An interesting book with an interesting title - something that many of us would have asked at some point of our lives, either at home or at work! The Book by Jerome T Loeb and Robert Eugene Lefton shares an interesting and handy model for us to use at times such as this.

1. Book Review:
Why cant we get anything
done around here?
JeromeT. Loeb and Robert Eugene Lefton
www.focusu.com

2. Are we getting the right
things done?
Separating the noise
from the signal
Executing the work that
delivers results

3. TheTask Management Model

4. Key dimensions
Is the task/assignment important?
Is the person capable of doing
the task/assignment?
Does the person enjoy the task/assignment?

5. Is the task/assignment important?
The task clearly helps to drive the
performance and achieve the business and
financial goals of the organization
If the task doesn’t get done, it will hurt the
performance of the organization
It is urgent (needs to be done now)

6. Is the person capable of doing the assignment?
The technical and functional expertise to
do the task
The problem solving and decision making
skills to do the task
The interpersonal skills to do the task

7. Does the person enjoy the task and assignment?
It is the product of positive feelings and
emotions
It is not related to facts or logic
(Therefore it is subjective rather than
objective)
It is based on the pleasure principle

8. =

9. Black Holes : All assignments here are unimportant
Red Flags : Important work that has to be done is being assigned to incapable people who don’t want to do
it
Yellow Flags : Important tasks that are given to enthusiastic people who lack the capability to do them
should be a yellow flag of caution. We must provide a way for people to attain the complementary skills
needed to achieve a good result.
Big Ds : They are big Ds because they are important tasks that capable people must do even though they
dislike them . The D is for discipline. Its takes discipline to get these done.
Gold Stars : Capable people doing important work who enjoy doing that work.

10. Recommendations
 Don’t let the enjoyment component( pleasure principle) stand in
the way of making an assignment
 Don’t let the organization chart be a barrier to make an
assignment
 Don’t Simply assign people important tasks and walk away from
them saying “ I have delegated! Its up to them to get it done. I
am practicing good hands off management
 Remember that what’s important can change quickly
 Don’t allow people to turn important tasks into black holes
 Think through what you could really accomplish by assigning
more and more gold stars