Bobby, the newly joined President rang up the secretary of the Chairman and sought an appointment with the chairman for next day. He was asked to be there at 10 in the morning.... And here he was.
He found two more presidents and the marketing chief in the ante room. Wondering what was going on, he checked up with the secretary and her reply was that they all had come to see the chairman. 'But what time is their appointment?' he queried. The secretary's reply nearly shocked him, 'Sir, the system is very simple. Whosoever wants to meet the chairman, is asked to come at 10 and then the chairman meets them one by one'.
11:30 AM. Bobby is called in. He gives his report to the boss, finishes all his discussion within 20 minutes and before leaving, adds, 'Sir, if you permit, I have a suggestion to make.'
'Yeah, sure!'
'Sir, I noticed that so many senior people come here to meet you. They all come at 10 and then keep on waiting. Instead, if you give them appointment, they will come at that time only and will not be wasting their time.'
"What do you mean by 'Wasting their time'? I am paying for it!"
There may not be many bosses saying that; but this is exactly how they think and behave. These are the people who would tell you the importance of time every now and then; but do not believe in what they say. Unfortunately, it affects the entire organization. Not only the precious time is wasted; but in the bargain, many people pick up these habits from their ideals. For a meeting, if you keep 20 people waiting for 25 minutes, one man-day has already gone down the drain and then in the meeting you discuss how to improve operational efficiency in the corporation! What a pity!!
The reasons for such behaviour are not far to seek. It is all in the mindset. Wastage of any kind is bad and harmful; but that of the time is simply criminal. When you have no power to create / manufacture time, how can you think of wasting that? Generally it is said that time is money; but it is not true. Time is much much more than money! You can certainly spend your time to make millions; but can not add a single second to your time even if you are ready to pay millions for it. With money, you can buy the people to work for you in their time. You can never buy the time they own and add it to your time.
There are 'N' number of ways and means under the aegis of time management, to improve utilization of time at our command. None of these can help change the approach of the people with distorted thinking. What can help? Let us see.
Though we can talk about the national wastage; how does it affect an individual? After all, since you are paying for the time of your employees, their loss in fact, is your loss. No sane person would tolerate his own loss, howsoever rich he may be. Also, even if you own an empire, many a times, one has to be on the other side of the table. If you happen to go and meet a VIP (minister or high ranking government official), how would you like to receive such a treatment. And even if you are getting such treatment often, is it justified to pass on the same and that too at 'your' cost?
Not only you save your time (and thus money) through a systematic approach, others also save time and can be more productive - for you, for themselves, for the nation... Believe me, as a bonus, it brings in a lot of peace of mind as well.
