You know that person at the office who is constantly busy, never has time to take on any task, supposedly never takes any time off, but it is unclear what and if gets anything done ever?
I have met a few. I also misjudged a few, reason why I adopted the premise from a good friend to be more curious, assuming that if I think they do nothing, it is probably because I don’t understand their jobs.
But there are some individuals who don’t pass this test either. They are usually, more than ill-intentioned slackers, a victim of the requests from their bosses, or just of their nature, to pick up one menial task after another, until their day is full of them. Most of the time they haven’t been educated on the purpose of each action, and they cannot decide (once again, either by accident or by design) which tasks are important and which are not, and how to change their behavior to achieve the same goal. They are the consequence of years of being told that are not getting paid to think.
My favorite quote of today comes from an unlikely place. Attributed to a sermon, delivered by H.H. Williams, Bishop of Carlyle (Church of England).
“Furious activity is no substitute for understanding”
The solution for this mindless running on the hamster wheel? Inject PURPOSE. Let every single person in the organization know why are they supposed to do what they are doing, and let them decide on the priorities.