not be disrupted by administrative tasks

 

 

Created specific protocols for deciding what represented a legitimate "urgent situation" versus standard demands that could wait for designated times

 

 

Established delegation processes to guarantee that tasks was distributed appropriately and that not any employee was overburdened with impossible workloads

 

 

Staff efficiency rose significantly, professional happiness increased considerably, and the organization finally commenced delivering better outcomes to the community they were intended to serve.

 

 

This crucial lesson: you can't solve time management issues by showing employees to function more efficiently within broken systems. You have to fix the organizations before anything else.

 

 

Currently let's discuss perhaps the biggest laughable element of priority planning training in dysfunctional organizations: the idea that staff can somehow organize responsibilities when the organization itself changes its direction numerous times per month.

 

 

The team worked with a technology company where the executive leadership was well-known for having "brilliant" insights numerous times per day and expecting the complete organization to right away redirect to accommodate each new idea.

 

 

Employees would show up at the office on any given day with a defined understanding of their tasks for the week, only to discover that the management had decided suddenly that everything they had been focusing on was not important and that they must to instantly begin concentrating on a project completely unrelated.

 

 

This cycle would happen multiple times per period. Projects that had been declared as "critical" would be forgotten before completion, groups would be continuously redirected to alternative work, and significant portions of resources and work would be lost on projects that were never finished.

 

 

The startup had spent significantly in "flexible project organization" training and complex priority tracking systems to help employees "adapt efficiently" to shifting directions.

 

 

However no level of training or systems could solve the fundamental problem: people cannot effectively manage continuously shifting objectives. Constant modification is the opposite of good planning.

 

 

The team assisted them establish what I call "Strategic Priority Consistency":

 

 

Created quarterly priority planning cycles where significant strategy modifications could be evaluated and approved

 

 

Created clear requirements for what constituted a legitimate reason for changing set priorities beyond the regular review periods

 

 

Established a "objective stability" time where no changes to established directions were acceptable without emergency justification

 

 

Created clear notification systems for when direction changes were absolutely required, including full cost evaluations of what work would be abandoned

 

 

Established documented authorization from multiple stakeholders before any substantial priority shifts could be implemented

 

 

The change was remarkable. In a quarter, actual project completion rates improved by over dramatically. Employee burnout levels dropped considerably as employees could at last concentrate on completing tasks rather than constantly starting new ones.

 

 

Innovation actually improved because teams had adequate time to completely implement and refine their ideas rather than repeatedly switching to new projects before any project could be adequately developed.

 

 

That lesson: good prioritization requires priorities that stay unchanged long enough for employees to genuinely focus on them and achieve meaningful progress.

 

 

Let me share what I've discovered after decades in this business: time planning training is only effective in organizations that currently have their leadership act working properly.

 

 

When your organization has consistent organizational priorities, realistic workloads, functional management, and systems that enable rather than obstruct effective work, then time planning training can be useful.

 

 

But if your organization is marked by perpetual crisis management, unclear directions, inadequate organization, excessive workloads, and emergency management approaches, then task management training is more harmful than ineffective - it's actively destructive because it holds responsible employee behavior for organizational failures.

 

 

Quit squandering money on priority management training until you've fixed your systemic dysfunction initially.

 

 

Focus on creating organizations with clear business direction, functional leadership, and processes that genuinely enable meaningful accomplishment.

 

 

Your staff would prioritize perfectly fine once you offer them direction deserving of focusing on and an workplace that genuinely facilitates them in completing their jobs. overburdened with unrealistic workloads

 

 

Employee efficiency rose dramatically, job satisfaction increased considerably, and their department genuinely commenced delivering improved outcomes to the public they were supposed to serve.

 

 

The important point: companies can't address time management problems by showing people to function better successfully within dysfunctional systems. Companies must repair the structures initially.

 

 

At this point let's examine perhaps the biggest laughable aspect of time organization training in poorly-run organizations: the belief that workers can mysteriously manage work when the management as a whole modifies its direction multiple times per week.

 

 

I consulted with a software business where the founder was famous for having "game-changing" ideas multiple times per week and expecting the entire organization to immediately pivot to pursue each new direction.

 

 

Workers would arrive at work on regularly with a specific knowledge of their objectives for the week, only to discover that the management had concluded suddenly that all priorities they had been focusing on was not relevant and that they needed to immediately commence concentrating on a project totally unrelated.

 

 

Such behavior would happen multiple times per month. Work that had been declared as "critical" would be abandoned before completion, teams would be continuously re-assigned to new work, and significant amounts of resources and energy would be lost on initiatives that were never completed.

 

 

This organization had invested significantly in "agile work planning" training and sophisticated priority organization systems to help workers "adjust efficiently" to evolving directions.

 

 

However absolutely no degree of training or software could solve the basic problem: organizations can't efficiently organize constantly changing directions. Constant modification is the enemy of good prioritization.

 

 

We helped them establish what I call "Focused Direction Stability":

 

 

Created regular priority review sessions where important direction adjustments could be considered and implemented

 

 

Created strict standards for what qualified as a genuine basis for modifying set directions outside the scheduled planning cycles

 

 

Established a "objective protection" phase where absolutely no adjustments to set priorities were permitted without exceptional approval

 

 

Established clear communication protocols for when direction adjustments were genuinely required, with full cost evaluations of what projects would be abandoned

 

 

Required formal sign-off from multiple stakeholders before each major strategy changes could be approved

 

 

The transformation was dramatic. In 90 days, measurable work delivery statistics increased by more than three times. Staff burnout levels fell considerably as employees could actually focus on completing projects rather than repeatedly starting new ones.

 

 

Creativity surprisingly got better because groups had sufficient time to thoroughly develop and evaluate their solutions rather than constantly changing to new projects before any work could be adequately finished.

 

 

That point: successful planning requires priorities that keep consistent long enough for employees to genuinely concentrate on them and complete significant results.

 

 

Here's what I've concluded after years in this business: time planning training is merely effective in organizations that genuinely have their leadership systems working properly.

 

 

Once your organization has stable strategic objectives, reasonable demands, effective decision-making, and structures that facilitate rather than hinder efficient activity, then time management training can be helpful.

 

 

Yet if your organization is characterized by continuous dysfunction, conflicting priorities, poor coordination, impossible workloads, and crisis-driven leadership approaches, then task planning training is more counterproductive than useless - it's actively damaging because it faults employee behavior for organizational dysfunction.

 

 

End squandering time on priority organization training until you've fixed your leadership priorities before anything else.

 

 

Start establishing companies with consistent strategic priorities, effective management, and systems that actually support meaningful activity.

 

 

The employees will organize just well once you offer them priorities worth prioritizing and an organization that genuinely enables them in accomplishing their jobs.

 

 

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