Comments on: Responding Versus Responsiveness

By: Natalie

Natalie — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 23:47:56 +0000

Great point! I’ve heard of increasing efficency by not sending the ‘Thank You’ email after receiving something you requested, because it is a waste of the sender and receivers times, but never thought of responsiveness vs. responding.
It seems very much like the difference between efficiency and effectiveness. You can be very efficient and get lots of stuff done, but unless they are important and valuable, they are not effective.

In both cases it’s the concept of making progress, of moving things toward a result, not just off your desk, that is the key.

I’ll try to keep this in mind.

Thanks,
Natalie

By: Paul H. Burton

Paul H. Burton — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:30:05 +0000

Joseph,

Thanks for comments!

I agree that our current working environments create a situation where people struggle to just keep up. As both a solopreneur/consultant (QuietSpacing) and co-founder of an online retailer (Outdoorplay), I see the solution as a two-fold mechanism. First, I believe that each individual makes choices throughout the day on how to handle their incoming communications, work, etc. This is both a perspective and skill set issue. With the correct perspective (“I’m in charge”) and good skills, commanding their individual workloads is possible.

Second, as a business owner with employees, I believe it’s my responsibility to encourage the persective mentioned above and help each person develop those skills. It’s also my responsibility to lead the way by providing clear instructions in my own outbound communiques such that people know what’s expected of them, etc.

Thanks again for your input!

PHB

By: Joseph Carrabis

Joseph Carrabis — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:49:46 +0000

(Commenting here and on the blog)
Excellent points and I agree with them.
It is a sad fact, though, that responsiveness, responding and (dare I suggest it) responsibility are losing ground. Despite all the statements companies are making otherwise, it seems more and more companies are losing the battle (it’s less the case with solopreneurs, consultants and such, me thinks). I’ll offer that a reason for the losing battle is that people are frustrated more often than not in today’s world, know that the squeaky wheel gets the most grease, squeak before they think and the end result is that the company/solopreneur/consultant gets to an overload state where responsiveness and responding get lost.
Just my thoughts.
Joseph