Stephen Covey's famous 4 Quadrants

Stephen Covey's famous 4 Quadrants - This reminded me of concentrating your efforts on MVP (Most Valuable & Profitable) activities.

I should spend the time in each quadrant as below:

Q I when there is crisis, pressing problems, deadlines, ad hoc meetings, Firefighting

Q II is normally for vision, planning, discipline, Empowerment

Q III is primarily because of interruptions, mails, Short-term focus

Q IV refers to trivial work, social media, binge watching, "Escape activities“

As per this quadrant, excellent organization should ensure that their human resources spend

• 20-25% of their time in Q I (Quadrant of Crisis)

• 65-80% of their time in Q II (Quadrant of Quality)

• 15% of their time in Q III (Quadrant of Deception)

• 1% of their time in Q IV (Quadrant of Waste)

However, many organizations' swaps time for Q I & Q II and they feel that this is the Normal way. That means such organizations feel that if less time is spent in Q I, employees are not productive and they do NOT reward those who work with meticulous planning (Q II). It is extremely important to spend more time in Q II in planning.

Q I is also one of the key reasons for high attrition… Agree or not?

So, identify your MVP activities and spend more and more time in Q II, i.e. planning and project management. This will ultimately result in spending less time in Q I.

Where do you spend most of your time – Q I, Q II, QII or Q IV??

Mr. Biren Parekh is a Program manager having extensive experience in managing complex digital transformation & implementation programs in retail & corporate banking across the globe. An IT Executive with Thought Leadership & Notable Credits, he is also a guest speaker at B-schools/conferences & offers consultancy.