E-M8 Entrepreneurial Management for Eternal Mission

The more I help teams with managing their workload the more I come to realization that much of the frustration seems to come from not having a clear delineation between  Projects, Tasks, Processes and Meetings. Often, I see meetings appear on a task list, or processes listed among projects. Projects and tasks are mixed so often that we often talk of them interchangeably.

So, to help you out I will separate these four.

Process – something cyclical that repeats on a regular basis. We need a project or a task to start one, to change one or to end one. These are managed strictly by exception if they were setup properly. These are very valuable for weekly blog updates, for example.

Iterative Project – it may look like a process, but really it is a project, each phase has a start and a stop and what we do at each phase is not what we did in the previous phase, this being the key distinguishing feature. Iterative Projects are very neglected, yet are very powerful. These are very valuable for developing websites by continually expanding the types of available content, for example.

One off Project – We need to start it, think it through, do it and wrap it up to never come back to it again. These can be very valuable, like getting a degree for example. On the other hand, if they are not accompanied with a maintenance process, often their results are far from permanent.

Task – Unlike a project, it needs no planning, it just needs to get done. It is good to allocate part of the week just to get tasks done (or to decide that they are really a process, project or a meeting)

Meetings – Crucial decision points that can either expedite or bring tasks and projects to standstill. Every meeting has to have agenda, outcome assignment of tasks, projects and processes and a decision regarding time, place and attendance for the next meeting.

Hopefully, by comparing the things on your to do list you can now sort them in to appropriate categories and thus be in a better position to pursue them.

Good luck and let me know if I missed anything.

When starting out, many things a business should do are the very opposite of a good practice in the long term. For example, I am sure you have heard the advice that it is good to be diversified so that you do not depend on the whim of a single customer.

I would like to argue that a start up is better off depending on a whim of one giant customer then die a death of a thousand paper cuts on the whim of many small ones. Working with a sugar daddy of a company allows the start up to  polish up its processes, cover the overhead, buy the right equipment, hire the right people. In other words get the house in order. Only then is the company in a good position to go after many other customers.

I’d like to put an interesting spin on the famous phrase: “And the meek shall inherit the Earth.” Just another way to think about it, really, may be not the right way, but hey I think it’s still worth considering. I’ll combine it with another one of phrases by the same Jesus of Nazareth: “…the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force.” Considered in combination, it becomes obvious (at least to me) why the meek inherit the earth. After all, the violent are to busy taking over heaven.

Any thoughts?

Sometimes the best way to mo move forward is to let go of the baggage that is holding you back.

What is the baggage that is keeping you from getting to where you need to go?

“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.”
Aristotle