Tiffany Allingham

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How Time Planning Training Is Useless in Poorly-Run Organizations

 

Quit Teaching People to "Manage Tasks" When Your Business Has Absolutely No Idea What Genuinely Is Important: The Reason Task Management Training Is Useless in Dysfunctional Workplaces

 

 

I'm about to dismantle one of the biggest widespread myths in corporate training: the assumption that training employees improved "time organization" methods will solve productivity problems in organizations that have zero consistent priorities themselves.

 

 

With nearly two decades of training with organizations on productivity challenges, I can tell you that time planning training in a poorly-run organization is like teaching someone to arrange their possessions while their home is actively on fire around them.

 

 

Here's the basic reality: the majority of companies suffering from time management issues do not have time management issues - they have organizational problems.

 

 

Traditional priority management training presupposes that organizations have clear, unchanging objectives that workers can be taught to understand and concentrate on. That idea is entirely disconnected from reality in nearly all modern organizations.

 

 

The team consulted with a major advertising agency where workers were repeatedly expressing frustration about being "struggling to prioritize their work effectively." Management had invested enormous amounts on time organization training for every staff.

 

 

This training featured all the usual approaches: Eisenhower systems, task classification approaches, time management techniques, and detailed task management systems.

 

 

But performance kept to decline, worker overwhelm instances increased, and client delivery schedules turned longer, not improved.

 

 

Once I investigated what was actually occurring, I learned the underlying cause: the organization at the leadership level had zero stable priorities.

 

 

This is what the daily reality looked like for workers:

 

 

Each week: Top management would communicate that Initiative A was the "highest focus" and everyone must to concentrate on it right away

 

 

The next day: A another top executive would send an "urgent" message declaring that Client B was really the "top essential" priority

 

 

Day three: Another different team head would organize an "urgent" meeting to communicate that Project C was a "essential" deliverable that needed to be finished by Friday

 

 

Day four: The original senior executive would show disappointment that Project A was not progressed sufficiently and demand to know why staff had not been "prioritizing" it correctly

 

 

End of week: All three projects would be incomplete, several deliverables would be not met, and employees would be blamed for "poor time planning skills"

 

 

Such scenario was happening week after week, month after month. Zero degree of "task organization" training was going to enable workers manage this systemic chaos.

 

 

This fundamental problem wasn't that workers didn't understand how to manage tasks - it was that the agency at every level was completely incapable of establishing stable direction for more than 24 hours at a time.

 

 

The team helped executives to eliminate their concentration on "employee task organization" training and alternatively create what I call "Organizational Priority Management."

 

 

Rather than trying to show employees to organize within a dysfunctional system, we focused on establishing genuine organizational clarity:

 

 

Implemented a single executive decision-making team with defined responsibility for establishing and maintaining strategic focus

 

 

Created a structured priority evaluation procedure that happened on schedule rather than whenever someone felt like it

 

 

Created clear standards for when initiatives could be modified and what type of approval was needed for such modifications

 

 

Created required communication procedures to ensure that all priority modifications were communicated clearly and uniformly across every levels

 

 

Implemented stability phases where zero project changes were permitted without exceptional circumstances

 

 

This change was immediate and substantial:

 

 

Employee overwhelm instances decreased dramatically as employees at last knew what they were supposed to be working on

 

 

Productivity improved by over significantly within six weeks as staff could really focus on finishing tasks rather than constantly redirecting between competing demands

 

 

Work completion schedules improved significantly as staff could organize and deliver work without constant interruptions and modifications

 

 

Customer relationships improved significantly as deliverables were consistently completed according to schedule and to standards

 

 

The reality: instead of you train people to manage tasks, make sure your leadership really maintains consistent strategic focus that are worth prioritizing.

 

 

Here's another way that priority organization training proves useless in chaotic companies: by assuming that employees have real control over their work and tasks.

 

 

The team consulted with a municipal organization where staff were repeatedly receiving blamed for "poor priority organization" and required to "productivity" training courses.

