I worked with this resource company in regional WA recently. Their staff sessions were complete disasters. The team would sit there blankly, agree with everything, then return to doing the same old things.

The bosses kept having a go at the team for “not listening.” But when I observed these briefings, the real problem was obvious. The team leaders were lecturing people, not talking with them.

I’ll never forget when I was consulting for a small company in South Australia that was falling apart. Revenue was dropping, customer complaints were up, and staff turnover was through the roof.

The breakthrough came when we totally switched the entire approach. Instead of one-way lectures, we started having real conversations. Staff told us about scary incidents they’d been through. Bosses really heard and asked follow-up questions.

The change was instant. Safety incidents fell by nearly half within twelve weeks.

This taught me something crucial – effective development isn’t about perfect presentations. It’s about human connection.

Active listening is almost certainly the vital ability you can build in communication training. But the majority think paying attention means saying yes and making encouraging noises.

That doesn’t work. Actual listening means not talking and genuinely grasping what someone is saying. It means posing queries that show you’ve got it.

Here’s the reality – the majority of leaders are hopeless at paying attention. They’re busy preparing their answer before the other person finishes talking.

I proved this with a mobile service in Melbourne. Throughout their team meetings, I monitored how many times managers cut off their employees. The usual was every 45 seconds.

No wonder their employee satisfaction numbers were terrible. People felt dismissed and disrespected. Interaction had turned into a lecture series where management spoke and workers pretended to be engaged.

Digital messaging is an additional problem area in most workplaces. People dash off digital notes like they’re sending SMS to their colleagues, then can’t understand why misunderstandings happen.

Digital communication tone is especially difficult because you miss how someone sounds. What appears clear to you might appear aggressive to the recipient.

I’ve observed countless workplace conflicts blow up over badly worded messages that could have been sorted out with a quick conversation.

The worst case I saw was at a government department in the ACT. An message about financial reductions was written so badly that numerous workers thought they were being made redundant.

Mayhem broke out through the office. Employees started preparing their resumes and contacting recruitment agencies. It took nearly a week and numerous clarification meetings to fix the confusion.

All because someone failed to write a clear message. The irony? This was in the public relations department.

Discussion management is where many companies lose huge quantities of time and money. Bad meetings are common, and they’re terrible because not a single person has learned how to run them properly.

Effective sessions require obvious goals, organised outlines, and an individual who ensures conversations focused.

Cultural differences play a huge role in business dialogue. Our diverse staff means you’re dealing with people from dozens of diverse communities.

What’s seen as direct communication in Anglo culture might be interpreted as aggressive in different backgrounds. I’ve witnessed many problems arise from these cross-cultural distinctions.

Development needs to cover these variations openly and realistically. Employees need real strategies to handle multicultural dialogue effectively.

Good development programs acknowledges that communication is a capability that develops with use. You won’t master it from a one-day course. It requires ongoing practice and feedback.

Companies that invest in proper communication training see real improvements in performance, worker engagement, and service quality.

The bottom line is this: communication isn’t rocket science, but it certainly needs real commitment and proper training to get right.

Commitment to progressive workplace development forms a crucial opportunity that permits businesses to succeed in continuously transforming business environments.

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Stop Teaching People to “Prioritize” When Your Organization Has Zero Idea What Genuinely Is Important: How Task Organization Training Fails in Chaotic Organizations

I’m ready to demolish one of the biggest popular false beliefs in organizational training: the idea that showing employees improved “prioritization” methods will resolve time management challenges in organizations that have no clear strategic focus themselves.

With extensive experience of training with organizations on efficiency challenges, I can tell you that task organization training in a poorly-run company is like instructing someone to sort their possessions while their home is actively burning down around them.

Here’s the core problem: most organizations experiencing from time management issues cannot have productivity issues – they have organizational dysfunction.

Standard task planning training presupposes that organizations have consistent, stable priorities that workers can be trained to identify and focus with. Such assumption is entirely divorced from actual workplace conditions in most modern workplaces.

I worked with a significant advertising agency where staff were repeatedly expressing frustration about being “struggling to prioritize their tasks properly.” Leadership had invested massive sums on task management training for every workers.

The training featured all the usual methods: priority systems, priority classification methods, schedule organization methods, and sophisticated task organization systems.

Yet productivity continued to get worse, staff stress instances got higher, and client delivery results got longer, not improved.

After I investigated what was actually happening, I discovered the actual problem: the organization at the leadership level had no consistent direction.

