I’ve worked in a few offices where the paperwork, endless meetings, and other bureaucracy was ridiculous — so much so that the actual productive work being done was sometimes outweighed by the bureaucratic steps that needed to be taken each day.
　　When the focus is on action instead of bureaucracy, things get done.
　　I’ve worked for both private businesses and government agencies, and let me tell you, both require too much paperwork, too many steps to get things done, too much reporting, too many meetings, too much planning and too much training. Each of these things is usually management’s answer to a problem, but they add more problems, including a tendency to slow things down and get less done.
　　A better answer than adding extra steps and meetings to a workday is to focus on action. Create a culture of action and hire people who get things done. Eliminate as much bureaucracy as possible and get things moving.
　　Today we’ll look at some good ways to do that, based on my experience both as a worker and a manager. Believe me, I know the tendency to throw training and meetings and reporting and planning at a problem, but I also know how frustrating that can be for an employee who just wants to get the work done as effectively as possible. Why am I sitting in on another meeting when I could be getting work done? Why am I filling out more paperwork instead of actually doing the work?
　　Here are some ideas to get to the action and cut out the bureaucracy:
　　1. Know what you want to get done. Often bureaucracy happens when people focus on processes and forget about what the end result should be. Where are you trying to go? Find the shortest route to get there, rather than making things complicated. Visualize your desired result, and keep the focus on that.
　　2. Know your priorities. Keep in mind the most important work your company or organization does. It almost certainly isn’t paperwork or meetings (with a few exceptions, possibly). Of course, if you’re going to have a meeting with a potential client in order to sign him up, that’s probably a priority. But for many employees, the real work will be something else: writing code, writing articles, designing, making calls, crunching numbers, etc. Know the important work, and focus on that.
　　3. Eliminate paperwork whenever possible. How many forms does your company have? Much of that uses the same information. Can a simple computer program or online form be used instead, so people don’t have to fill out paperwork but can just fill in an online form where the basic information is stored and re-used so it doesn’t have to be re-entered? Often using a computer program (online or off) will also automate things so paperwork isn’t needed. Or just eliminate the paperwork altogether if it’s possible — sometimes it’s just better to take action without having to fill in things.
　　4. Cut out processes. Are there steps and approvals and work that people have to do that can be eliminated altogether? Keep an eye out for these processes and eliminate when possible. Every time someone is doing something routine, ask whether it’s really necessary, or if can be reduced or eliminated. Can several steps be cut out to make things quicker? Often the answer is a resounding “yes”.
　　5. Empower people. Often a manager becomes a bottleneck, requiring his approval before anything can get done. Worse yet is when approval is needed several times along the way, meaning it has to be bounced back and forth a bunch of times. Better: give people clear instructions about how to handle things and when approval is authorized, and allow them to handle it. Monitor things closely at first to ensure that they know how to follow the instructions, then give them more room to work independently and just report to you every now and then. Make sure the instruction include the circumstances when they need to alert you to any major problems.
　　6. Don’t put off decisions. Worse than a manager becoming a bottleneck is a bottleneck where decisions are delayed and things pile up. When a decision is required, try to make it quickly. Make sure you have all necessary info, know what criteria you’re using to make the decision, and then make the decision immediately. The longer you wait the worse the problems become. Indecision is the enemy of action.
　　7. Have the information you need ready. If you don’t have information, you can’t make decisions properly. This is often the reason people put off decisions, but they don’t always realize it. As a result, they sit on a decision for awhile. Instead, go and get the info you need so you can make the decision immediately. Better yet, have the information sent to you beforehand, so you have everything you need to make the decision when it’s time. Figure out what information is needed for your regular decisions and have it regularly on hand.
　　8. Keep “Action” at your forefront. Put up a sign on your desk that says “Action”. Make this your mentality throughout the day. When you are putting something off, remind yourself to take action. When you have a bunch of steps you have to do, remind yourself that eliminating steps leads to taking action sooner. When you’re in a regularly scheduled meeting (like, every day), ask yourself if this is preventing action.
　　9. Look for action-oriented people. When hiring or selecting a team, look for people who get things done. This can be seen in their track record. Give them a trial and see if they tend to focus on actions and decision, or processes and paperwork. Action-oriented people will get things done more effectively.
　　10. Reward action. Reward team members as well as yourself for action taken. Rewards could be as simple as praise or as big as a promotion or a bonus to the most action-oriented employees. These rewards tell your company or organization — or yourself — that action is a top priority.
　　“Action is eloquence.” - William Shakespeare
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　　Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself
　　I recently received a copy of a great ebook that I think a lot of you will enjoy … it’s from Chris Guillebeau and it’s an amazing guide to becoming an entrepreneur and being your own boss. I’ve done this myself and highly recommend it to anyone who likes to be independent and is highly self-motivated.
