As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been reading the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. I’ve been totally immersed in this book, and it seems like every other sentence is pure gold in terms of its applicability to engineers and their work.

What I wanted to discuss today was the notion of efficiency. Specifically, I want to talk about efficiency when it comes to people and how that differs from efficiency with tasks, things, etc.

Efficiency With People

Covey argues that with people, the only way to be “efficient” is to take your time. With people, slow is fast. This seems a bit backwards since efficiency is all about getting things done quickly, right? Well, no. Wrong. Efficiency isn’t just about speed – it’s also about quality. If you power through 20 field reports in a half hour, and each one is riddled with mistakes, were you being efficient with your half hour? No. Of course not. Without quality work, you can’t have efficiency.

With people, the moment you sacrifice any quality in your interaction with them in the name of speed, your efficiency suffers.

Think about it. When’s the last time you regretted getting the full story about a project from a colleague before going off to do your work on it? Probably never. Now, when’s the last time you regretted cutting someone off because you assumed you knew everything they were going to say, and wasted a day’s worth of work because you didn’t have the full story? I’m willing to bet everyone reading now has had that experience.

You need to give people time, lots of it, in order for your interactions with them to be fruitful. Trying to shortcut relationships is like cutting your workout in half. Sure you got through it faster, but what benefit do you really expect to get from that?

The Difference Between People and Tasks

This should probably go without saying, but the major difference between people and tasks is that you don’t have much hope of developing a relationship with a task. If you do, you’re probably in need of some kind of psychiatric attention.

All kidding aside, the point I’m trying to make here is that when you’ve got a task at hand, you invest time and mental effort into getting something done. It’s a one time event, so to get the most out of your time, you try and come up with the smartest, quickest way to get the job done.

Think of this as being kind of like going to the hardware store to buy some tools. You probably try and buy the cheapest tool that will get the job done. There’s a single exchange of dollars for stuff. By contrast, when you spend time on people, it’s more like investing your money – there’s a regular return if you play the market properly, and pay close attention to what’s going on in the world.

My Challenge to You

Over the next couple days, take note of whether or not you give the people at work and at home the amount of time you should. Also take note of when people give you the time you need to communicate properly to them. Try and make strides in investing in people, and let us know how these efforts have gone in the comments section below.