Dodge: How to conserve your time through subtle evasion
The Opportunity Filter, Part 2 [What Leadership Looks Like]
Links to The Opportunity Filter, a “What Leadership Looks Like” series by David Drury:
You can only do so much.
The Opportunity Filter is a way to make decisions on what you do. It helps you discern what you can bless, launch, dodge, or warn about and not own. You don't have to own every opportunity that comes your way. As Mark, a commenter on the introduction to this series said,
If you never use these creative ways to say no, you'll never find the focus required to achieve what you really want to get done.
To dodge something is to make sure you don't spend undue time and energy on things you don't need to truly own. This means that even giving it your blessing (the next installment of the filter) would draw in your time and attention in a way that isn't right. It could be that someone is just too demanding, and even if you start to bless it, it wouldn't be enough. They would pull you in. Or it could be that an opportunity just takes too much time to explain your aim to avoid it.
The key to the dodge option is to ensure you take the least possible time on the opportunity… very little to no time at all. The dodge option does have the risk of you not only looking l like a jerk but even feeling like a jerk yourself. But, again, you can only do so much with your time.
If you try to do everything, you'll end up doing nothing.
So, here are ways to be less overt and conserve your time through subtle evasion:
1) Limit
The first thing to do is consider the number of people who have access to you in the first place. How available is your email address? Is it public on a website? Should it be? Ask the same question about your phone and street address. You might also consider if you see social media requests with the same "business merit" as other things. In reality, everyone is more accessible to opportunities via social media. That slows you down from doing the most important priorities you want to get done.
2) Delay
Next, you can intentionally delay your response to opportunities. This is most critical to do when you are a part of a group request. If someone writes an email request to a whole mess of people, just wait a few days to see if someone else replies. If so, it's handled, and then you didn't even need to think through if you should say yes. Even with requests and opportunities that come only to you, take a day or two to reply. Wait a bit and think. Set up a reminder or task to respond later and even delete the email, so it's not in your face all the time. I imagine you, like everyone, have said yes to opportunities in the moment that you later regretted. If you say yes in the moment too much, get yourself out of that moment first of all. Then, after gathering your priorities in mind, respond accordingly. Often, that means a dodge.
3) Pause
Other times you have to offer a pause response, especially if they email you 8 hours later saying, "Did you get my email?" Or even worse, if they walk down to your office or send you a text an hour later saying, "Did you get my email?" In these times you might need my "Handy Dandy List Of Pause Statements That Buy You Time And Lowers Expectations At The Same Time," better known by its more concise acronym:
"HDLOPSTBYTALEATST":
"I'll have to look at the calendar first."
"Did you happen to ask my boss about me tackling that right now?"
"I'll need to think that over; could you check back with me in a (week/day)?"
"I have a few really key priorities/deadlines/events looming over me; I cannot add this now."
"Have you considered (insert another person better for it here) for this instead?"
"I am all booked up on the calendar for the next 3 weeks. Can this be started next month for me?"
"I like this idea but just don't know that I have the mental capacity to give it what it deserves."
Role Dynamics:
Bosses
Dodging "opportunities" from your boss is a much trickier thing. If you end up dodging too many tasks from your boss in no time you'll be dodging your own paychecks. What can you do to limit tasks that aren't in your wheelhouse or what you were hired to do? Well, here's some "Boss Questions" that put the ball back in their decision court if something is doubtful in your mind:
"Is this the kind of thing you'd like me to help find someone else to help us to get done?"
"Is this the kind of thing [insert another employee name here] is best at doing or do you want me to do it?"
"I can get that done for sure, but not sure you want me doing it every time. Next time, is there someone else who should be asked?"
"Is this the kind of thing you want me to do in a recurring way? I think it will take [insert time estimate here] per (day/week/month) if I'm gonna keep that up. Is that your intent?"
"Ok, I'll write that down, and let me see if I can fit that in over some of the more critical items you've given me to do of late. Let me know if it becomes more urgent." (Use this one on things that are just a "wild random idea" from a boss and you suspect they will forget all about it in a week. Take it off your list in a month if not mentioned. Move it up way your list if she brings it up again.)
Peers
Some peers end up giving you "opportunities" which, as we've seen above, are sometimes just stuff they were asked to do that they want you to do instead. Everyone in a company can be a good "team player" in the culture without foisting their work upon their peers. So the key here is finding your lane and being direct about it. You can use some of the language above in the "Pause Statements" to help clarify your response. Knowing what priorities your boss or your oversight board wants you to focus on will help you interact with peers, so you aren't spending a lot of energy on those dodge items.
Employees
If you have people working for you then you have the perfect way to dodge things that aren't in your wheelhouse. They work there to do tasks you don't do already. You can pass on these tasks to appropriate employees, often without a reply to the sender, but instead counting on the employee to respond. One CEO of a massive company in the US was famous for forwarding such emails on to a division head with only a "?" appended to the top. Some of us have discovered the great joy of forwarding a voice mail to others (you can do it in almost any company voice-mail system now, even your mobile phone does it with one click).
Of course, sometimes you can't dodge an opportunity, in many of those cases, you can move on to bless, which we'll hit in the next installment of The Opportunity Filter. Subscribe so you don’t miss it.
Discuss your thoughts on how to “dodge” opportunities or other perspectives you have on The Opportunity Filter by clicking here:
The Opportunity Filter was first developed in my SixQ Coaching, and you can look into that course by clicking here. My next cohort starts September 8, 2021 and the deadline to sign up is September 1, 2021. More info is also found in the image below.
So, what's your take? Willing to discuss it here. -Dave
If it’s the boss you’re talking to, maybe asking them what they’d like you to not get done while doing this new thing will help clarify for them or you what’s really the priority. Or to put it another way “is this more important than that?”