Old processes could be taking up a lot of your time and limiting your productivity. It’s not the systems are bad but they may have become outdated.
In this episode of our productivity tips for leaders, we talk about how some old processes, that still might be effective, just don’t scale up as a business grows. When this happens, you need to make changes.
Ken Okel’s Productivity at Work video series is designed to make you more effective on the job. Every week, you’ll learn a new, easy to understand tip that you can use right away.
What Productivity Questions Does This Video Answer?
- How do make my business more effective?
- How can I save time at work?
- Why should I give up old processes?
- How can I find more time at work?
Video Transcript
Find out what a mattress on a car roof has to do with productivity. Can your processes grow with your organization? Let me give me an example.
It has to do with a mattress. Imagine that a college student suddenly has to move. Most of the possessions can go into the trunk of a car but the mattress, too big for the trunk. What do you do?
You put the mattress on the roof of the car. You and some buddies tie it down with some string, you’ll drive along with your hand out holding the mattress in place.
This could work if it’s a short distance traveled at low speeds. If you’re doing a lot of start, stop driving, higher speeds, further distance… that mattress may not stay on the car roof that long. You could have problems.
Same thing can apply to your processes. What worked at one point in time, may not scale up as your company grows.
Let me give you an example. Let’s say every day, you would write thank you notes to your customers. Great idea. However, if the number of customers you have quadruples, you’re spending a lot of time on those thank you notes. Maybe more time than you can afford.
In this case, you want to modify the process. You print up a special thank you card, where you can just write in one or two little details to give it a little personalization.
You’re still doing the process but you’ve improved so it works for your schedule and works for your time. You have to scale processes and make sure they still work. Otherwise you’ll be holding a mattress on the roof.
About Ken Okel
Ken Okel works with leaders and organizations to boost productivity, performance, and profits. At conferences, conventions, and company meetings, he engages audiences with new ways to maximize their time at work. Sometimes you may cut your workload. To see a sample of his keynote and workshop presentations, visit: https://www.kenokel.com/videos/