 

 

The actual situation was that these staff had almost zero influence over their daily activities. This is what their normal schedule appeared like:

 

 

Roughly 60% of their workday was occupied by mandatory sessions that they had no option to avoid, regardless of whether these meetings were relevant to their real responsibilities

 

 

An additional significant portion of their schedule was dedicated to filling out bureaucratic documentation and bureaucratic tasks that contributed zero usefulness to their primary job or to the people they were meant to assist

 

 

The leftover small portion of their time was expected to be dedicated for their real job - the activities they were employed to do and that really mattered to the organization

 

 

But even this limited amount of availability was regularly invaded by "emergency" requests, unplanned calls, and bureaucratic demands that were not allowed to be delayed

 

 

Under these conditions, absolutely no level of "time management" training was going to help these staff turn more effective. This issue wasn't their individual task organization skills - it was an institutional structure that made meaningful activity almost unattainable.

 

 

We helped them establish systematic reforms to resolve the underlying barriers to productivity:

 

 

Got rid of redundant meetings and created specific standards for when meetings were really justified

 

 

Reduced paperwork obligations and got rid of redundant reporting procedures

 

 

Established dedicated blocks for core professional responsibilities that couldn't be interrupted by meetings

 

 

Established specific procedures for determining what represented a real "emergency" versus standard requests that could wait for designated periods

 

 

Implemented task distribution processes to ensure that responsibilities was distributed fairly and that no individual was carrying excessive load with unrealistic workloads

 

 

Employee efficiency rose significantly, job happiness increased substantially, and this organization actually began offering better outcomes to the public they were meant to support.

 

 

The crucial point: you won't be able to fix time management issues by teaching employees to operate better successfully within broken systems. You have to improve the structures before anything else.

 

 

At this point let's address probably the most absurd element of task management training in chaotic companies: the assumption that staff can somehow prioritize responsibilities when the management itself shifts its priorities numerous times per day.

 

 

I worked with a technology startup where the executive leadership was well-known for having "innovative" insights numerous times per period and demanding the whole team to immediately redirect to implement each new direction.

 

 

Employees would come at their jobs on regularly with a clear knowledge of their priorities for the day, only to find that the leadership had decided overnight that all work they had been working on was no longer relevant and that they needed to right away begin focusing on an initiative totally new.

 

 

This pattern would happen several times per month. Work that had been announced as "highest priority" would be abandoned halfway through, groups would be continuously re-assigned to alternative initiatives, and massive portions of effort and work would be squandered on initiatives that were not finished.

 

 

Their company had poured significantly in "agile work organization" training and advanced task management tools to help workers "adapt rapidly" to changing directions.

 

 

Yet zero level of education or tools could overcome the core issue: people can't effectively manage perpetually evolving directions. Constant change is the enemy of effective prioritization.

 

 

We helped them create what I call "Disciplined Direction Management":

 

 

Implemented quarterly planning review cycles where significant direction changes could be discussed and adopted

 

 

Established strict requirements for what qualified as a legitimate reason for modifying established priorities outside the scheduled planning periods

 

 

Created a "priority protection" time where zero adjustments to set objectives were allowed without emergency circumstances

 

 

Implemented defined communication procedures for when objective adjustments were absolutely necessary, featuring full cost analyses of what initiatives would be delayed

 

 

Required documented sign-off from multiple leaders before each major direction modifications could be approved

 

 

The improvement was remarkable. Within a quarter, real initiative delivery percentages improved by more than 300%. Worker stress levels decreased substantially as staff could at last focus on finishing work rather than repeatedly initiating new ones.

 

 

Innovation actually improved because groups had adequate opportunity to fully explore and evaluate their ideas rather than constantly switching to new projects before anything could be adequately finished.

 

 

This point: effective planning requires directions that remain stable long enough for teams to genuinely work on them and accomplish significant outcomes.

 

 

This is what I've discovered after decades in this business: task management training is exclusively valuable in organizations that genuinely have their strategic act working properly.