　　Some of the chapters in the ebook include:
　　Info on creating multiple income streams
　　Ways to make money via blogging, selling information products, consulting, photography and more
　　Affiliate and ad programs
　　Creating a launch event
　　And a whole lot of other stuff I don’t have room to list here
　　In addition to the ebook, the package includes three mp3 audio guides:
　　Questions & Answers on Very Small Businesses
　　24 Actions You Can Take Today to Create Online Income
　　18 Tips to Get Traffic to Your Website or Offer
　　I recommend this package to anyone looking to work for themselves.Click here to view more details.

我清楚的意識(shí)到行動(dòng)的重要性。只知道是不夠的，我們必須付諸實(shí)踐。只想做是不夠的，我們必須拿出行動(dòng)。--萊昂拉多·達(dá)·芬奇　　　　
　　我曾在許多部門(mén)工作過(guò)。這些部門(mén)里繁多的文書(shū)工作，永無(wú)休止的會(huì)議，以及其他一些走過(guò)場(chǎng)的程序真的很荒謬。這樣的形式主義太多了。而實(shí)際上有效的工作并不需要如此繁瑣的形式。
　　當(dāng)把注意力集中到行動(dòng)上而不是形式上來(lái)時(shí)，事情才能得到真正的解決。
　　我在私人企業(yè)和政府部門(mén)都工作過(guò)。但我想告訴你，這兩種機(jī)構(gòu)都有過(guò)多的文書(shū)工作，冗長(zhǎng)的辦事程序，無(wú)止境的報(bào)告，過(guò)多的會(huì)議、計(jì)劃、培訓(xùn)。類(lèi)似這樣的事情都是管理部門(mén)解決問(wèn)題時(shí)的真實(shí)寫(xiě)照。但他們不僅沒(méi)有解決問(wèn)題，反而帶來(lái)了更多的問(wèn)題，比如說(shuō)降低了工作效率。
　　比增加工作量或者加開(kāi)會(huì)議這類(lèi)辦法更好的解決方法是注重行動(dòng)。營(yíng)造一種注重實(shí)干的文化氛圍，雇傭具有實(shí)干精神的職員。盡量減少形式主義，讓事情真正的有所進(jìn)展。
　　現(xiàn)在，根據(jù)我當(dāng)職員和經(jīng)理時(shí)積累的經(jīng)驗(yàn)，考(試大我想談?wù)勔恍┖玫姆椒▉?lái)減少工作中的形式主義。相信我，我了解這樣一種趨勢(shì)：為了解決一個(gè)問(wèn)題，人們往往愛(ài)搞許多培訓(xùn)，開(kāi)許多會(huì)議，弄許多策劃。但我也了解職員的苦楚，他們只想有效地做好工作，卻不得不苦于應(yīng)付這些形式上的東西。他們會(huì)問(wèn)自己：我現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)知道怎樣處理好這個(gè)工作了，怎么還要坐在這里開(kāi)會(huì)？或者是我為什么還要做這些多余的文書(shū)工作，為什么不能直接著手做那個(gè)工作呢？
　　行動(dòng)減少形式主義
　　第一，要全面了解你要做的事情。形式主義之所以常常發(fā)生，是因?yàn)槿藗兺蛔⒁庾鍪碌某绦颍浟祟A(yù)測(cè)一下期待的結(jié)果。你想得到怎樣的結(jié)果？找到做事情的捷徑，而不是要把事情弄復(fù)雜。預(yù)估一下你想要的結(jié)果，并且要把之當(dāng)作你做事的重點(diǎn)。
　　第二，清楚你需要優(yōu)先處理的工作。時(shí)刻謹(jǐn)記對(duì)你所在的公司或者組織來(lái)說(shuō)最有意義的工作是什么。當(dāng)然，最重要的工作通常不會(huì)是寫(xiě)文書(shū)或者開(kāi)會(huì)（極少數(shù)除外）。比如說(shuō)，為了讓你的一位潛在客戶(hù)和你簽約，你必須和他面談，這也許就是需要優(yōu)先解決的一件事。但是對(duì)于許多職員來(lái)說(shuō)，真正該做的工作是另外一些工作：寫(xiě)程序，做文章，搞設(shè)計(jì)，撥電話(huà)，記錄重要數(shù)據(jù)等。清楚對(duì)你來(lái)說(shuō)重要的工作，并且以把它作為你的工作重點(diǎn)。
