“Progress always involves risk, but you can’t steal second base and keep a foot on first.”
“Change with the world – or it will change without you.”
There is always risk with change, and in general, the greater the change, the greater the risk. But you know what? There’s also risk in not changing . . . arguably even greater risk.
Changes in the business world are coming at us faster than ever before, and the rate of change will continue to accelerate. So we need to prepare our organizations to not only accept change, but to embrace it. Yes, change brings risk, but it also brings new opportunities. If you’re unwilling to take the risk, you will be shut out of the opportunity.
People aren’t afraid of change. They’re afraid of the unknown. So the best way to introduce change is through good communication. Tell your people what change is coming, why the change is necessary, and what you need from them to affect the change smoothly. If you communicate the change clearly and completely and you answer all questions about it honestly, the fear is largely gone because the change is no longer unknown.
If your culture is risk averse and resistant to change . . . you’d better change it.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Want to Find Waste? Ask Your People
“The best ideas for improving a job come from those who do it every day.”
Absolutely true. If you want to know where there is waste in your organization, ask your people. They know where it is, but they won’t tell you unless you ask.
At a medical practice that has a number of offices, we asked the staff for “time wasters” . . . activities that take up a lot of time without an obvious benefit. In this practice, patient records are kept centrally, so when a doctor is seeing a patient at one of the outlying offices, the patient’s record (which can be voluminous) must be faxed there. The staff reported that they spent a lot of time standing at the fax machine. We checked with the doctors who told us they don’t need the entire record, only two or three pages of it. So it was an easy fix that saved a lot of staff time with no adverse impact on doctor or patient. But we wouldn’t have found this “time waster” if we hadn’t asked.
Go through your entire organization from the executive offices to the loading dock and ask everyone where they see waste . . . wasted time, materials, or space. You’ll be surprised by what you learn. In some cases, an employee will believe something is wasteful because s/he doesn’t understand its value. This becomes an opportunity to help that employee learn more about how your business actually works. But in many cases, the employee will point out something that really is wasteful and can be corrected. You just have to ask.
A retiring GM worker once said, “For 25 years you’ve paid only for my hands when you could have had my brain for free.” Don’t make that mistake.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Absolutely true. If you want to know where there is waste in your organization, ask your people. They know where it is, but they won’t tell you unless you ask.
At a medical practice that has a number of offices, we asked the staff for “time wasters” . . . activities that take up a lot of time without an obvious benefit. In this practice, patient records are kept centrally, so when a doctor is seeing a patient at one of the outlying offices, the patient’s record (which can be voluminous) must be faxed there. The staff reported that they spent a lot of time standing at the fax machine. We checked with the doctors who told us they don’t need the entire record, only two or three pages of it. So it was an easy fix that saved a lot of staff time with no adverse impact on doctor or patient. But we wouldn’t have found this “time waster” if we hadn’t asked.
Go through your entire organization from the executive offices to the loading dock and ask everyone where they see waste . . . wasted time, materials, or space. You’ll be surprised by what you learn. In some cases, an employee will believe something is wasteful because s/he doesn’t understand its value. This becomes an opportunity to help that employee learn more about how your business actually works. But in many cases, the employee will point out something that really is wasteful and can be corrected. You just have to ask.
A retiring GM worker once said, “For 25 years you’ve paid only for my hands when you could have had my brain for free.” Don’t make that mistake.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Put Down Your Fire-Fighting Gear
“Never let the urgent crowd out the important.”
As small business people, we spend a lot of our time putting out brush fires. When we arrive at work in the morning, we probably have in mind the things we hope to get done during the day. But five minutes later, our best customer calls with a problem or a key piece of machinery breaks down, and in a flash, whatever plan we had for the day is gone.
Most business consultants are familiar with a two-by-two grid where one axis says “Important” and “Not Important” while the other says “Urgent” and “Not Urgent.” Unfortunately, many of us spend far too much time in the part of the grid where “Urgent” and “Not Important” intersect. Is it urgent to get a key piece of equipment back in operation quickly? Of course. But will that be important to the long-term health and growth of the business? Probably not.
