Chapter 5
The Worth-Your-Time Test
by Peter Bregman
Nate Eisman recently started working for a large consulting firm after many years as an independent consultant. (Some details changed to protect privacy.) He called me for some advice.
“I’m wasting a tremendous amount of time,” he complained. “I’m in meetings all day. The only way I can get any real work done is by coming in super early and staying super late.”
Nate had gone from an organization of one to an organization of several thousand and was drowning in the time suck of collaboration. He is not alone.
Working with people takes time. And different people have different priorities. Someone may need your perspective on an issue that’s critical to him but not to you. Still, if he’s a colleague, ...
Get HBR Guide to Getting the Right Work Done (HBR Guide Series) now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
