Busy, But Not Effective

On Martha Stewart's Apprentice two night's ago, the stark contrast between the two teams had my wife and I predicting the winner just a few minutes into the show. When Sarah set up a "brainstorming" session with everyone flying solo, I couldn't believe it. Sarah - brainstorming is not meditation. And then to decide (and I use that term loosely) on an approach that did not center on the BRAND - wow!!
Two team members were sent out to a costume shop to get ideas, and the first idea - the boxing gloves to "knock out" stains, was nixed without discussion. Bad move!!
So what does this have to do with Busy, But Not Effective? I think it was Stephen Covey who coined the phrase "In the thick of thin things."
Enter Carrie - our accountant for the day. What a great example of being in the thick - of thin things. A marketing challenge, a small budget, no revenue from the task - and Carrie becomes the controller of the funds. Fully engaged - watching the money like a hawk - every dime will be accounted for - and the task is a fiasco. Thanks, Carrie, for a zero contribution. OK - 10% contribution. She worked hard - she just didn't engage in important activities.
My theory as to why she got fired: when Carrie's behavior showed her willingness to accept a low value, low contribution role on a failed project, she became just as vulnerable as the Project Manager. There were a lot of high value contributions she could have made - she chose not to. So long, Carrie - leaders don't shrink from high value contributions. If counting the beans is important to you, at least do it where it is important to the enterprise