subject: That's How We Have Always Done It [print this page] When you hear these words, run for the hillsWhen you hear these words, run for the hills. I cannot think of a worse reason for continuing to do something than for the simple reason that it's always been done that way. This really opens up a hornets nest, the main response is, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Part of me agrees with that, the emotional side, part of me disagrees with it, the intellectual side.
The Breakthrough You want to see the breakthrough, either in yourself or your people, perhaps in both. The breakthrough that comes when you start to approach everything you do with the attitude that there is a better way to do this and I'm going to find it. The breakthrough happens when you follow these steps:
You start to respect each and every function, process, job and task that you do. You show respect for these pieces of your day by adequately planning and preparing for them.
You spend the time required, prior to spending valuable time, ensuring that the tools, equipment, people, resources, surrounding influences are in place so that you have a fighting chance to complete your task in the shortest time possible while delivering the maximum results.
You realize that one of the cornerstones of obtaining peak efficiency is rote uniformity. You work towards reducing routine tasks, the majority of tasks we do are routine, to their lowest common denominator and eliminate the subjective thought process.
You fully embrace the rationale that to get closer to reaching peak efficiency, you must establish, systems, policies and procedures and make these the only accepted way to operate within your framework.
How To Determine What Is Broken And What Is Not
That's simple, everything is broken, and it's just that some things are more broken than others. I don't believe that someone who is now searching for ways to improve their efficiency does not know where to start in their organization. The problem is not where to start, but which one to start with. Before we do that, pick an area to start with. There is a golden rule that I want to impart to you. I don't usually use a hokey term like golden rule because, well it's hokey. But in this case, I will make it an exception.
Once you have gone through the time to work through a function and decided on the best course of action, transfer that function over to the rote uniformity file and then leave it alone.
Nothing wastes your time and destroys your productivity more than reinventing the wheel, over and over again. Reinventing the wheel is allowing everyone who does a routine task to think through the process, again, before then doing the task. You, or someone in your organization has already invested their time in establishing the correct way to do that task. That process does not have to be repeated again , when a different person is doing the same task. I hope this is beginning to sound familiar to you, hopefully it is, and this is one of the most common errors people make in the execution of repeat tasks. I tell people in my seminars, if they learn nothing all day, take this one concept home, implement it into their day-to-day operation and watch the results. People are amazed how often this scenario comes up and how much time they save by not continually reinventing the wheel.
The natural progression here is to introduce the S.P.P group, Systems, Policies and Procedures. This group is your guarantee against either yourself, or those working with and around you from reinventing the wheel plus a whole host of other Time Wasters and Productivity Destroyers. Once you have invested the time in thinking through and working out the best way to do something, you want to leave that task and methodology and move on to the next challenge. That time is wasted if there is not some way to ensure that, the next time you or another person does that task, they will benefit from your previous efforts. That's what Productivity Maximization is all about; taking advantage of time and energy investments of the past, to benefit you in the future.
S.P.P works when you act from the premise that there is a wrong and a right way to do everything. Once you have decided what the right way for you is, you file it away in your S.P.P operations manual, and then move on, for now. The next time your or someone does that task, either physically or mentally, they retrieve that way of doing it from one of those three files, and automatically does it that way, without the ensuing wasted time to reinvent the wheel process thrown in. The time saved and the increase in production, over time, will be substantial.
