I’m increasingly convinced that one of the ways to fight off burnout is to take action. And with the growing flattening of organizations, more individual contributors will have to take action to communicate, provide clarity, and connect the dots across the org – particularly if middle managers won’t be there to do it.
I created the Weekly “What Are We Doing?” email as a template for this kind of quick communication to keep people aligned. Here’s the basic rubric.
It’s five ideas, ten sentences or so:
- What’s urgent? Identify the main focus this week, the thing that has to get done.
- What’s important? Top three priorities. The things that, when in doubt, do one of these things.
- What’s the problem? Identify blockers, obstacles or problems. Solicit ideas.
- What’s next? What’s coming up that we should start preparing or planning for?
- What’s the good news? Compliments, kudos, announcements, awards, etc. Finish on an up note.
This works from leader to team, or from leader to individuals, or from the individuals to the leader. It is helpful from team leader to other team leaders for leading across teams. It works up and down the org. It shouldn’t take long to write, because all of this should be top of mind to you. But if it does take a while, then that’s all the more reason to do it, to force focus and clarity for yourself. It can seem dorky but it is a really good weekly discipline. Pick a time to send it (Monday morning, or just before the team meeting) and stick to the schedule. You want people to learn to expect it and rely on it. Then they can learn to think that way and do it themselves.
Someone is sure to say, “I’ve got way too much to do, I don’t have time to write (or read) an email like this.” But this takes just five minutes to get aligned. It’s one thing to have it in your head, but writing it down always clarifies the thinking. I’m pretty sure in most orgs five minutes to provide clarity is going to save a lot more time than that by preventing swirl and miscommunication. Not to mention the benefit of clarity on priorities, which saves time by not doing less important things. This note can even be helpful if you’re only writing and sending it to yourself once a week, to stay on track.