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FIRST THINGS FIRST- Peter

Drucker

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• If there’s any one secret of effectiveness, it is

CONCENTRATION

• Effective executives do first things first and they do one thing at a time.

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• We rightly consider keeping many balls in the air a circus stunt. Yet even the juggler does it only for ten minutes or so. If he were to try doing it longer, he would soon drop all the balls.

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Concentration is necessary precisely because the executive faces so many tasks clamoring to be done. For doing one thing at a time means doing it fast. The more one can concentrate time, effort, and resources, the greater the number and diversity of tasks one can actually perform.

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1st RULE FOR THE CONCENTRATION OF EXECUTIVE EFFORTS:

SYSTEMATICALLY SLOUGH OFF THE PAST THAT HAS CEASED TO BE PRODUCTIVE

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A fruit tree grows stronger and fuller when it is

pruned periodically. 6

•TRADITIONAL assumption:

“ All programs last forever unless proven to have outlived their usefulness.”

“ All programs outlive their usefulness fast and should be scrapped unless proven productive and necessary.”

•Should rather be:

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• The executive who wants to be effective and who wants his organization to be effective polices all programs, all activities, all tasks.

• He always asks:IS THIS STILL WORTH DOING?

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•TODAY, is always the RESULT of actions and decisions taken yesterday.

•It is the executive’s job to commit today’s resources to the future.

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Priorities

Posteriorities

and

2ND RULE FOR THE CONCENTRATION OF EXECUTIVE EFFORTS:

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There are always more productive tasks for tomorrow than there is time to do them and more opportunities than there are capable people to take care of them - - not to mention the always abundant problems and crises.

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A decision therefore has to be made as to which tasks deserves priority and which are of less importance

The only question is which will make the decision - - the executive or the pressures

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DIFFICULTY of setting “Posteriorities” – that is deciding what tasks not to

tackle and of sticking to the decision.

Giving one task a posteriority can be very risky because what one has relegated

may turn out to be the competitor’s triumph.

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TIMING is a most important element in the success of any effort.

to do five years later what it would have been smart to do five years earlier is almost a sure recipe for frustration and failure.

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• COURAGEand not intelligent analysis is the most important thing about priorities and posteriorities.Pick the future as against the pastFocus on opportunity rather than on

problemChoose your own direction – rather than

climb on the bandwagon; andAim high, aim for something that will

make a difference, rather than for something that is “safe” and easy to do.

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CONCENTRATION – that is, the courage to impose on time and events his own decision, as to what really matters and comes first – is the executive’s only hope of becoming the master of time and events instead of their whipping boy.

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THANK YOU!

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