Each of us needs to carve out some protected time to work on the business, not in the business. We need to commit to some time each week . . . maybe a day, maybe half a day, maybe just a few hours . . . for activities that will move the business forward in a measurable, strategic way. If you can accomplish that by closing your office door and unplugging the phone, fine. If not, go to the library or to a coffee shop, or maybe work from home. However you do it, find a way each week to put aside your fire-fighting gear for awhile and focus on the longer term problems and opportunites for your business. Can’t do that? You can’t be out-of-touch with the business for even a little while? Then your first “important” task is figuring out how to change your organization so that it runs just fine whether you happen to be on the premises or not.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
As small business people, we spend a lot of our time putting out brush fires. When we arrive at work in the morning, we probably have in mind the things we hope to get done during the day. But five minutes later, our best customer calls with a problem or a key piece of machinery breaks down, and in a flash, whatever plan we had for the day is gone.
Most business consultants are familiar with a two-by-two grid where one axis says “Important” and “Not Important” while the other says “Urgent” and “Not Urgent.” Unfortunately, many of us spend far too much time in the part of the grid where “Urgent” and “Not Important” intersect. Is it urgent to get a key piece of equipment back in operation quickly? Of course. But will that be important to the long-term health and growth of the business? Probably not.
Each of us needs to carve out some protected time to work on the business, not in the business. We need to commit to some time each week . . . maybe a day, maybe half a day, maybe just a few hours . . . for activities that will move the business forward in a measurable, strategic way. If you can accomplish that by closing your office door and unplugging the phone, fine. If not, go to the library or to a coffee shop, or maybe work from home. However you do it, find a way each week to put aside your fire-fighting gear for awhile and focus on the longer term problems and opportunites for your business. Can’t do that? You can’t be out-of-touch with the business for even a little while? Then your first “important” task is figuring out how to change your organization so that it runs just fine whether you happen to be on the premises or not.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions
“Permitting colleagues to participate in decision-making is not so much a favor to the participants as it is to the executive.”
The days of the boss hurling down lightning bolts while his employees scurry to do his bidding are long gone. Employees today are better educated, better trained, and have access to more information than ever before. They have insights as to what’s working well and what’s not. In short, they are smart people who expect a seat at the decision-making table. If they are denied that seat, a number of things are likely to happen, all of them bad.
First, the best employees will leave in favor of businesses that value their input. Then the remaining employees will not enthusiastically support decisions in which they had no part. Or worse, they may actively subvert such decisions. On the other hand, an inclusive decision-making process carries a number of positive outcomes.
The most important outcome is that the executive gets the brain power of some really smart people who will express views, opinions, and ideas that may s/he may not have considered. Job satisfaction goes up because people want to know that their views have been heard and valued. And implementation is more robust when employees are part of the process and take ownership of the decisions.
The one drawback is that decisions made with input from lots of people may not be as elegant and precise as a decision formulated by one person. Still, it’s far better to have an imperfect decision perfectly implemented than it is to have a perfect decision poorly implemented.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
The days of the boss hurling down lightning bolts while his employees scurry to do his bidding are long gone. Employees today are better educated, better trained, and have access to more information than ever before. They have insights as to what’s working well and what’s not. In short, they are smart people who expect a seat at the decision-making table. If they are denied that seat, a number of things are likely to happen, all of them bad.
First, the best employees will leave in favor of businesses that value their input. Then the remaining employees will not enthusiastically support decisions in which they had no part. Or worse, they may actively subvert such decisions. On the other hand, an inclusive decision-making process carries a number of positive outcomes.
The most important outcome is that the executive gets the brain power of some really smart people who will express views, opinions, and ideas that may s/he may not have considered. Job satisfaction goes up because people want to know that their views have been heard and valued. And implementation is more robust when employees are part of the process and take ownership of the decisions.
The one drawback is that decisions made with input from lots of people may not be as elegant and precise as a decision formulated by one person. Still, it’s far better to have an imperfect decision perfectly implemented than it is to have a perfect decision poorly implemented.
For more small business blogs, visit my website at www.rocksolidbizdevelopment.com.
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