A new way to attract business growth....doing better with your IT? Wait a second, isn't IT of a more important but not urgent task category?
For those of you who have read Mr Covey's work (Seven Habits) you will know that this category is one that adds the most value. This is in comparison to other categories:
1) Urgent and important
2) Urgent and not important (a fire fighting category)
3) Not important and not urgent (stay away as much as possible)!
The important not urgent is where value add is as this is where all strategic and long term thinking lies.
If we were all fire fighting all the time where would we be? Steve Covey's example is that of a team of soldiers hacking successfully through a forest and one soldier says "we are in the wrong forest" and the head soldier says "who cares! We are making progress"!
Likewise a business without long term strategic thinking can leave you working very hard but not always smart.
Working smart is figuring out how to save time and money in all operational areas, including IT so that every bit of effort you make is leveraged. Business coaches say this when advising business owners to get in staff so they can leverage their time. Similarly, getting IT to maximum efficiency is like having another staff member because the IT is working harder so you don't have to! What you are left with is time to gear your business in the direction of your choice- or perhaps to spend an extra half hour a day reading the paper if you choose to!
This is why the important not urgent category is really the urgent and important in disguise!
