Slack: Not Just a Smack on Efficiency
How do you feel as you experience slack at work or in your personal life?
Are you comfortable with slack or are you compelled to be doing something…anything?
Currently Slacker Manager is in the transition time between Brendon Connelly writing this blog and two other bloggers picking up “the slack.”
During this period of slack, I encourage you to read the first post from Slacker Manager that got this blog started: Slack.
In the first post, Bren discussed the book Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency by Tom DeMarco. DeMarco believed that slack was the missing ingredient required for all change. He believed that we neglect the thoughtful use of slack in our mindless obsession with efficiency. Slack can be a tremendous resource for a manager rather than a waste of time.
Demarco outlined two laws of bad management:
- If something isn’t working, do more of it.
- Put yourself in as your own utility infielder.
Do you feel the need to cover all the bases as a manager? Demarco stated that management is hard…
not because there is so much work to do (an overworked manager is almost certainly doing work he/she shouldn’t be doing). Management is hard because the skills are inherently difficult to master.
In the Afterword of Slack Demarco stated:
My unveiling of Slack has been, at least in part, a diatribe against efficiency. I hope this hasn’t given you the sense that efficiency doesn’t matter at all, only that it doesn’t matter most of all.
STOP and take 5 to 10 minutes to reflect on the following 5 questions about the role of slack in your work.
- How comfortable am I with slack?
- Does slack create lack or abundance in my work?
- Have I become too focused on efficiency - making it matter most of all?
- If I tell others that I am busy, what work should I stop doing or not be doing?
- Do I have leave enough slack to facilitate my personal and professional changes?
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POSTED IN: career, management, work life
1 opinion for Slack: Not Just a Smack on Efficiency
Daniel
Aug 20, 2007 at 2:39 pm
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article Slacker Manager, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.