Getting more done as a PARTIER

You’ve probably met those rare individuals who seem to get a lot accomplished with little effort. They have the ability to hone in on those things that are most important, and therefore expend less energy on activities that create busy work, but get little accomplished. If you have a lot of projects to complete or many demands on your time, it helps to have some system that allows you to be as efficient as possible and stay on purpose.

We developed a simple method that can help you get more done and stay focused on the critical elements of any project or activity that you have to complete alone or with a team. It’s called the PARTIER method, and it stands for Purpose, Activity, Resources, Tasks, Implement, Evaluate, and Recognize & Reward. To make the explanation below more relevant, we’ll use an example of a project to improve customer service in your organization.

Purpose: Understanding the purpose of any undertaking makes it easier for individuals to understand how it fits into the overall picture and why it’s important. It can help give greater meaning to what needs to be accomplished if everyone knows how their role helps achieve the purpose. There are often many distractions that can take you in other directions, but with a clear purpose statement, you’re more likely to stay on track. Ask yourself, “How will this ‘fit’ with the mission and strategic direction?” “What is the ultimate outcome I want this activity to achieve?”

For our example, you might decide that the purpose to improve customer service in your organization is so customers will become delighted advocates for your organization who return and tell their friends about your business. This purpose is much greater than to just satisfy your customers, and it provides the result and outcome you would like others in the organization to help realize.

Activity: What major activity do you need to accomplish to achieve the Purpose? There may be several things you can do to achieve the purpose, but you want to focus your energies for a project on the one thing that can create the greatest impact. If you have more than one, assign another project team to pursue it or schedule it as the next activity to focus your efforts. Trying to work on several major activities at the same time is like a dog chasing several rabbits at one time and not being able to catch any of them. The customer service activity you may choose is to provide effective service training and follow-up activities for your staff.

Resources: What resources do you need to properly accomplish the Activity? This can be in the form of money, equipment, time, people, community or government support. These must be identified so you can determine if you can complete the project, or need to solicit additional support before you begin.

For the customer service training you have decided on live training for staff and online or teleconference follow-up training for management so they can continue to work with those they supervise. This will require money, the time of your people, Internet connection and computers, as well as support from upper management.

Tasks: Now it’s time to break the activity into Next Action Steps that will progressively lead to the successful completion of the Activity. This means you will need to review possible training providers to choose the best one, schedule dates, times, and venue for the training, and complete any other tasks to accomplish the Activity and realize the Purpose.

Implement: Now it’s time to do it. Assign individuals to be responsible for specific action steps, provide a budget and other required resources, and determine the starting and completion dates for each action. If a department or team will be working on the project, there should be one person who is accountable for the accomplishment of the major Activity and will need to report on the progress.

Evaluate: You should regularly monitor your progress and take any necessary steps to stay on course. If you expect something to get done you must regularly inspect it. Once the Activity is completed, you should document what you learned. What would you do more of, less of, and what other lessons did you walk away with that will make it easier to accomplish a similar activity in the future, or to train others in the future. This could take the form of policies and procedural steps that can be followed to consistently produce similar results.

Recognize & Reward: It is important to recognize progress while the activity is in the process of completion. Once it is completed, individuals should be recognized for their contribution. If appropriate, reward those who have achieved a specified standard of excellence. With your customer service training, you should regularly recognize the behaviors and attitudes you want from your employees. If service is tied to financial performance you may reward them with a bonus when targets are reached.

So, if you want to get more done, you should use the PARTIER method. If everyone stays on Purpose, and successfully accomplished the major Activity, you should celebrate with a real party! All work and no play make Jack a dull boy.