Thank Goodness It's Monday #419

HERE’S A BETTER WAY

TO GENERATE AND SHARE IDEAS

FOR DOING THINGS

A BETTER WAY

No one knows your job better than you do, right?

Right! So even if you don’t like your job and/or your company – and especially if you do -- it’s only natural to have an occasional there’s-got-to-be-a-better-way thought or two.

 

 

TGIM Challenge: Why don’t you share them? Creative thinking isn’t confined to an exclusive club of executive suite top brass or an entrepreneurial I-sign-the-paychecks boss.

DIY: If nobody knows your job better than you do, you may have positive ideas that can advance the cause and result in significant savings. Such as ways to –

• Improve operations
• Streamline procedures
• Smooth customer service
• Enhance the company image
• Eliminate waste
• Save money

Big companies, small companies. When it comes to ideas, company size hardly matters.

Often the best ideas involving a Better Way for getting the job done come from the people who are in there “doing” the tasks every day.

 

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Share. If you don’t currently have Better Way ideas, get some, and share. If you already have some Better Way ideas, double check your Better Idea creation process and then share.

How to go about it: To get “the boss” (you know who that is for the challenge as you understand it) to pay attention to your idea, never present a problem without recommending a solution. To do that –

 

First: Identify the predicament and tell, as objectively as possible, what the precise problem is.

Second: Describe your better idea or solution and why it will work.

Where to start? One by one examine the repetitive elements of what you do in your “job.”

Think of your current work procedures … the equipment it requires … the way the work flows … the sticking points that develop … the conflicts that arise … the recurring detours and deviations from the expected outcome … etc.

Then, to find a solution to the problems that this self-examination uncovers –

 

Make a list. Ask yourself –

1. Why do you do a particular task? Does it need doing at all?
2. Who else does the same or similar job or task? Do they do it the same way?
3. When do you do it? When is the better/best time – hour of the day, day, week, month, quarter – to do it?

Armed with these questions, to generate, evaluate and develop strategies with Better Way potential, consider –

► Combining. Can one person do the same/similar “routine” job for a number of people who would then be better able to dedicate more of their more specialized skills to their presumably more valuable specialty?

Case in point: If each member of a high-commission sales team delegated preparation of “overnight package” chores to an admin, and then committed the time gained to just one more daily sales call, think there might be an improvement in closed sales?

► Substituting. Can one method of doing things be replaced by another newer, more efficient and effective method of accomplishing the same thing?

 

Case in point: If, instead of summarizing and submitting 20^th Century  paperwork forms and documents, each member of a high-commission sales team was tech-enabled in a 21^st Century way that straight-lined the recording and submission of “Travel & Entertainment” data, and then committed the time gained to one more daily sales call …

 

► Eliminating. What would happen if you stopped a procedure? Who would miss it? Is there no other substitute? If it can’t be eliminated entirely, can it be reduced significantly?

 

Case in point: How valuable or important is it for everyone above the Sales Manager level to receive and comment on the let’s-say-weekly individual activity summary report of each member of a high-commission sales team? How many people are actually reading, relating to, relying on, and managing based on it? Dump it and what happens? Change the frequency and what happens? Limit distribution and what happens? Must it be written? Let sellers sell, managers manage directly, and the E-level should coordinate with mid-level managers first.

 

Got the spirit? Once you get started down this path to Better Ways many ideas may very well come to you almost automatically. Still --

 

Be discriminating in how pursue the advancement of each Better Way idea you generate.

Too much in one lump may be too much. Make your case and press hardest for Better Ways you value based on contribution to the bottom line, ease of implementation, management’s “sacred cows,” and the like. Unless there’s a urgent need for triage intervention, dole your brilliant ideas out in homeopathic doses, a bit at a time. It makes each one far easier for others to swallow.

 

And watch this: Better Ways and Better Ideas DO NOT automatically include telling folks in the upper levels of a business or outside your particular established expertise –

 

How to run things differently. So, at least until you have a track record of significant successes suggesting and implementing Better Ways in your discipline, steer away from areas that involve management considerations of which you may not be aware, such as personnel policies, benefit plans, cafeteria food, and so forth.

 

Of course if you are invited to comment on matters in such areas, and you’re sure you can make a valued contribution, you may share constructive thoughts.

 

Like here. If you thought this TGIM outline was constructive, thanks. If you’ve got some additional constructive Better Way input, we’re receptive.

Thanks in advance.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

 

P.S. “Change is vital, improvement the logical form of change.” Entrepreneurial businessman James Cash Penney (1875-1971) advocated that Better Way mindset and built his namesake chain store and retail empire accordingly.