Last time I checked, E&C professionals had more on their plate than they had time for.
Perhaps it’s a good thing because their budget doesn’t adequately cover what they do have time to work on in the first place.
In a healthy organization, this tension is beneficial. It forces us to focus our resources on what is most important. Other functions like HR, finance, and EH&S all feel the same tension.
When the tension gets too strong, our first instinct is to wish for more resources. Oftentimes, we would be better served by eliminating an activity and reallocating our existing resources to a higher priority. Everyone’s stress levels would go down, an existing priority would get extra attention, and our program would get stronger.
We don’t like to admit that some of the things we work on today could be abandoned tomorrow. It gives the impression that we made a bad judgment call today when we decided to work on them. But the world changes everyday and we need to adjust our priorities accordingly.
Every day requires a new assessment.
The Ethical Leader 