 

 

When your company has consistent strategic objectives, realistic demands, functional decision-making, and systems that facilitate rather than hinder efficient performance, then priority organization training can be beneficial.

 

 

However if your workplace is marked by continuous crisis management, conflicting directions, poor planning, excessive demands, and reactive leadership cultures, then time organization training is worse than pointless - it's systematically harmful because it blames employee behavior for leadership incompetence.

 

 

Quit wasting time on task management training until you've resolved your leadership dysfunction before anything else.

 

 

Start building workplaces with stable strategic focus, competent decision-making, and structures that genuinely support productive work.

 

 

Your employees can manage tasks perfectly effectively once you provide them something worth working toward and an environment that really facilitates them in accomplishing their jobs. overburdened with unsustainable demands

 

 

Employee productivity rose dramatically, job satisfaction got better notably, and their organization finally started offering improved outcomes to the public they were intended to support.

 

 

That important point: companies cannot solve efficiency challenges by showing individuals to function more successfully within broken systems. You need to improve the organizations first.

 

 

Now let's address perhaps the most laughable aspect of time planning training in chaotic organizations: the assumption that staff can somehow organize work when the company at leadership level changes its focus numerous times per week.

 

 

The team worked with a technology company where the CEO was well-known for going through "brilliant" revelations numerous times per day and expecting the entire team to right away shift to pursue each new priority.

 

 

Workers would come at their jobs on any given day with a specific understanding of their priorities for the day, only to discover that the CEO had concluded over the weekend that all priorities they had been working on was not relevant and that they needed to immediately commence working on something totally unrelated.

 

 

This behavior would happen several times per month. Projects that had been stated as "critical" would be dropped mid-stream, teams would be repeatedly moved to different projects, and massive amounts of resources and investment would be lost on projects that were not delivered.

 

 

Their organization had spent significantly in "adaptive task planning" training and advanced project tracking software to help staff "adjust rapidly" to evolving requirements.

 

 

However no level of skill development or tools could address the fundamental challenge: you can't successfully prioritize constantly shifting directions. Perpetual change is the enemy of successful prioritization.

 

 

I assisted them create what I call "Disciplined Direction Stability":

 

 

Implemented quarterly planning planning periods where important priority adjustments could be evaluated and approved

 

 

Created clear requirements for what represented a valid basis for modifying established directions beyond the scheduled review sessions

 

 

Created a "direction stability" period where no changes to established priorities were acceptable without exceptional circumstances

 

 

Created specific notification systems for when priority adjustments were genuinely necessary, with complete cost evaluations of what initiatives would be delayed

 

 

Mandated written authorization from multiple stakeholders before each major strategy shifts could be approved

 

 

The change was outstanding. After 90 days, actual initiative completion percentages rose by more than dramatically. Staff frustration levels fell considerably as staff could finally concentrate on finishing work rather than constantly initiating new ones.

 

 

Creativity surprisingly increased because departments had enough resources to completely explore and evaluate their solutions rather than constantly moving to new projects before any work could be properly finished.

 

 

This point: successful organization demands directions that stay unchanged long enough for people to genuinely work on them and achieve substantial progress.

 

 

This is what I've concluded after decades in this field: time organization training is merely valuable in companies that currently have their organizational priorities together.

 

 

When your workplace has clear organizational direction, realistic expectations, competent decision-making, and structures that support rather than prevent effective performance, then task planning training can be helpful.

 

 

But if your workplace is marked by continuous crisis management, unclear messages, poor planning, excessive expectations, and emergency management cultures, then task planning training is more harmful than ineffective - it's systematically destructive because it faults personal performance for organizational incompetence.

 

 

Quit throwing away resources on time organization training until you've addressed your leadership priorities first.

 

 

Begin building workplaces with clear organizational direction, effective leadership, and processes that actually enable meaningful accomplishment.

 

 

Company staff would organize perfectly effectively once you provide them direction suitable for working toward and an environment that genuinely enables them in doing their work.

 

 

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Website: https://bizconsulting.bigcartel.com/personality-types

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