Time Management

A plan may not be successfully implemented or completed if there isn’t enough time to do so. In today's work environment there is a theory that "time is money." So if you are wasting time, you are essentially wasting money. Managers, supervisors and frontline workers must utilize efficient time management strategies to ensure that the organization is as successful as possible.

Are you an effective manager of your own time?   

One of the greatest factors contributing to stress is our inability to manage time. Conversely, good time management skills allow us to organize our lives and be more productive, both at work and at home.

The following Time Management Skills Test developed by Illinois State will help identify trouble spots and guide us toward the goal of becoming successful time managers.

Long Description

Time Management Tools

Managers will often use a wide variety of plans based on different objectives, goals, circumstances and situations. Context is important when creating an effective plan; different situations call for different types of plans.

Plans are often identified as short term or long term. The deciding factor here is usually a year time rage; plans that will be completed in a year or less are considered short term plans. Those that won't be fully implemented or reached within a year are considered long term plans. Long term plans usually take longer than a year to complete.

Top level managers are usually instrumental in developing long term plans, whereas middle and lower level managers focus on short term planning.

Short Term Planning Tools

Let’s examine some of the types of planning that are considered short term.  Remember that short term planning will occur in a year or less time frame, and that it is often utilized by middle and lower levels of management.

Policies

A policy is a rule or guideline for making decisions or taking some sort of action. Most organizations have a large number of set policies in place that must be followed. For example, a manufacturing facility might have a specific set of policies in place for dealing with employee health and safety. These policies are in place to help protect the wellbeing of employees while at work, but to also avoid lost time for injuries, added medical expenses, etc. These types of organization policies would be best enforced by lower and middle managers who are often found on the front lines.

Operational Plans

Operational plans are used to provide a clear understanding of how to complete day-to-day tasks. They ensure that individuals and teams are able to reach defined organizational objectives.

McDonald’s has a clearly defined set of operational plans for all of its stores and employee positions. They are step-by-step directions that must be followed and are clearly articulated. Their purpose is to ensure that the quality and service at all McDonald’s restaurants are the same, and to ensure customer satisfaction. For example, a kitchen staff member will need to know the exact operating procedures for cooking and assembling a Big Mac sandwich. This operational plan would outline step-by-step directions from cooking the hamburger patties, to the placement of condiments on the buns, to the final assembly, and even how the Big Mac is packaged and stored.

Planning Approaches

Theoretical planning approaches are usually described as:

• Rational Comprehensive Planning: This is usually a logical, decision-making model of planning. It often uses a mathematical modelling or statistical data approach to planning. This theory of planning attempts to make perfect plans with a lot of data to inform. This type of data is not always available and a long period of time for planning is not always available.

• Incrementalism Planning: In this theory of planning, decisions are made relatively quickly, and often with less than perfect data or information. Sometimes it is considered a gut decision, or “on the fly” decision.

The best approach to planning is a theory that combines elements of the two. This is sometimes called a Collectivist Planning approach.

Long term planning

As described earlier, long term planning relates to objectives that will be accomplished well into the future - at least more than a year away. Some examples of long range organizational plans are budgets and strategic plans.

Budgets

A budget is a plan usually based on money and resources. It defines where money is going to come from, where it is going to go, and what it will be used for. Budgets are used to allocate money and resources and to help guide and monitor spending and associated costs/expenses. Managers usually spend a considerable amount of time each year preparing budgets for several years into the future. A budget helps organizations measure whether or not they are overspending and to make adjustments along the way if required. Most importantly, budgets help ensure that the organization stays profitable.

Strategic Plans

Strategic plans are long term plans that ultimately set out broad and overriding goals for the organization. These are most typically developed by top level managers within organizations. It is really about visualizing where the organization is headed, what it wants to achieve, and how it is going to get there.  

Organizational Vision Statements

One important element of an organization’s strategic plan is the organization’s vision - a clearly defined organizational purpose and an expression of what it hopes to be in the future. In essence, it summarizes the overall strategy and direction of an organization. A vision statement is often referred to as the “What.” It is a quick snapshot of the long term plan of the organization. You may have learned about, or heard about mission statements before; they are slightly different from vision statements. You will explore mission statements in the next activity in this unit.

Here are some examples of organizational vision statements:

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World Wildlife Fund

We seek to save a planet, a world of life. Reconciling the needs of human beings and the needs of others that share the Earth.

Facebook

To give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.

Nike

Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. (*If you have a body, you are an athlete.)

Heinz

Our VISION, quite simply, is to be: “The World’s Premier Food Company, Offering Nutritious, Superior Tasting Foods To People Everywhere.” Being the premier food company does not mean being the biggest but it does mean being the best in terms of consumer value, customer service, employee talent, and consistent and predictable growth.

Terry Fox Research Institute

Terry Fox Research Institute

The Terry Fox Research Institute seeks to advance our understanding, diagnosis and treatment of cancer with the goal of improving significantly the outcomes of cancer research for the patient. The Terry Fox Research Institute supports research through a highly collaborative, team-oriented, milestone-based approach to attain this goal.

Forecasts

How have certain products and services changed in the last 10 years? What products don’t exist today that were sold 10 years ago? Successful businesses and organizations must spend time predicting what the future might bring and prepare for the possibility of change. This is really the essence of forecasting - attempting to predict what the future might hold. Another way to look at forecasting from a business perspective is in terms of projected revenues, costs, and profits. These will appear on a company’s balance sheet and income statement and will alter the value of a company on an ongoing basis.

Planning Tools and Strategies

There are numerous tools and strategies used by organizations to develop plans and to help facilitate the planning process. Some of the most common are Participatory planning, Benchmarking and Scenario planning.

1. Participatory planning - This is a planning strategy that includes specific stakeholders in the planning process. The stakeholders of most interest and concern are those who will be directly affected by the plans that are put into place. Allowing those stakeholders to participate in the planning process often leads to higher levels of creativity, better and more informed decision making, and much higher committments levels for the plan implementation. For example, imagine Toyota’s Director of Production wants to make major changes to the manufacturing process and layout of production facilities. It really makes sense to use participatory planning here. That is, involving all employees that work directly and indirectly within production to help plan these changes. An employee that works on the assembly line everyday will have the most insight into what may, or may not work. This employee will be directly affected by new plans, so he or she needs to be an integral part of the actual planning process.
    
2. Benchmarking - This is a planning strategy that makes use of both internal and external comparisons to help make improvements in the future. The real purpose is to observe what other people, other departments, or what other organizations or businesses are doing successfully, and to essentially incorporate those ideas into regular practice. This technique is often referred to as identifying best practices - the things that others do really well.  

3. Scenario planning - This is a planning technique that involves identifying possible events or occurrences in the future, and developing plans to deal with the scenarios if they happen. Scenario planning can often help an organization deal quickly and efficiently with a change. Watch this video to gain more insights into scenario planning: