How can organizations optimize productivity for makers and managers?

Question

What strategies should organizations adopt so that both the managers and the makers remain productive?

Answer 1

Employers are able to increase efficiency by instituting compulsory silence periods while encouraging an understanding of various types of work, and eliminating unnecessary people from meetings. They must promote a culture which does not regard meetings as the sole measure of output and allow makers the time to concentrate on deep work without interruptions.

Comments

I spent the first 7 years of my business as a manager but I'm a maker.  I have 1 day a week in store now.
My productivity has skyrocketed in the last 6 months since realising I am a maker, I need time. I have two other 'makers' and two 'managers' in my main staff.

Only recently started using the managers to take over my responsibilities so I could make and builds my business relationships more.

With over 120 suppliers and 2000 customers a month as well as seven staff, I couldn't breath anymore.
Now I'm productive as fvck, happy as fvck and still do 12 to 15 hours a day quite happily but it's mostly maker time now.

❤

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The breakdown of Maker vs. Manager time feels like it’s exactly what I’m missing in my calendar. I’m so focused on managing my tasks that I struggle to make—make videos, make blogs, make content. I need to identify management tasks vs. maker tasks. Thank you!

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FINALLY someone said it - and so eloquently too. Thank you. I've now got confirmation my intuition about maker time, empty calendars and batching appointments was correct. Plus a couple of tweaks like booking meetings from the end of the day backwards. I'm sharing this with ALL the entrepreneur groups I'm in.

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1. Understand maker manager modes
2. Have quiet, empty calendar days for maker mode
3. Try to crank up on non-maker stuff when on manager mode(aka attending meetings)
4. Stick to deadlines and complete the work when on maker mode to build trust of managers
5. When you have less means, work the job you go to make money and work extra shifts to get out of the job you are in
6. You cant have absolute freedom and control while being a entrepreneur, either one of it will get sacrificed

Thank you, Alex for this content! You are very eloquent in getting the complex stuff across and framing it in simpler terms.

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this is exaclty what ive been struggling with the past year while growing team. and you put the perfect words and clarity to it.
i am a maker and spend far too much time in manager and in meetings

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Scrum managers have been very silent after this content dropped.

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Thank you for these contents.

In the aviation world there's a thing called the FOD Walk. We used to have almost every member of the whole company line up and walk the tarmac regularly. It would take maybe 30 minutes from start to finish at the very beginning of the day. I ran the numbers and realized it cost us about $8,000 (in billed time) to do this regularly. I was reading next to the CEO one day and mentioned it. He said, "It's worth the cost to get us all together and we can talk outside of the office about things that matter more than the office."

P.S. We eventually hired an outside contractor for about $2,000 per week that reduced our regular walks significantly.

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Great content. As a business owner this is very helpful to me with balancing my 'maker' work vs the many random small tasks that I have to do and meetings I need to have. Now we'll see if I actually learned anything from this, if I actually change my behavior.

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This is the most valuable and important content for business hands down

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This is excellent, as a non profit executive, this is truly gold. Thank you Alex!

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I can't wait for this information to become mainstream. This will help so many people work together more effectively.

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This content was insane - game-changing value and not just for business; this goes for all organizations.

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This is my fav content of yours. I love how productivity is not only the theme of the content, but also the rhythm and pace of the content. This is just so concise and I think is possible to boost the productivity of organizations if this become common framework.

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When Alex uploads content outlining something I’ve been helping clients implement for years, it’s validating. For what it’s worth, to all the “managers” out there, this is 1 of the top 2 or 3 most effective change management strategies I’ve seen implemented if you are trying to create a high performing culture!

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Ive read at least book a week for the past 11 years. Sadly haven't come across anything that approaches this topic so efficiently and effectively. Amazing content.

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Seriously good stuff here.

I work alongside and manage 3 people in the Estimating team and hearing you talk about “makers” resonates and will be more. conscious of meetings, distractions and optimizing productivity

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I think something that might help managers feel more confident that makers are actually getting the work done is if makers were to divide their “deep work” blocks into more specific, actionable items that they can check off to show the managers they are working on what they say they are. Instead of just having a 4 hour time block labeled “work on book”, they could divide that into a specific research block where they provide links or proof that work is being done. This also can help the creative flow and help stay organized for makers. Just an idea, would love to hear constructive criticism on this.