A few years back, Narendra Barhate internalised a difficult truth— that until he changed himself, his technology training, staffing and consulting company, SEED Infotech, would never realise its inherent potential. “The skills and competency I had wasn’t enough for the growth of my business,” Barhate confesses. So, he enlisted himself in Mission Control, a well-known executive leadership programme that focuses on teaching individuals the “doings” they should focus on, and to wipe out irrelevant tasks out of their schedule. Mission Control’s aim is simple—to elevate organisational performance. Barhate has clearly managed that. From a turnover of Rs6 crore in 2007, SEED Infotech is now a Rs54-crore enterprise. Barhate takes us to the core of the programme, and to the productivity dividends it’s given him. 

Mission Control addressesand helps individuals manage their short-term and long-term objectives, as well as their short-term and long-term objectives with respect to the organisation.

One of the key things I’ve changed is the way I managed my daily and weekly calendar. Using Outlook Calendar or any other available calendar tool doesn’t help. They’re technological aids—they don’t influence the way you make decisions. In Mission Control, there’s a concept that has three parts—Doing Now, Not Doing Now, Never Doing Now. Structuring activities this way has been an incredibly powerful change for me. It works quite simply actually. Mission Control has a very solid understanding of how the brain and the heart work, and because it takes into account both these tendencies, it makes sense.  

Classifying tasks isn’t enough though.You need to figure out the optimum ratio of one kind of a task to another. In my case, 60-70 per cent of my time gets locked in the 'Doing Now'—meetings, discussions and client visits. That leaves the rest for either strategic thinking, or the other tasks that have piled up. 

When I didn't use this system, I'd allot  and schedule a time slot for even those things that I could have easily delegated. I had a tendency to do more and more myself. Now, I actually think about before doing everything—can the other directors or senior managers do this better, or sometimes, can I avoid it altogether as it might not add value to my organisational or personal goals? 

Say, a vendor wants to come meet me, and I know we don’t need those services in the near future, do I still need to slot in time for a meeting? This programme has made me much more judicious and careful about how, what, why and when I entertain the variety of requests I get.