How can managers and makers work together without harming productivity?

Question

How can managers and makers work together without compromising each other’s efficiency?

Answer 1

In order to comprehend the fact that meeting ‘T’ out of ‘N’ meetings, where she/he is a maker, is very costly for the company, managers need to be mindful with their calendars. At the same time, makers should let the other side know when they’d prefer not to have meetings and at what time they’d be willing to have them. Companies could introduce a policy of no meetings at certain hours or even days in order for the makers to focus on their deep work. It could be beneficial for both sides to have a clear understanding how each side has defined styles of working as well as be respectful of time boundaries in terms of how each side works.

Comments

Thank you for making this.  My wife and I are business owners and are integrated into each others businesses at high levels, she defaults as more of a manager where I'm more of a maker.  Where she has a lot of short term immediacy payoffs it has been hard for me to explain this and as a result I understand produce which makes both of us frustrated.  An interesting explanation to this would be how to work scheduling if you have several types of making and managing responsibilities (as most small/mid entrepreneurs do) and how to block for more diverse setups.  Though maybe I am overcomplicating things, it's difficult to spread time efficiently when there are many needles.

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Fantastic content and framework for managing time. I’ve been challenged by the maker manager split of my role and I’m motivated to slash those wasteful meetings and commit to maker time. Such great content Alex

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SUCH a valuable content, as a small biz owner (restaurants), this makes a ton of sense. Plus since my Mom & Dad gave me two distinct sides of my brain (accountant & artist) I often get conflicted "to do's" and LOVE my creative time and need it. Makes A LOT of sense. Thanks for being you...

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Thanks, Alex! You've just solved a problem I've had for over 6 years. As a software engineer, managing my time while dealing with managers and clients is tough. This content has brought so much clarity on how to maximize productivity and communicate effectively with managers and clients.

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Thank you for articulating the conflict between the managers and the makers!
I wish the managers I worked with understood these concepts and how maker time is different. As a designer I would be so booked out in meetings because (as you mentioned) this made the managers feel productive but I had so much work that I had to work during all the meetings, between them and after hours.
It's incredibly stressful to be stuck in back to back meetings talking about work that you just want to get properly stuck into.