Tension

Sometimes I encounter tension when I am trying to be deliberate about applying MBM. One example that I've been "noodling on" lately is when I felt tensions between two MBM Guiding Principles. 

Not too long ago, I found myself in a meeting where I felt my knowledge was contributing to value creation. The meeting went long, which caused me to be late to an appointment with a colleague. Ironically, I think I should have just left the meeting because I was so worried about being disrespectful to a co-worker by being late that I had trouble concentrating on the meeting at hand. Since then, I've taken steps to simply try to avoid this situation. For instance, (I think) I've gotten better at understanding what situations are likely to require more of my time than originally thought and not schedule anything close to it or better communicate with the parties involved. 

I think the good news is that when folks encounter a situation that presents tensions like I experienced, it's a chance to examine and learn MBM. This implies that managers need to be able to turn these situations into learning experiences.

So, what would you say to a co-worker or direct report that came to you with this situation? Do you think I had an accurate read of the situation? What should I do the next time I'm in this situation?  

Comments

[John T. Cooke]

Since I'm in IT and a large part of technology deals with efficiencies and the like, when I think about Value Creation I think mostly of eliminating waste. It sounds to me like you've already addressed one of the most wasteful things about your dilemma, worrying about your tardiness caused you to lose concentration and diminish the value you were adding. By planning out how to handle that type of situation in the future, you're already adding more value by allowing yourself to have more focus on the task at hand. I think the more important issue isn't how to handle the situation, but rather, how to apply the new knowledge and adjust for the future. Good post/question.

[David McGinnis]

That's where a Blackberry comes in handy. I'm all too familiar with the situation where you are distracted by a decision and hindsight suggests that opportunity cost would have been very different had you factored in distraction.

That is phrased oddly, I bet you know what i mean.

A B'Berry or equivalent allows you to tell the person you are ditching that you are about to ditch them. That always makes a huge difference. Being IN a meeting in which you are adding value is like a "bird in the hand". The upcoming meeting is "in the bush" and you know how that saying goes....