Each Sunday, our goal is to share a piece of gold with you. Some small piece of information that helps you to have a better week and achieve a better outcome.  

As we continue to deal with inflation and a possible recession in the coming year, it is important for all organizations to optimize productivity, efficiencies, and workflow. In watching organizations function over the years, I have observed that there are a few areas that most organizations have opportunities for improvement. 

  1. Team-to-Team Work Transfer—Generally speaking, most teams operate fairly well within the team itself. However, when one team hands work to another, that is often when challenges (or “opportunities for improvement”) occur. This could be in any area in your business where work is transferred from one owner to the next, such as when something goes from sales to operations or service delivery, or from service delivery to accounting, or any other area in your business. It is during this transfer of responsibility when most organizations have the greatest opportunity for improvement. To resolve this, I recommend that, once every two weeks, you get the teams that transfer to one another together. Then, use this short agenda as a jumping-off point for discussion and problem-solving during this quick meeting:
     

    1. Start the meeting by defining a successful work product so all parties agree. (i.e. What does “quality” look like when one team hand the work product to another?  
    2. What documentation should be provided?  
    3. What software should have a change in status and what should that be?
       
  2. Evaluate Outcomes (Especially Margins)–During tight economic times, one of the most important activities that a business can do is to ensure the energy they are expending is producing results that help to sustain the business and produce the intended results. Often, we find that businesses are expending time and energy and producing little or no margin on the work performed. In order for a business to operate safely and successfully, the energy cannot be wasted. This may mean making difficult decisions like having a conversation with a low-producing customer, changing pricing, or shutting down a particular product line. This is an area where you must love the truth and make the tough choices—even when you like working with that customer.
     
  3. Make It a Team Sport – Many business leaders believe that because they are in the leadership role they must take on the burden of solving efficiencies by themselves. By bringing your team together and explaining that, as a business, you need to optimize the organization in preparation for tough financial times, remove waste, and preserve cash for the “just in case” scenarios, you will be amazed at where and how your people will rise to the occasion to help out.
     
  4. Double-down on Sales and Marketing – When we look at businesses that have prospered during tough economic times throughout recent history, evidence shows that businesses that invest in sales and marketing for the right products/solutions during these times actually thrive coming out of a recession. While you have to make the right choices of where to invest for your business, studies show that the strongest companies invest in the right messages going into, during, and coming out of a recession.
     
  5. Optimize Your Technology – During challenging times, a business cannot be distracted by security issues, downtime, productivity delays, user frustrations, etc. It is critical to keep your team producing at the optimal, effective levels. Take the time to ensure your technology is adding to the value of your business. This includes evaluating the performance of your systems and ensuring consistent utilization of the tools you have in place. Additionally, ensure you don’t have technology “bloat,” where you have multiple applications which perform the same function or where you have systems in place that don’t substantiate the investment you put into them.  

It will be very stressful and challenging to deal with changes if you wait until the tough times hit. By preparing now, you can ensure your business is set to thrive during tough times.  

The goal of Adapt or Die is to build better leaders who run better companies and change the world. “Better leaders” does not just mean in the office, but at home too.  

If you’d like a copy of our Core Operating Processes, purchase your copy of Adapt or Die here and then go to adaptordie.com/assets to get started. I hope you enjoy it, and that it helps optimize your workflow!