Comments on: Outcomes vs. Activity

By: it’s all about outcomes « snippets of cloud

it’s all about outcomes « snippets of cloud — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 20:53:35 +0000

[...] 26 April, 2008 at 8:53 pm · Filed under life, project management ·Tagged goals Outcomes vs. Activity “…all about outcomes — and not activities. Focusing on what really matters is a difficult-to-achieve skill in our “attention deficit disorder” world. …we tend to look at both activities and outcomes as accomplishments.” http://foundread.com/2007/06/06/outcomes-vs-activity/ [...]

By: Imaginate Productions » Blog Archive » Thought of the Day: On Time & How to Invest It

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:39:52 +0000

[...] how to invest your time well, take 10 minutes to reread Chris Michel’s terrific F|R essay called Outcomes vs. Activity. Chris was the founder of Military.com, and more recently, of Affinity Labs “>Affinity Labs. [...]

By: dispatches from TJICistan » Blog Archive » outcomes vs activities

dispatches from TJICistan » Blog Archive » outcomes vs activities — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 13:09:46 +0000

[...] http://foundread.com/2007/06/06/outcomes…; [...]

By: Thought of the Day: On Time & How to Invest It « FoundRead

Thought of the Day: On Time & How to Invest It « FoundRead — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 16:49:00 +0000

[...] to invest your time well, take 10 minutes to reread Chris Michel’s terrific F|R essay called Outcomes vs. Activity. Chris was the founder of Military.com, and more recently, of Affinity Labs. Both were both bought [...]

By: FollowSteph.com - Quick Links

FollowSteph.com - Quick Links — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 10:11:00 +0000

[...] Outcomes vs. Activity Many people often confuse busy work with valuable work. Just because you’re busy it doesn’t mean you’re creating value. For example organizing your emails is generally considered busy work as it doesn’t really create value. It helps, but it doesn’t create value. Here the author argues that all company founders have to learn and understand the differences between what’s busy work and what’s not. [...]

By: links for 2008-01-15 : 47 Hats

links for 2008-01-15 : 47 Hats — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 23:22:07 +0000

[...] Outcomes vs. Activity « FoundRead As microISVs we have a zillion tasks. What to focus on? Outcomes. Makes sense. (tags: 47hats, productivity) These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]

By: Stephane Grenier

Stephane Grenier — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:51:01 +0000

Although everyone jokes about work smarter and not harder, this is exactly what it means! Learning to prioritize is very hard, exceptionally hard.

By: “Sales feed egos. Margins feed families.” « FoundRead

“Sales feed egos. Margins feed families.” « FoundRead — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 02:29:25 +0000

[...] is the second time Found|READ has addressed the virtue of weighing Outcomes vs. Activity. It is a subtle discipline, but based on how it helped Printable, you might want to try it, too. As [...]

By: jmartin

jmartin — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 10:29:36 +0000

Nice article Chris!
I’d say that the lessons you learned could be applied to lots of situations-not just for leaders/founders.

I particularly liked the closing comments that it’s not about the hours worked but ownership,trust and accountability.}

By: spire

spire — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 02:28:39 +0000

Informative article Chris! Hind-sight is 20-20, and cut to the continuity of the one consistent vision (or not).}

By: dinakaplan

dinakaplan — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 14:38:00 +0000

Chris, it is amazing to read this today when we just did – exactly this – at blip.tv this week. I agree it is essential you set clear goals for a company and then tangible benchmarks at three-month (or so) increments so you can clearly guage how you’re doing. It’s motivating because (a) you know exactly where you need to get to and also because (b) this allows every single person at the company to see where they fit in in relation to the goals of the company. Thanks for a great piece and for the continued inspiration.}

By: ajit

ajit — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 11:01:40 +0000

Excellent read, an eye-opener of course. Beyond any doubt, that outcome is more important then the activities. Focus should be on the outcome and not on the activiites. However without the activity there can be no outcome. Of more importance is to identify the correct activity to be performed at the appropriate time with the desired result in order to obtain the desired outcome.
In the case of military.com the euphoria overtook the rationale of the activities which led to the drowning of the desired outcomes.}

By: coldixon

coldixon — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 10:37:00 +0000

Chris,
Great post! As an entrepreneur and co-founder of a social network aggregator – ProfileLinker, I couldn’t agree with you more.

The following two statements were spot on and were reminiscent of the teachings from my MBA program at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth:
1) “It is all about outcomes — and not activities. This business truth is simple and obvious…Unfortunately, it remains strangely elusive for many founders…”
2) “The pressurization of Military.com leadership forced me to choose only those activities that drove key outcomes: cash-flow, membership growth, and monetization.”

As a company, I believe founders have to make it their mission from day one to create a results-driven culture. It begins at the top…and employees will ultimately follow their lead. Also, companies need to focus on the activities that will make it viable in the near / long term. To accomplish this the company must focus on its business model. The problem I find when speaking to many startups is that a viable business model is not defined outside of Google AdSense. Don’t get me wrong, many sites create revenue using contextually targeted ads, but there has to be more to monetization than AdSense. Thus, when trouble strikes, it is hard to execute on key outcomes that do not exist.

As a founder I am challenged every day to focus on tasks that will yield the greatest results and drive my company to its end goal. It is this pressure to succeed with limited resources that oftentimes create the necessary culture and laser focus seen in great companies. Again great post! Also, thanks to Om Malik for linking to it!

Craig Dixon
http://www.profilelinker.com/clp95}

By: jeffatlee

jeffatlee — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 09:02:30 +0000

Howzit.

Thats the truth isnt it. Sometimes i get so cuaght up making wonderful plans and designing logos that i get scraed to put the stuff up in the window. After all no one pays me for the work i didnt present and like the great Wayne gretsky said.. you miss 100% of the shots you dont take. Like everything else in the world, reuslts are what matter. but of course its important to properly define results and tie them to what matters, making money now.}

By: cranstone

cranstone — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 20:11:05 +0000

It took me the same amount of time. I never had a problem on the technical side, however the business side eluded me for a long time. Outcomes is another word of execution. The key to both is a laser like focus on what matters most and invariably that boils down to either cash flow and or customers. The rest is activities.

Congratulations.

Peter}

By: aym35

aym35 — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 16:58:35 +0000

Absolutely amazing article. I have to admit, that I was skeptical at the beginning, but as I read through, I am now convinced. Thanks!}