Most people recognize time management as an important activity. It helps people to focus and gives them the ability to measure what is working and change what is not. But, there are many different aspects of time management, different ways to accomplish it. With all these diverse systems in play, it can be challenging to get one implemented in your organization.
To counter these opposing systems, you need to present techniques that are proven to work. It will be much tougher to sell techniques if you don’t have this working in your favor. The best way around this is to present what has worked for you. If you haven’t implemented something yourself, try to find a key player in your organization who has. Verifiable results go a long way in helping to get the ball rolling.
Set up a way to measure success. Many time management systems have this built in, but don’t assume this is the case. If you have techniques that you want to implement in your organization, get management to agree on what success means for your system. Be proactive in showing both successes and failures. If there are failures, have alternative actions in place before implementing the plan. Try to anticipate these failures, and be ready with the alternatives.
Don’t assume management will give you unlimited funds to implement your program. Come up with estimates and add a buffer for unforeseen circumstances. If you are running into budget constraints, make that known early and give management the reasons why it happened and how you intend to rectify the situation.
People don’t like change. When you get approval for your time management system, change will be inevitable. You will get resistance in the beginning. If you are not careful, you could have some players who could derail the entire initiative, right from the start. If this happens, your reputation will be tarnished, which will make it difficult for management to adopt any more of your ideas. This is not a favorable position for anyone
The key to successfully implementing a time management program is to show its benefits. The main benefit is increased productivity from the employees. Perhaps you want to start out with small test groups and document what worked along with improvements before implementing company-wide. This will cost less initially, and give you and your team the opportunity to work out the kinks.
– Scott Blessing