　　第三，盡量減少文書(shū)工作量。你所在的公司有多少種表格？許多表格記錄的是相同的信息。我們能不能換用一種簡(jiǎn)單的電腦程序或者網(wǎng)絡(luò)程序？那樣人們就不用做太多文字工作，只需填寫(xiě)一個(gè)網(wǎng)絡(luò)表格。因?yàn)榫W(wǎng)絡(luò)表格能存儲(chǔ)信息。如果以后又要使用這些信息，人們就不必重新做一遍了。通常情況下，電腦程序可以自動(dòng)編輯，這樣人們就不必做文書(shū)工作了。或者干脆就完全淘汰文書(shū)工作，因?yàn)橛袝r(shí)最好就實(shí)際行動(dòng)起來(lái)，用不著填寫(xiě)什么表格。
　　第四，簡(jiǎn)化辦公程序。現(xiàn)實(shí)生活中一些規(guī)定性的步驟，申請(qǐng)，工作可以被省略掉嗎？提防并盡可能刪減這些繁瑣程序吧。每一次當(dāng)你例行公事時(shí)，問(wèn)一問(wèn)自己這些工作是不是必不可少的，或者能不能簡(jiǎn)化一些。能不能省掉一些步驟以提高效率？通常情況下，答案是響亮的“肯定”。
　　第五，授予職員更多獨(dú)立工作的空間。經(jīng)理往往是是阻礙工作進(jìn)度的一個(gè)因素，因?yàn)樽鋈魏问虑椋急仨毾鹊玫剿呐鷾?zhǔn)。更糟糕的是，當(dāng)提交了幾次的報(bào)告等待批準(zhǔn)時(shí)，它往往要經(jīng)過(guò)多個(gè)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)審閱才能通過(guò)，這樣耽擱了很多時(shí)間。更好的解決方法是，讓人們清楚了解怎樣處理手頭工作，讓他們知道申請(qǐng)何時(shí)能夠得到批準(zhǔn)，讓他們?nèi)珯?quán)負(fù)責(zé)自己手里的工作。首先，準(zhǔn)確的把握好布置任務(wù)這項(xiàng)工作，確保下屬們都知道怎樣處理自己手頭的工作，給他們更多獨(dú)立工作的空間，只用定時(shí)給你匯報(bào)一下。一定要說(shuō)清楚你的指示以及他們需要就相關(guān)重大問(wèn)題提醒你的情形。
　　第六，不要推遲決定。比經(jīng)理妨礙工作進(jìn)度更為嚴(yán)重的是決定被推遲，結(jié)果事情堆積了起來(lái)。當(dāng)需要做決定的時(shí)候，試著速速?zèng)Q策。確保你掌握有所有必不可少的信息，清楚你決策時(shí)要用到的原則，然后立即做出決定。你越等的久，問(wèn)題會(huì)變得越糟糕。猶豫不決是行動(dòng)的天敵。
　　第七，收集好你需要的信息。如果你沒(méi)有足夠信息，你不考(試大能作出正確的決策。這也是人們常常延緩決議的原因，只是他們并沒(méi)有意識(shí)到。結(jié)果呢，他們就得花相當(dāng)長(zhǎng)一段時(shí)間來(lái)做一個(gè)決定。相反，如果你集齊了需要的信息，你便可以馬上做出決定。更好的做法是，你提前讓屬下收集好各種信息，這樣你就可以及時(shí)地做出正確的決定了。弄清楚你通常做決定時(shí)必須用到的那些信息，并且要保證這些材料都已準(zhǔn)備就緒。
　　第八，把寫(xiě)有“Action”的字條貼在你的辦公桌前。在你的桌子上貼一張寫(xiě)有“行動(dòng)”的便簽。讓這一理念成為你一天的思維方式。當(dāng)你打算推遲處理某些事情的時(shí)候，提醒自己要行動(dòng)起來(lái)。當(dāng)你做事有許多步驟要遵循時(shí)，提醒自己簡(jiǎn)化步驟以提高行動(dòng)的效率。當(dāng)你參加周期性的安排好的會(huì)議（比如說(shuō)每天），問(wèn)問(wèn)自己這些會(huì)議會(huì)不會(huì)妨礙你的實(shí)際工作。
　　第九，雇傭?qū)嵏尚偷穆殕T。在一個(gè)團(tuán)隊(duì)里雇用或者遴選職員時(shí)，尋找實(shí)干型人才。我們可以根據(jù)他們的業(yè)績(jī)來(lái)做出判斷。給他們一個(gè)測(cè)試，看看他們是注重行動(dòng)決策還是注重程序化工作和文書(shū)工作。只有實(shí)干型的職員能更有效率地做事。
　　第十，獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)實(shí)干行為。獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)拿出了實(shí)際行動(dòng)的隊(duì)員，當(dāng)然也包括你自己。對(duì)于那些實(shí)干型的職員，你可以給予小小的表?yè)P(yáng)，給予晉升的機(jī)會(huì)，或者發(fā)放一定獎(jiǎng)金。這樣的獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)行為提醒你的公司或者團(tuán)隊(duì)以及你自己-實(shí)干才是第一要?jiǎng)?wù)。