They settle it in Fight Club
Datum: 2024-05-30 11:06
![Hands wrapped in boxing bandages are clenched together against a dark background.](https://www.stiernholm.com/content/images/BareKnuckle_1024.jpg)
A week ago, it happened again, the thing that makes my work so enriching — someone told me about a brilliant trick!
For you who prefer listening to reading, this post is also available as an episode of the “Done!” podcast:
Halfway through one of my open courses in Stockholm, Annette approached me and said:
“I have to share something with you. A couple of years ago I had a job where I had to perform tasks for a handful of managers. They all asked me to help them with different things and all of them felt that their task ought to be most important and have top priority. Whatever I did, someone (or a few people) thought that I should have prioritized something else instead. I felt constantly chased and inadequate — even though I worked so hard to deliver everything I was asked to do.”
Sound familiar?
I definitely recognize this scenario and predicament from many people I meet and help. There are many of us who have a lot of people telling them to do a lot of things first — all at the same time.
Let someone else make the call
Annette continued: “So, I said to them: ‘You have to settle this in Fight Club!’. Fight Club was a spread sheet I had created where I put all of the tasks I was asked to do in a long list. When I was about to do something, I always performed the task that was at the top of the list first. I simply let the bosses “battle it out” and decide amongst themselves in what order the tasks ought to be ranked and prioritized.”
The story does not tell if they settled it by “taking it out back”, but wasn’t this a brilliant solution? When there was not an obvious, and previously agreed upon, criteria for which task that was to be done first, Annette simply sent the decision “up a level” in the hierarchy. This was the right thing to do since it is part of good leadership to assist employees with prioritizing in difficult situations. Besides, the tasks came from “upstairs” in the first place and it was thus only fair that she got some help ranking them by actual importance.
Do this
If you can identify with Annette’s situation, and like me think that her solution was elegant, make your own Fight Club.
- First choose where to put the club. It could be an excel sheet such as Annette’s, or in another system or service which your employers have access to and where they can organize and prioritize amongst the tasks. Or perhaps you share a list in OneNote or a note-on-a-board type of tool such as Trello or Microsoft Planner?
- Add all of the tasks onto the list just as you perceive it now and in the order you would prioritize them if you were to choose what to do first yourself.
- Invite any managers or colleagues who give you tasks to do and show or explain to them how this is supposed to work.
- Try the method for a couple of weeks and then evaluate it. Is there something you can improve so that the process flows smoother?
No longer in the middle
If you create a Fight Club-solution of some sort, you will no longer feel stuck in the middle when your superiors fight for your time. You no longer have to make the constantly difficult decisions associated with prioritizing, but can instead be allowed to concentrate and perform the tasks you are asked to do with high quality (which, at the end of the day, is most important).
What is your way?
Have you come up with a similar solution or solved a problem like this in a totally different, but clever, way? Feel free to share with me.
(Do you know why you shouldn’t prioritize according to deadlines?)
Want more?
If you want more tips on how to create good structure at work, there are many ways to get that from me - in podcasts, videos, books, talks and other formats.