“Mike, everything you are teaching us makes so much sense. We can see how it could work. BUT WE DO NOT HAVE THE TIME TO PUT IT INTO PRACTICE. WE ARE JUST TOO BUSY FIGHTING FIRES.”
This is a line that I hear just about every time I train! There is without doubt an issue of time management going on here – that the Drucker quote below might shed some light on. However I think that what they really believe, perhaps sub-consciously, is,
“Mike, we are in a routine here. We like to moan about it – but we don’t want to (or feel that we can’t) change it. It is convenient to us to blame our performance on others (senior management, funders, customers, governments) because that means that I NEVER have to become fully responsible.”
So on to the Drucker quote….
“Time is also a unique resource. Of the other major resources, money is actually quite plentiful. We long ago should have learned that it is the demand for capital, rather than the supply thereof, which sets the limit to economic growth and activity. People — the third limiting resources — one can hire, though one can rarely hire enough good people. But one cannot rent, hire, buy, or otherwise obtain more time.
The supply of time is totally inelastic. No matter how high the demand, the supply will not go up. There is no price for it and no marginal utility curve for it. Moreover, time is totally perishable and cannot be stored. Yesterday’s time is gone forever and will never come back. Time is, therefore always in exceedingly short supply.
Time is totally irreplaceable. Within limits we can substitute one resource for another, copper for aluminum, for instance. We can substitute capital for human labor. We can use more knowledge or more brawn. But there is no substitute for time.
Everything requires time. It is the only truly universal condition. All work takes place in time and uses up time. Yet most people take for granted this unique irreplaceable, and necessary resource. Nothing else, perhaps distinguishes effective executives as much as their tender loving care of time.
Man is ill-equipped to manage his time.”
Peter Drucker – The Effective Executive
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