I want you to imagine you’re a paramedic. You drive up in your ambulance, and turn off the siren. Looking out through the windshield you see a car has smashed into a bus, and flipped over on its roof. There are people milling around, all of them pointing in different directions, “Come here first! This person needs you first!”
There’s just you and your partner, and more people than you can easily count need help. Dispatch has already told you that the system is “Level 0” – meaning all the other ambulances are tied up.
No backup, and too much to do. What do you do?
It’s a heart-rending scene, and one that requires both compassion and competence. And, it can feel overwhelming to the rescuer.
An overwhelmed rescuer who loses focus runs from one car to the other. Whoever is screaming the loudest, or makes the worst noise, is who gets attention. As soon as someone makes less noise, the rescuer is up and running somewhere else.
Or, if they don’t do that, then the rescuer goes straight to the first patient they see, and helps them. And keeps helping them. Meanwhile other people need help, but tunnel vision has them locked in a little private world with this first patient.
Does your business feel like an accident scene?
And do you feel like that overwhelmed rescuer?
In the current marketing class we were discussing the fact that any level of business success will eventually require more than one person- even if all you do is hire a bookkeeper, an accountant, and a virtual assistant for a few hours a month.
Most folks who are in small business bemoan the lack of resources. If only you could hire more people! But, guess what happens if you add more rescuers, when an overwhelmed rescuer is running back and forth, or just tunnelled in?
Getting more help creates complete chaos.
Adding more rescuers to that kind of situation doesn’t actually help very much. I’ve personally been involved with scenes (back when I was a paramedic) where the overwhelmed or panicked ‘first in’ paramedic started a chain reaction of disorganization. Ambulances and fire engines end up parked so they couldn’t get out, serious patients with hidden injuries neglected for people not hurt as badly but who were louder.
As I said, complete chaos. Until.
Until a veteran supervisor arrived on-scene and took over.
And what did they do to sort the mess out?
That’s exactly what they did- they sorted the mess out. ‘Triage’ is a French word meaning ‘to sort.’ The supervisor instituted triage of the patients, and triage of resources- human rescuers, equipment, and vehicles.
It’s really tempting to think that just getting more help will sort out the bus-wreck of your business. And you probably are frustrated that you can’t afford the help you need.
But, what you really need to do, before the help arrives, is triage. And, in a business, well-done triage assures that your business will be able to afford the help sooner rather than later.
I know it’s hard to think about triage, when your business is yelling for attention from so many different directions. But triage will bring peace and calm to the most chaotic situation. And, without any further bloodshed.
So, how do you triage, when hubcaps and fenders are scattered all over your office?
Keys to Triage
• Don’t panic!
Yes, you have a list of to-do’s a mile long. Yes, you have deadlines coming up. Yes, the mortgage is due.
Believe me when I tell you that the pressure of those things isn’t nearly as intense as a car accident. Although it can certainly feel like they are. 🙂
One of the things they taught me in my paramedic training was that the first thing you do is check your own pulse. For you with a Business Heart, this means that it’s okay to sit back, take a breath, and connect with your heart as you survey the scene in your office. You must do this, so you don’t go rushing in and create even more chaos.
• Collect your tasks and projects into ‘goal areas.’
At an accident scene you have heart monitors, bandages, IVs. They all get put into ‘supplies.’
In your business, you have countless projects, but sort them first into goal areas. ‘Cash flow’ is a goal area. ‘Financial systems/accounting’ is a goal area. ‘Lead generation’ is a goal area. ‘Product development’ is another goal area. ‘Infrastructure and support’ is yet another.
Make a list of as many goal areas as you have. Then, go back to step one: check your own pulse, and follow that pulse back to your heart. Breathe. Ahhh….
• Prioritize A, B, C… and the rest can wait.
You should have three of those goal areas as your top priorities for the next six months. Anything that doesn’t fit it into one of those priorities, no matter how loud it’s screaming, waits. That’s right, it just waits.
If I complete one of the priorities early (maybe it was only a two-month project, such as getting certain systems in place), then I’ll pick up Priority D, and move it up into the top three.
Example: I have a client who has a fairly large email list, several times larger than mine. She emailed me saying, “I have an opportunity to do this thing with all these other people.”
Because we had already identified her top three priorities, and lead generation was not one of them, because she didn’t need more leads- she needs more systems, and more products to sell to the leads she already has. The triage was easy- let the opportunity go.
Similarly, I’ve wanted to get to optimizing my website for search engines. It’s on the list- priority D, slated to be looked at near the end of this year.
This does not require a lot of physical effort- but it does take tremendous discipline.
Luckily for you, it’s going to be easier sitting in your office, letting distracting opportunities go by, than it was for me on the side of the road, triaging a car wreck. Which, once I got the hang of it, ran quite smoothly, and we got everyone who needed it to the hospital within 45 minutes. And no one died. 🙂
So, what are your three priorities for the next six months? And, what are you going to let sit on the side of the road?