This is what the normal reality looked like for workers:

Each week: Top leadership would announce that Initiative A was the “top focus” and all staff needed to concentrate on it right away

The next day: A different top manager would distribute an “critical” email declaring that Client B was now the “highest critical” objective

48 hours later: Another different team leader would schedule an “urgent” session to announce that Project C was a “critical” deliverable that had to be finished by immediately

Day four: The original top manager would voice anger that Client A hadn’t advanced sufficiently and demand to know why people weren’t “working on” it properly

Friday: All three initiatives would be incomplete, various deliverables would be missed, and employees would be criticized for “ineffective priority organization skills”

Such scenario was repeated week after week, regularly after month. Zero amount of “task management” training was able to enable staff navigate this organizational chaos.

This basic issue wasn’t that workers did not understand how to manage tasks – it was that the agency at every level was completely unable of creating consistent direction for more than 24 hours at a time.

We convinced executives to eliminate their focus on “individual task planning” training and instead establish what I call “Strategic Direction Clarity.”

In place of working to train staff to organize within a chaotic organization, we focused on building genuine strategic priorities:

Implemented a central leadership leadership team with clear power for setting and enforcing company focus

Created a systematic project review procedure that happened monthly rather than whenever someone felt like it

Established written standards for when priorities could be changed and what degree of sign-off was necessary for such adjustments

Implemented required communication procedures to guarantee that each priority changes were shared clearly and to everyone across each departments

Implemented stability periods where absolutely no project changes were acceptable without extraordinary approval

The improvement was instant and substantial:

Staff stress levels decreased dramatically as employees at last understood what they were supposed to be working on

Output rose by nearly 50% within 45 days as staff could genuinely work on delivering projects rather than constantly changing between multiple demands

Project quality schedules got better considerably as departments could coordinate and execute work without continuous changes and re-prioritization

Client relationships improved significantly as projects were actually finished as promised and to requirements

This point: before you teach people to organize, ensure your company actually maintains clear direction that are worth prioritizing.

Here’s another method that time planning training fails in chaotic organizations: by assuming that staff have real control over their schedule and priorities.

We consulted with a public sector organization where employees were constantly getting criticized for “poor time organization” and sent to “efficiency” training workshops.

This truth was that these staff had essentially absolutely no control over their daily activities. This is what their average schedule looked like:

Roughly three-fifths of their time was consumed by required conferences that they couldn’t avoid, regardless of whether these sessions were necessary to their core responsibilities

Another one-fifth of their schedule was assigned to filling out bureaucratic forms and bureaucratic obligations that contributed no benefit to their actual work or to the citizens they were intended to help

The remaining 20% of their schedule was expected to be dedicated for their real work – the work they were paid to do and that genuinely made a difference to the agency

However even this small amount of time was regularly disrupted by “urgent” requests, last-minute calls, and administrative requirements that couldn’t be delayed

Under these circumstances, absolutely no amount of “priority management” training was able to enable these workers turn more effective. Their challenge wasn’t their employee task management skills – it was an organizational structure that made productive accomplishment essentially unattainable.

The team helped them create organizational changes to resolve the underlying impediments to efficiency:

Got rid of pointless sessions and created specific standards for when gatherings were genuinely necessary

Streamlined administrative obligations and got rid of duplicate documentation requirements

Created protected time for actual professional tasks that couldn’t be interrupted by non-essential demands

Developed defined protocols for deciding what constituted a genuine “emergency” versus normal tasks that could be scheduled for scheduled slots

Established workload sharing processes to guarantee that work was shared fairly and that no single person was carrying excessive load with unrealistic demands

Worker productivity rose dramatically, work happiness improved considerably, and the department finally began offering improved results to the citizens they were intended to support.

The important insight: companies won’t be able to fix productivity problems by teaching people to work more successfully within broken structures. You have to improve the structures first.

Now let’s address perhaps the most laughable aspect of task management training in poorly-run workplaces: the belief that staff can somehow organize responsibilities when the management itself changes its priorities numerous times per week.

We consulted with a technology startup where the CEO was famous for having “innovative” insights numerous times per day and demanding the entire organization to right away redirect to implement each new direction.

Employees would show up at the office on regularly with a defined knowledge of their objectives for the week, only to find that the leadership had decided suddenly that everything they had been focusing on was suddenly not a priority and that they needed to instantly begin focusing on something totally different.

Such cycle would happen multiple times per month. Work that had been announced as “highest priority” would be abandoned halfway through, groups would be constantly redirected to new work, and enormous amounts of resources and investment would be lost on work that were ultimately not finished.

Their organization had invested extensively in “agile project management” training and complex priority organization systems to enable workers “respond quickly” to evolving requirements.

Yet no amount of skill development or systems could solve the core challenge: people cannot effectively manage constantly shifting directions. Continuous modification is the antithesis of effective organization.

