'Triage' your activities for business efficiency

During Napoleonic wars in Europe, a French surgeon, Dominique Jean observed that medics were losing patients who could have been saved while treating others who would have waited a bit.

To curb the situation, he invented a triage, where a nurse was stationed to receive wounded soldiers and quickly observe the gravity of their injuries and the urgency for medical care.

The term triage comes from the French verb trier, meaning to separate, sift or select. In medicine, it is the process of determining the priority of patients’ treatments based on the severity of their condition.

The triage main job was to separate the wounded soldiers into three groups to guide doctors on who to prioritise in order to save more life and utilise scarce medicine optimally.

The first group comprised those who would die regardless of the treatment they received. Those were put aside and given painkillers to ease their pain so that they can die comfortably.

The second group had only minor wounds. This group would survive whether they got immediate treatment or not. So they were put aside on painkillers to be attended later on.

The third group comprised soldiers who would survive only if they got instant treatment. These were wheeled express to the doctors for urgent treatment.

In every business, you will find that there is a scarcity of either various resources or time or both. Applying the triage concept can help you organise your time and resources to maximise your performance.

Business activities, as well as other demands in life, can be sorted in a ‘triage’. You can divide problems into those that cannot be solved regardless of what you do, those that can be solved whether you act now or later and those that can only be salvaged if you acted immediately.

As an entrepreneur, business owner or manager, you will find out there are so many things demanding your attention daily. You will definitely have family, staff, customer as well as other stakeholders’ issues to be addressed. This effectively puts you in a war-like situation where time and other resources are in acute supply.

To sort this issue you need to pick your pen and notebook every day before you start the day and list the demands on your time, money and other resources and subject them to triage for sorting and prioritising.

If you are able you train your personal assistant to be in charge of your triage. One of their key jobs is to screen and sort issues into three categories.

Only focus on the issues that can be solved if you act immediately. Write off issues and situations that cannot be resolved at all. Just ignore them and refuse to think about them.

Don’t focus on issues and situations that will sort themselves out whether you do anything or not. You can leave them or delegate so as to have enough time to handle important issues.

Mr Kiunga, Author of ‘The Art of Entrepreneurship: Strategies to Succeed in a Competitive Market’