Never-ending arguments at work waste time and money. Usually, they are more about ego, than smart debates.
Don’t fall victim to these time management traps. Find out why you must declare a truce on never-ending arguments in this edition of our Productivity Video Series.
Transcript for Never-ending Arguments at Work
In your organization do people spend a lot of time on what I call, never-ending arguments? Years ago, I had a front row seat for a never-ending argument. It would happen between two people who were department heads.
Otherwise, good employees, but every month when a performance metric had to be reported they started to argue.
It was all about the interpretation of the statistic. One person favored an interpretation that made the department look better. The other person said, “Nope can’t do that. Have to take a more conservative approach.”
The person who favorite the conservative approach was the one who was in charge of writing the reports. And even though every month, there would be a lively 30 minute, voices raised, discussion about the interpretation of this metric, he refused to change it.
Sometimes at work, it does make sense to fight for something that you believe in. But it shouldn’t be happening every month, like clockwork.
Because these arguments, more than 30 minutes long, for both people. That’s an hour, 12 times a year. That’s 12, hours of productive time.
You also have to remember, the people who are working around the arguing, they are affected as well,. Their productivity goes down.
Suddenly, you see how this little argument, every month, it starts to add up and really hurt performance.
Ultimately, the person who writes the report, they have the final say. Maybe this is an issue to take up the chain of command, if it makes sense.
But otherwise, he can’t keep rehashing the same argument, every month. It just waste too much time.
Sometimes you’re not gonna like how something is interpreted. You gotta live with it, rather than spend a lot of time worrying about it in disrupting others, and not ending argument can lead to major productivity problems.
About Ken Okel
As a motivational keynote speaker, Ken Okel works with leaders and organizations to boost productivity, performance, and profits. At conferences, conventions, and company meetings, he engages audiences with new ways to maximize their time at work. To see a sample of his corporate and association keynote and breakout presentations, visit his video page.
