“Your Scarcest Resource”

Andy Grove, the former CEO of Intel, once wrote, “Just as you would not permit a fellow employee to steal a piece of office equipment, you shouldn’t let anyone walk away with the time of his fellow managers.”

Of course, such thievery happens often. Meetings creep onto the calendar with no clear plan or priority. Initiatives crop up, demanding management attention.

As Bain & Company partners Michael Mankins, Chris Brahm, and Gregory Caimi explain in “Your Scarcest Resource” in the May 2014 Harvard Business Review, mo.....