If you missed part one, you will miss the whole point. Click here to start at the beginning.
We are talking about how low productivity in business is not so much a problem of not being “lean”; but a lack of a strategy.
Such a business is constantly lowering standards, accepting status quos, putting out fires and reeks of desperation for market share.
Here is what a low productivity biz might look like in…
Marketing teams:
They might be focusing on what things look like instead of what the message is, because pretty graphics is the fallback setting when you have no idea who you are trying to attract/polarize. Or, they might be dilly dallying on tiny details like how many pages should go into the catalogue, or how many social media sites to post the new campaign on.
So if your marketing team is in a constant state of reactivity, you need to get a clear strategy and make sure they are the first to familiarize themselves with it, because other departments depend on whatever data and tools the marketing department creates.
Clarity in strategy with a marketing team leaves little need for pondering, and helps them easily conduct market research, because the questions to ask become self-evident. Which is fun for them too, because creativity thrives when placed in boundaries.
Sales teams:
Talking to whoever will give them time and hoping someone buys something. No proper qualification process, because they are only being given pretty tools from marketing (think an annual updated catalogue and not much else) instead of data to find prospects who likely match the company offer.
If your sales team is not closing new leads or maintaining old clients, they could be overwhelmed trying to take care/attract too many different types of accounts that have entirely different needs.
Once again, a clear strategy helps them focus on a certain niche, create scripts customized for that niche, and learn the specific problems in that niche. Plug and play!
Finance teams:
Low productivity in the dollar department might mean chasing everybody for a pretty penny, because the company is accepting and accommodating all types of clients, instead of being picky and weeding out the lacklustre ones.
Also, the cost of paying your team versus the rate of income producing activities will bleed you dry, because endless communications about what other offers to provide (because one barely-paying, hard-to-deal-with, non-deal client asked about it… or because that is what your competitor range offers) will not help move sales of what you offer right now.
Once again a lot of reactivity and low productivity in this area could be minimised with a clearer biz and marketing strategy. Make sure your finance teams and marketing teams actually know each other exists and collaborate! Hop on the phone to make a decision or put it on the shelf instead of going around in circles.
Operations teams:
These poor blokes get it tough, because the company is likely having them change processes and tools multiple times a day due to their “leave no potential sale behind even if it means we serve no niche with excellence” mindset. If you start to see a lot of faults or incorrect orders or clients unhappy with your product, your operations team might be losing brain power because your offers span too wide.
Similarly, if you have a digital product, this mindset might see you become very non-user friendly and a lot of techy issues, because you are trying to have too many functions at once. Get clear on who you are serving and who you need to repel if you want your product simple to use.
Administrative and Customer Service Teams:
We probably need to hold a vigil for these ones! They can probably see where and why everything is going wrong but say nothing because they will be ignored. If your receptionist or EA seems less engaged with the team, they are probably burnt out from trying to correct everyone else’s poor performance. They would love to be proactive but don’t really stand a chance.
The best they can do until there is a clear company strategy is to learn to manage up.
There are surely other symptoms of low productivity in different departments.
And all of this of course cannot be fixed by anyone except management, because mutiny is for pirates, not professionals.
So how does this play out instead?
Staff leaving, and no matter how many clever DISC tests your HR department does in its hiring process, you just can’t keep ‘em.
Staff missing more and more work. Staff looking dull and vacant about their jobs.
Managers bickering because they are trying to create a quick fix strategy until the company realizes its lack of strategy is a huge problem.
It is hard to stay optimistic and throw yourself into something if you can’t take ownership and get proactive, because stress will suck the soul out of it.
Here is what the company needs to do.
Realize that although you might not fully know what a “biz strategy” contains, you need to prioritize it.
Chances are you think you have a strategy but don’t.
By the way, a good business strategy does not start and end with filling in questions that become a “Business Plan”.
A business plan is really just the document that comes out of a good strategy brainstorm.
The difference between a plan and a strategy:
A plan says, “here are the steps”.
A strategy says, “here are the best steps.”
Strategy speaks to the reasons why, while the plan is focused on how.
In a perfect world the strategy always comes before a plan and shapes the details of the plan. In an imperfect world, you should still do it this way because the how will need to be adapted as the business world and market changes, but a why stays the same.
When you have a strategy in place, you won’t know yourself!
Or, your business.
Instead of the constant drama, things will start happening ahead of time.
Teams become more coherent and streamlined – and having a lean consultant look at ways to cut costs is much simpler and worthwhile as there are no ambiguous money or time sucks. They are cutting costs you won’t need for where you are going, instead of trying to bail water from a ship with a hole in its side.
Find your strategy.
Do that for x amount of time.
Put all other ideas into a shared, live document called “ideas to implement/FAQS to survey our clients about or research”.
Do you get the picture?
The biggest productivity-suck in your company or career is not going to be fixed by a lean system if you don’t first sort out your business strategy, because every department goes where you go.
And if that is all over the place, it’s going to feel like you a have a vanload of children constantly asking: “are we there yet”, until you wish you were not in business and are desperate to hop off.
You are missing out on fun, freebies, and practical advice. If you live in the world of small business, you need to sign up for our monthly email newsletters, which have exclusive content as well as a round-up of our social media activity. Jump aboard here.
