There are perhaps as many reasons why work does not get done as there are unfinished tasks laying around. But lets talk about two major reasons and I guarantee you if and when you fix them, life starts getting easier because work is getting done. By the way, one always assumes "work getting done" means that the particular work done actually bring about a product, which is really needed and can be valued by someone else as useful. And only then will another be willing to pay for it or willing to give something in exchange. For instance, doing all kinds of work to be organized might well be lots of man-hours wasted for nothing.

I am not saying that one should not be organized, one must in fact be organized, but being organized for the purpose of being organized means little or nothing. It very often means only "being busy"!! So, every task done must have a clear product, which clearly contributes to the end product the company wants to produce. There is much more about this to be said but I hope that the few words will give you enough of an idea so that you maybe take a few moments and look over all action you and your staff do and see what actions simply might be eliminated because they simply do not contribute enough to the end result. Actions, which do not bring enough return, can and usually do cost you, the practitioner, more money than all the bad investments you ever made.

Work not getting done, even in a small business, over a lifetime means millions of dollars lost. Millions of dollars, which could be used for better servicing patients, even more expansion of your practice and that expansion of course could buy many nice things for you and your family, including having time off!! The two reasons why work is not getting done are: 1) Not enough people to do the job. 2) Wrongly given orders by executives. (Here we mean that even the smartest person in the world could not execute the orders.) Number One - Not enough people: Not enough people to do the job have everything to do with the under-estimation of what it takes to do a certain task. Most bosses as well as workers grossly underestimate the time it takes to perform an action.

This underestimation does not even put into calculation the fact that there are always other unexpected tasks that turn up. Unexpected and uncalculated jobs like more work during tax season, some computer break down, an employee becoming sick or otherwise just not having a great day, and I am sure you could have nightmares if you think of all the unexpected and uncalculated tasks which just happened to appear. Don't ever think that "Now all the unexpected tasks are done!!" They never will be done and will ALWAYS continue to pop up!! You see, some management people try to tell you that IF YOU PLAN WELL this will not happen. First of all that is BULL and second of all, if it would be possible, you still would have to have someone doing the task and it still would be true that you would have to have more people do the job!! Be honest with yourself and look at it - it is not only your employees who do not get the job done in the time you think they should, YOU, the boss, is just as guilty of it.

Go ahead, be honest with yourself - the above will make much more sense and will open the gates to getting the jobs on hand done and thus make money hands over fist. At this moment you probably think that it is impossible to have more people because you already cannot make payroll. I understand but at this juncture you have not much choice than trusting me. Most of the tasks not getting done are usually tasks that have to do with the creating of new patients and selling them, treating their needs.

Number Two - Wrongly given orders by executives: This is equally as devastating as not having enough staff. Probably even more so, since I, after all, know lots of doctors and business people who have plenty of personnel and still get nothing done! Sure, it is easy to blame the workers, and no doubt, I know from personally having been in charge of up to 1000 workers that some employees definitely must go. Some employees are simply beyond repair and are down right lazy, or more correctly, are unwilling. But more often than that, it is the UN-DOABLE ORDERS from executives, which snarl the whole production progress up.

You see, I am a bit lazy too which is why I have learned how to give correct orders which can be executed so I don't have to do it all myself! I have written a long article with some real life examples for Doctors called "How to Get the Job Done" which you can later read but for now lets just get to the basics. Most orders that an executive gives are actually not executable because the order talks about something, which means something different to different people. Like it or not, "clean the room" means something very different to a 12 year old than to a meticulous housekeeper! "Organize the office" - means what? To me personally, it would maybe mean to get everyone on the phones and call clients and prospects and get them in the office so we can enlighten them about our service. To you it might mean clean the office, put the boxes away, etc. To your office manager it might mean to get into the computer to clean up the misspellings in the patients' records and tell the rest of the workers to be friendlier to patients as well as work harder. ("Being friendly and work harder" of course would be another set of undoable orders) Can you see that? What is friendly to one is not necessarily friendly to someone else.

Even "file the patients charts" obviously needs more explanation. This above example may jog your memory so you can look over all the times you or your executives gave one of those more or less undoable orders. Now, remember to look and search for some more concrete examples but please to not forget, or underestimate the effort it will take to start giving DOABLE ORDERS! Look doctor, you worked hard on getting yourself so well educated and it took quite some effort. What would you think if your son or daughter would tell you that going to school and putting in some sweat and enduring some inconveniences is not worth it and he or she rather start washing dishes in some restaurant or doing filing work in some office because it makes immediate money and is not so demanding on their social life! What would you think or do? You doctors, being well-educated and having paid some dues and having all the pressures in life, are sometimes very much inclined to NOT LEARN NEW THINGS because they involve too much time, sweat and inconvenience. But you will, pay the price (as your children would) in the form of unnecessary hardship for many years to come.

You know that success would be almost impossible! Now that you have read this issue I can honestly say that any "financial hardship" or having to work hard without the appropriate rewards which you may encounter in the future, WILL BE SELF-IMPOSED! You don't have to do all the work yourself - in fact you can't. But you also must learn what all the great leaders somehow know or have learned: give do-able orders. It's easer done than said! Yes you heard me right - it is easier done than said. Try it - or better, just DO it and love it!! Read the issue "How to Get the Job Done" in our Mass Marketing Program. Contained in this issue are examples only, and only some very few examples - you must work daily on breaking your orders in series of doable steps ensuring the results you envision.

It is sort like an illness. You don't say get the fever down. So why would you say "get collection up"? No, you say "do test 1, do test 2, do test 3". Then you say: "Give that medicine and do that and that". OK, have fun giving orders, which can be executed, but most importantly start making money because work is getting done.

Helmut Flasch is a marketing consultant who uses Un-advertising rather than the traditional advertising methods. Find out more information about his marketing strategy at Un-Advertising Info.