Companies often create systems to increase efficiencies, but other systems can also inadvertently create unnecessary busy work, according to Steve Epner, author of Simplify Everything: Get Your Team from Do-Do to Done-Done with One Surefire Process, available in the MDM Store.
Epner, principal in the Brown Smith Wallace Consulting firm, recently spoke with Editor Lindsay Konzak in MDM's monthly Executive Briefing, available now.
"I have seen so many people spending time not accomplishing anything," he says. "Many times when I was helping companies trying to do something with automation, one of the first things I had to do was clean up their background processes. If you automate garbage, all you get is faster garbage."
Epner recommends companies examine their systems and cut out the "do-do" work, or the work that gets done just for the sake of getting done. This will free up employees from busy work and allow them to work on more important tasks.
"The easiest way to focus in on the do-do work is with two very simple questions," he says. "These are: What is the dumbest thing that you are doing, and what is the hardest thing that you are doing? Every dumb thing, every hard thing is an opportunity to make things better.”
Click on the video below to learn more about how simplifying your processes can improve operational efficiency.
Epner shares more on how simplification can save time and add to the bottom line in the full episode of MDM Executive Briefing, available now.
Also featured in this episode: 7 Minutes With David Ruggles, president and CEO of industrial distributor Martin Industrial Supply, who talks about Martin’s recent acquisition.
