Effectiveness :Roadmap

How can we be personally more effective? Whatever your role ( an intern, a front line manager, a VP, a CEO, a president, a teacher, a scientist, a general, or a cop ) increasing your effectiveness is the surest way to survive any layoff and to increase your wealth and peace of mind.

Effectiveness is defined here as 'having/getting some effects.' The implicit but obvious assumption is that these are the effects you desire.

I break down the whole issue of personal effectiveness into four key areas.

1. Am I doing the right things? How do I know what are the right things for me at this time in this situation? Do I do this first or after this or after that?
   
   Such questions can entail tremendous consequences.
   e.g. Shall I invade Russia?
   Shall I attack Leningrad, Moscow, Stalingrad as well as Caucasian oil fields --- all at the same time?
   Shall I pass Health Care reform bills or create jobs for Americans, which one for the next six months?
   Shall I dominate the market first or just release buggy Windows?
   Should I acquire Sun Microsystems or Oracle?
   
   Or the consequences may be trivially small:
   e.g. Shall I learn Ruby or Python?
   Shall I get my hair cut now or tomorrow? Silly?
   


2. Once we know the right things to do for you now,
   How can I do this faster?


3. How can I do this cheaper, using less time, less money, less effort, fewer resources etc?


4. How can I do this better, that is, for better quality? Fewer defects? Higher reliability?
   I wont throw at you - Six Sigma jargons, Lean jargons or TPS jargons.

I will expand on these areas in my weekly posts.

Thank you. I am polite and won't waste your time.