Move Beyond the To-Do List
The following is adapted from Catapult by Punit Dhillon.
As a CEO, my planning process is more elaborate than weekly checklists. My preparation for the next year always starts in quarter three when we draft our five core milestones for the company with the components required for each listed underneath.
Each objective is divided among my C-Suite, and every week I ask each member of the team to list their top three priorities pertaining to their specific objective, each one representing an extension of the things driving their performance metric. Underneath that, I ask them to list no more than ten things they needed to accomplish that week to make progress on the top three priorities, so we can see a percentage completion toward that top three.
Every Monday, we circulate our lists among our management team. In turn, the managers do the same among their own teams and ask their direct reports for similar lists.
The process’s entire purpose is to keep everyone aligned. Every time I or management reviews the checklists, we ask ourselves questions: “Is Bob focused on what he is supposed to be focusing on? In his top three, does it say something that does not pertain to our milestones?” I and the management team would like to know right away exactly why everyone is doing what they are doing.
If they mention something that did not fit with our overall corporate milestones or corporate scorecard, we will simply ask for clarification or more perspective. It keeps the entire team focused on moving the needle on the five things we established in the beginning of the year as being critical to our success.
It also eliminates any temptation to procrastinate, something all of us can inherently fall victim to. There really is no room for procrastination, especially in a field like life sciences where the primary objective is to help patients who have an unmet medical need and little or no other options available to them.
The lists also create a sense of urgency. It is easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day tasks and lose sight of the real reason you are doing the work that you do. We are not all necessarily thinking about the fact we are helping people suffering from stage four melanoma with less than a few months to live as we go about the business of opening a clinical site, finalizing a budget or attending another meeting.
These lists show the team how everyone’s job matters, and even if some of the things on the lists might not sound terribly exciting, they are all necessary to help us reach our goals. By making the list, you are holding yourself accountable to getting it done — all of it — and by sharing it with the rest of the team, you become accountable to everyone else as well.
By making sure everyone stays focused on what matters most, this process becomes the key to our collective productivity. It shows us how our milestones are aligned to people’s roles and responsibility, and how people’s roles and responsibility are linked to their purpose-to-impact plan. Then, any success or achievement results in shared respect among everyone on the team as well as a shared happiness in getting it done.
Ultimately, this is also a great way to gauge progress because we can show stakeholders the specific steps we take to hit our milestones. It allows for total transparency between all parties, preventing burnout because everyone focuses on the things that matter most to them. Everything they do is aligned to their purpose, and all they need is a checklist holding them accountable to their plan.
In business, it is crucial to remember progress comes in all shapes and sizes. From C-Suite executives to any entry-level employee, we all contribute to a larger purpose, but only the individual can determine how small or large the contribution will be. Transformational leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, and connectors who strive for a greater purpose and who look to be better than who they already are will be perfectly set up to raise the bar because operating in possibility creates endless opportunities for growth.
No matter how you opt to organize your priorities, make sure your process empowers you to simplify and conquer the complex problems.The right tools will assist you when you encounter challenges that will inevitably come your way as you work to make a difference in the world.
For more advice on moving beyond the to-do list, you can find Catapult on Amazon.
Punit Dhillon is the Chair and CEO of Skye Bioscience Inc., a public pharmaceutical company. He is the Co-founder, former President, and CEO of OncoSec, a biotechnology company pioneering new technologies to fight cancer, and the Co-founder of the registered charity, YELL Canada. Punit has been recognized as one of PharmaVOICE 100’s top CEOs and as a finalist for the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™. He lives in San Diego with his wife, Nina, and their two daughters.
