The topics of task planning and time management are described in many ways, equipped with different methods, and proven in practice a million times over. Every manager and executive should have their own principle or tools for effective time and task management. Moreover, within any organisation, the central processes of overarching relevance and high importance should be managed through a uniform planning and management system. Please also read our articles on the various methods and tools in our 'Methods & Tools' section in the main menu.
If you and your company have an established time and task management system, then you should also integrate the measures and tasks associated with the implementation of Enterneering® into the existing systems. As we have already emphasised several times in other places, we do not recommend keeping important actions and tasks across different or parallel systems. However, if you would like to explore other or even new approaches, or if you are looking for a suitable tool to prepare complex action plans for your time and task management, or even if you would like to undergo training beyond your usual environment, you can leverage our workout program for this purpose.
As the name 'Workout' suggests, we have deliberately chosen a medium to long-term approach based on continuity and routine. We assume that, following our maturity model (radar), every manager and organisation engages in a continuous improvement program with diverse focal points as part of the Enterneering® implementation. If we add to this assumption the character and possible inclusion of sparring as an accompanying measure, the definition of an adapted training and development plan from sports makes perfect sense. Based on this concept, we have developed our 4-9-18 Workout. This serves as a bridge or transition between the various insights and processes derived from the Enterneering® Radar and the systems and tools for task and project management that already exist and are established within the company.
Our workout is less suitable as an instrument for operational implementation planning and task monitoring on a day-to-day business within the company. In our view, it is better suited for converting strategic goals and core measures into operationalised implementation planning. It has also proven useful in facilitating development and performance discussions among managers. Since a lot of our work revolves around the implementation of the elements in Enterneering®, our workout is consequently also aligned with this. We try to reflect what we consider to be a realistic time horizon and an appropriate level of detail. In addition, we have deliberately included intermediate checkpoints and milestones in our workout that are intended to serve self-reflection, evaluation, and, if necessary, correction of tasks or measures. Our workout is thus intended to accommodate the ongoing pursuit of maturity level improvement.
Stages & Contents
Our 4-9-18 workout consists of a central action board and three task boards, which break down the activities from the central action board into sub-steps and distribute them across three different phases. This creates the two main dimensions of 'time phases' and 'breakdown' for each activity included in our model.
Action Board:
| a) | Overview of the intended improvement of the maturity level for each element, |
| b) | Breakdown of the implementation of the elements into 3 different time phases (4-9-18 months of development), |
| c) | Estimation and decision of the allocation of development activities to these three-time phases,
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| d) | Formulation of the development goal per element including the realisation period, |
| e) | Derivation of sub-steps (actions) for implementation of each development goal, |
| f) | Definition of milestones for reflection, improvement, or correction of activities, |
| g) | Notes on learning effects and experiences gained during the workout |
| h) | Maintaining a record of a backlog for action after or outside the workout context. |
Task Board Stage 1 to 3:
Breakdown of activities from the Action Board into concrete tasks for own execution or for effective delegation within the organisation.
Summary
Our workout primarily serves as a structured approach to reduce complexity for effective time and task management. It helps to transform a multitude of different and confusing activities and objectives into a time- and process-oriented workflow. The numerous pieces of information are stored and organised in one system instead of juggling them mentally. This enables a more effective focus and promotes productivity, as one can dedicate oneself more freely and unencumbered to the tasks at hand. It also makes evaluability and fact-based monitoring possible during implementation. It can serve as a pipeline for strategic issues, guiding implementation plans in daily operations. The tool is a good basis for personal training in complexity management within the VUCA world at C-level.
Start here directly with the first our 4-9-18 WORKOUT tool. ➽
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