Optimising the everyday

In the second of a three-part series, David Smithson-Rudd explores how reviewing your working practices can unlock efficiencies and find new value

In the first part of this series, we looked at the importance of securing your business foundations. Now it’s time for part two, called Business Performance: the way your day-to-day operations shape productivity, culture, and customer satisfaction.

If you flinch at that name, you’re not alone. Many founders didn’t start their businesses to talk about workflows and margins. But here’s the truth: a better-run business means more time, more energy, and better results. That’s where I come in.

You’ve got your fundamentals in place or a plan to get there — fantastic. But the work doesn’t stop here.

Your working practices, relationships and costs

In the very first Consult DSR blog post, I used a (perhaps slightly unhinged) analogy of lasagna sitting on spinning plates to set out how leaders need to do more than just keep the plates spinning; they need to spin them in a considered and effective manner. The analogy also works here – we need to start examining the lasagna. Some of questions you need to ask yourself include:

·      Are we creating our products or delivering our services in the most efficient manner?

·      Is internal communication effective?

·      How strong are our relationships with employees, customers, suppliers and partners?

·      Are we receiving repeat complaints?

·      Do we have the right number of people in each department or team?

·      How engaged are our employees in what we’re trying to achieve?

A myriad of improvements and efficiencies are almost certainly lurking amongst the answers to these questions, which can save money, improve employee engagement and delight your customers.

But where do you start? This is often where most leaders become stuck; they’re not sure how to go about improving productivity, particularly if the business is already making a profit and its leaders are not perceiving any cashflow, engagement or efficiency challenges. Trust me though, they are likely to be there.

What we can’t see for ourselves

One potential cause is referred to by psychologists as “the curse of knowledge” which is when an individual knows a topic (such as their business) to such a detailed level, a loss of perspective can potentially occur. This makes it much harder to spot inefficiencies, or adopt learnings and practices from different places that bring additional value to your own area of expertise.

Unfortunately, all humans are likely to suffer from this perception gap at various points in our lives, therefore there is no shame in seeking an outside perspective to help identify potential improvements. Such seeking demonstrates a considerable level of self-awareness as a leader. There is little difference with this compared to seeking feedback from others; outside input can help shape new perspectives, and drive improved results.

Moving the dial with Consult DSR

The Business Performance service by Consult DSR begins with a straightforward discovery call followed by on-site visits, where I start with one simple yet effective action – I watch. These early observations reveal lines of enquiry for finding improvements. What happens next is determined by what is found: it could be more visits, some research, some small-scale pilot testing of new approaches, before presentation of the findings and recommendations. All of this is done alongside open dialogue with both you and (where appropriate) your frontline people.

The Business Performance service naturally requires a much more hands-on approach than the business health check (or ‘MOT’) report service, including direct contact between me, your people, and (in some cases) your customers. All such contact is undertaken with grace,

consideration and an absence of pre-judgement. Some quick wins may be identified that enable you to feel the benefit straight away; others may take some time to bed in before results become obvious. If you’re familiar with the principle of marginal gains, you will know that 100 small changes that add up to a huge improvement is often more effective than one big improvement that’s harder to find.

Unlocking value starts with looking at how your business operates today. If you are intrigued by what you’ve read today, or you’re uncertain but can see some potential, then you have nothing to lose by speaking to me about it further. You can book a free 30-minute video call here, or email me at david@consultdsr.co.uk.

You can stay true to the reasons you set up your business and run optimised operations at the same time; don’t be afraid to lean on others, even if we do try and position everything through lasagna. Just go with it, at least we’re avoiding another sporting analogy.

On Tuesday 8th April, I'll be publishing the third and final part of this series, where we'll look at the future of your business (no TARDIS required).