I assisted them establish what I call “Focused Direction Consistency”:

Established scheduled planning assessment cycles where major direction modifications could be discussed and adopted

Established firm criteria for what qualified as a genuine justification for changing agreed-upon directions apart from the planned assessment sessions

Created a “objective consistency” period where absolutely no adjustments to set objectives were allowed without emergency circumstances

Established clear notification systems for when direction changes were genuinely essential, featuring thorough impact assessments of what work would be abandoned

Established documented authorization from multiple decision-makers before all significant direction shifts could be enacted

This change was remarkable. In a quarter, measurable initiative completion percentages improved by more than three times. Staff burnout instances decreased considerably as employees could actually work on completing tasks rather than repeatedly initiating new ones.

Innovation remarkably got better because departments had adequate opportunity to fully explore and evaluate their ideas rather than continuously switching to new initiatives before anything could be fully developed.

That point: successful planning requires directions that remain unchanged long enough for teams to genuinely focus on them and accomplish substantial progress.

This is what I’ve learned after extensive time in this business: time organization training is merely useful in companies that currently have their organizational act working properly.

When your organization has clear business direction, realistic demands, functional decision-making, and processes that facilitate rather than prevent productive work, then time management training can be useful.

But if your organization is characterized by perpetual chaos, competing priorities, incompetent organization, impossible demands, and emergency leadership approaches, then task organization training is worse than ineffective – it’s directly damaging because it holds responsible individual performance for systemic incompetence.

Stop throwing away money on priority planning training until you’ve resolved your organizational direction before anything else.

Begin creating companies with consistent business direction, competent leadership, and structures that really support productive activity.

The staff can organize perfectly fine once you offer them direction suitable for prioritizing and an environment that genuinely enables them in accomplishing their responsibilities. overburdened with impossible workloads

Staff efficiency improved substantially, work happiness got better notably, and the department actually started delivering improved outcomes to the citizens they were intended to help.

The important insight: you won’t be able to fix time management challenges by training employees to function better productively within dysfunctional organizations. Organizations must fix the structures before anything else.

At this point let’s address probably the biggest laughable aspect of task organization training in chaotic organizations: the assumption that staff can somehow manage responsibilities when the organization as a whole shifts its priorities several times per month.

I worked with a IT company where the executive leadership was well-known for having “innovative” revelations several times per week and requiring the whole team to instantly pivot to implement each new priority.

Employees would arrive at their jobs on any given day with a specific awareness of their tasks for the period, only to discover that the management had determined overnight that all work they had been working on was not important and that they should to immediately begin focusing on something entirely new.

Such behavior would occur several times per week. Work that had been announced as “essential” would be forgotten before completion, teams would be repeatedly redirected to new work, and significant quantities of time and energy would be lost on work that were ultimately not delivered.

Their startup had spent extensively in “agile project management” training and complex task management systems to enable staff “adapt efficiently” to changing priorities.

However zero amount of skill development or software could overcome the fundamental issue: you can’t effectively organize constantly changing priorities. Continuous shifting is the antithesis of successful planning.

We worked with them create what I call “Disciplined Direction Consistency”:

Implemented quarterly planning planning periods where important direction changes could be evaluated and adopted

Established firm criteria for what constituted a valid justification for adjusting set objectives outside the regular assessment cycles

Created a “direction protection” phase where zero changes to current directions were acceptable without exceptional approval

Implemented clear communication procedures for when direction adjustments were absolutely essential, including complete consequence analyses of what work would be abandoned

Required formal sign-off from several leaders before each significant direction shifts could be approved

The improvement was dramatic. After three months, measurable project success statistics improved by more than three times. Worker frustration rates fell significantly as people could actually focus on delivering tasks rather than repeatedly beginning new ones.

Creativity actually got better because groups had adequate opportunity to thoroughly explore and test their concepts rather than constantly changing to new initiatives before anything could be fully completed.

That lesson: successful planning requires directions that keep consistent long enough for employees to genuinely concentrate on them and achieve substantial progress.

Let me share what I’ve discovered after years in this industry: task organization training is merely effective in workplaces that already have their strategic systems functioning.

Once your company has stable organizational priorities, realistic workloads, functional management, and structures that facilitate rather than hinder effective performance, then task planning training can be beneficial.

But if your company is marked by perpetual dysfunction, competing directions, inadequate organization, excessive expectations, and emergency management cultures, then task organization training is worse than useless – it’s systematically destructive because it blames individual performance for organizational dysfunction.

End throwing away resources on time management training until you’ve fixed your leadership dysfunction before anything else.

Focus on creating companies with consistent strategic focus, effective leadership, and systems that really facilitate meaningful activity.

Your staff will prioritize perfectly well once you provide them something worth prioritizing and an workplace that genuinely facilitates them in completing their jobs.

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