What’s Not Getting Done?

Do you think about what’s not getting done in your business? These may be tasks or processes you’ve been forced to put aside during challenging times. I’ve talked before about how, in these moments, it’s smart to narrow your focus and energy to your top priorities. Accomplishing everything takes a tremendous amount of time and energy that you probably can’t afford.

But abandoned shouldn’t mean forgotten. Periodically, it’s smart to hold a What’s Not Getting Done Day, when you and your team do some big picture thinking. There’s a chance you may have let go of something that turns out to be more important than you thought.

Here are some tips for what you should consider during this review process:

Revisit What’s Not Getting Done

List the things your business used to do that are no longer performed. At this point, you’re not judging anything. You’re simply acknowledging the past.

For instance, a few years back, a group might say they used to send faxes as a key piece of customer communication. This isn’t the time to say that faxes are now outdated and the information can be communicated through better means.

If you start to judge things before you complete your list, then you may end up with an incomplete list. Just focus on the things you used to do that you no longer do. You may want to set a time range, like a year or 18 months.

Is It Still Important?

Once you have your list, you now review the activities. Decide whether they are still important. If you haven’t lost a step from not doing it, then it may be time to permanently retire the process.

You may learn that it still has value. Is it something that employees or customers ask about and does its absence create problems?

Sometimes, these issues don’t appear right away. For instance, a sales team might decide to put all of its energy into getting new customers and put aside followup calls to existing customers.

Down the road, that choice may see you gain new customers but lose more old ones. Therefore, it might be wise to revisit the policy, as it may be more important than you thought.

Address in a Different Way?

Now determine if what’s not getting done can be accomplished through other means. There may be outsourcing opportunities or new software that could allow you to bring back the process in a more productive way.

If we revisit our fax machine example, the benefit of the faxes was communication. You can communicate the same information through email. Email becomes the effective solution for the ongoing problem.

You may also determine the old way to doing business still has value and should be brought back.

Final Thought

Managing your business, during a challenging time, means making some tough decisions in a hurry. It’s okay if not all of them turned out to be correct. Have the courage to revisit and evaluate.