Firefighting in business is becoming the norm. Managers and executives are constantly fighting fires lit by shortfalls in services, employee issues, the sales pipeline, systems and change management issues, and much more. It is a vicious circle as well. When capable...
I may be overweight because I am often stressed, I love fried food, and I hate exercise. The business systems in the organisation are clunky because of a lack of training and no ongoing improvement initiatives. When we solve problems, we must get to the root cause....
During a crisis, analysing the best ways to escape it is not practical. We just do whatever makes sense. We do not think of an optimal way. Instead, we tend to react and focus on survival. Most organisations move from one survival situation to another. There is no...
The three dragons that are hindering my ability to achieve my business goals: I don’t know what I don’t know. Pure distractions Procrastination The first one may help to deal with the last two. What is hindering you from achieving your goals? What are you doing about...
On the surface, it makes sense to have repeatable processes. So, we all follow the same process. There is limited confusion and very little communication overhead. Yes, it makes sense. However, standardisation has its tradeoffs. Mindlessly following the same process...
Perhaps the first question we should ask before doing anything is: Why am I doing it? With repetition, we stop to think about why we are even doing specific tasks. Likely, we do not need 200 reports; maybe half of the month-end processes are unnecessary, and we may...
Imagine I get my house painted, upgrade my car, and get the garden cleaned every five years. However, I do not do any improvements or maintenance work. I am too busy, so when things break, I must seek immediate help to restore them. Now, think of the pathetic...