Process of Productivity: Are you Results oriented… or Solutions oriented?

Results are as clear as 1s and 0s. But is it really the best method to focus exclusively on results?

I definitely am on the R.O.W.E. bandwagon. Best Buy’s Results Only Work Environment is truly considered Work 2.0.
ROWE is a management philosophy that allows the worker to work wherever and whenever they want. Obviously, depending on your department, there are general meetings to connect and make sure people are on the same page. But studies have shown dramatic increases in productivity with this management tactic.

The core value of this philosophy is in understanding that results are everything. Most employees think they are paid for their time. While most employers think they are paying for results. Miscommunication occurs when the worker feels they’ve put in substantial amounts of effort, and the manager feels the results are not quite up to expectation.
It is of extreme benefit for you to learn this distinction as soon as possible in your career. The sooner you focus specifically on results and on how to communicate these results to your manager/shareholder/board/client/team the more successful you will be.

But there’s more to this concept than just stopping at “results”.
The “results only” concept may frustrate you. We are all human and many of us do not produce tangible successful results every day or even every week… what then? When put on the stand… most of us respond “but I tried”.

Let’s discuss the negative connotations with the word “try”.
The simple fact is that you never “try” to do anything. You build a process and when “trying” you actually start “Doing” and accomplishing many mini goals, until you get stuck… which could result in you again saying “I tried”. And the cycle could continue.
The truth behind this knee jerk reaction is that you just haven’t had enough time to fully accomplish the goal or you haven’t been working efficiently enough (which could be an internal issue or an external issue).

The key is in communication! Next time you feel like responding to a complaint or question with, I “tried” – don’t!
Instead; support what you did do, be proud of how far you got, explain what you believe solutions to the problem may now be based on what you were able to accomplish. Become an asset to your team by taking your attempts or even your so called “failures” and present how and why these have lead to a greater understanding of the process and how you will put them to work in achieving the goal at hand.

Basically, being overly results oriented could lead to a loss in the process. So I like to focus more on being “Solution Oriented”.