Sweating the small stuff

The simple week was anything away from being simple. As one of the steps, I decided to investigate the roots of the unending list of unfinished, incomplete things. With a little push from my better half, I decided to look at the last 6 months sales reports and what was revealed was no less than a jolt for me.

The analysis put forth an alarming fact that 80% of our sales were coming from 30% of our projects. The remaining 70% of our projects were bringing the 20% sales.

70% of our projects were significantly small in revenue. They helped us gain a long list of customers and enhance our portfolio, but they were also a big time drain. They expected and received the same service like our big project customers.

Our service to our cream customers (80% sales) always suffered owing to the chaos created by the huge number of small customers.

The chaos which was result of the pressure put by huge number of small customers was building frustration with the team members, management and customers equally. At the end of a hard day, uncompleted work, annoyed customers was nothing than a nail in the coffin.

We kept on adding people to complete the unfinished work and ease the pressures, but they inturn ate our profit margins by inflating our cost. Their was no change in the situation of customer satisfaction or growth in sales , only a dry pocket.

It is high time to rethink our strategy towards sales.

Simple Week

Last entire week, I focussed on bringing clarity to each and every facet of my work life. Believe me, it was a long hard week, with very little to brag about.

In the pursuit of simplifying the environment of my office, I have focussed my attention this week on various areas:

1. Simplifying the work allocation to team members. Seeing to it that my managers do not keep shuffling their duties based on management and customer pressure. Simplifying the instructions and duties assigned to my designers and developers. Bring more clarity in making them understand our and customers' expectations from them.
   
2. Working with my marketing team to simplify and reduce the long list of pending quotations. Leads get generated and keep piling each day in the inbox of my marketing team as they do not get cleared the same day. Training sessions were scheduled with them on how to attend to leads and send initial quotes to their requests.
   
3. Studying the last 6 months sales data to assess the trend of business. More on this in the next post.
4. Working with the each individual and helping and making him focus on his work and make him use the free time to sharpen his/her skill. Average age of my team is 24-25, making them to focus and realize the importance of enhancing their skill requires sheer persistence.

Wake Up Call ! Embrace Simplicity

Lets assume that Work Complexity is wasting about 2 hrs per day per person. With a team size of 25, I am already losing 50 valuable hours a day, i.e; around 250 hrs a week. Whow!

This is a huge cost for not paying attention to simplicity. We cannot afford this for sure!!

Embracing simplicity is the only ultimate development opportunity, we have in our hands to keep the growth happening, to survive and face this chaotic world of information overdose.

So, to fight the demon of "CONFUSION", which is making such catastrophic damage, I need to get the Angel "SIMPLICITY" in to my work floor.

My first step towards, bringing "SIMPLICITY" to my floor would be to think how to stop time abuse of everyone in this organization including mine.

Choice overload is creating an opposing force. Every customer, every project, every task, every request is bartering for time and attention of me and my team members. Resulting in project delays, flawed work, unhappy clients, frustrated and drained team members.

I plan to begin using the 5 building blocks before starting any project. 5 building blocks which will be the first step towards simplicity.

The 5 Building Blocks:

KNOW - Identify the most important things of the project. Understand the project.
FEEL - Understanding what the team feels about the project. Clarify how I want them to feel about the project.
USE - Are the tools and training required for the project present.
DO - Each team member should know clearly what is expected out of him. Expectation list of project should be clear and simple.
SUCCEED - Clearly list the milestones, project completion expectation, benefits to the company and team on project success.




Photo courtesy mackz

Simplicity - need of today's world.

Everything around us is changing at a fast pace. Continuously demanding from us more, faster and better actions/reactions/results.

What's needed to survive and prosper in a chaos world in which reason no longer applies, in which you must focus on outcome, not process.

However, taxing it becomes, we cannot run away from the infinite choices thrown at us in this information age. Neither can we overlook it. Then how can we deal with this chaos around us with insufficient time at hand. There is never enough TIME to do everything. However fast you run, you still will be far behind the finish line; you will always end up having too much to cope with, too much to cover.

In our company, our worst competitor is the day-to-day confusion. Every individual takes so much time to figure out what to do and what not to do. Whose orders to follow and whose not. However, detailed we become, it only adds up to the chaos and at the end of the day we are confused about why things are not done as scheduled or as expected.Nothing works like it is supposed to, and at the end of the day makes all of us hunger for simplicity to some degree.

Its the time for all of us belonging to the age of information overload, to stop and think about our APPROACH.

Focusing on what matters most and not waste time on the rest. Simplifying Everything around us.

SIMPLICITY is a complex topic that has no single, simple answer.

In wikipedia, Simplicity is defined as the property, condition, or quality of being simple or un-combined. It often denotes beauty, purity or clarity. Simple things are usually easier to explain and understand than complicated ones. Simplicity can mean freedom from hardship, effort or confusion.

By being not clear enough, we are actually abusing others as well as our own time. We need to kill the demon of "CONFUSION" to bring "SIMPLICITY" in our lives.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

Do we really need a Goal ??????

What is your goal in life?... You need a goal in life!....You don't have a goal in life?....these and many other similar questions are thrown by goalcholics at me every now and then.

Goalcholics according to me are people who constantly just worry about the fact that they do not have a goal in life. Do not enjoy the present as they are too busy in search of a goal.

But my question is whats wrong in not having one. Is it the end of the world?Does it mean that one without a goal cannot be happy. Look at me... I am so happy! I love life. I enjoy everyday. I feel thankful everyday that so far I have so many wonderful memories from my past. And each passing day adds more.

I feel I am blessed. Isn't it a wonderful feeling? Whatever, the world may say I am happy and would like to believe that this is the best way to lead life.

I do believe in planning, but I do not believe in living with the constant pressure of having a goal.
Not enjoying the present because you haven't set a goal or you have not yet figured out the goal in life. I am sorry but I am happy without THE GOAL in life.

Now, this again does not mean, I do not have any goals..i do have small goals..like I want to lose weight, I want to have a baby soon, I want to see my company grown from 25 to 200.

But I want to remember the process too of reaching there. And i don't want to over analyze whether these are goals or just wishes...

All I want to say is, I do not want to get bogged down by the argument of goal setting.

I would rather get out of the way then get walked on.

Photo courtsey Incase Designs

Lack of Motivation to Learn and Improve

Every IT related business has to deal with Change daily. "Keep up with the Change or get replaced" - has become the nature's law in today's corporate world.

Continuous learning and improving ones skills, has never been such a necessity. One cannot think of surviving at all in the current workplace without continuously learning. Since the advent of Internet, the Generation X , has been left with little choice. Even the baby boomer's are served with the same fate.

Everyone who wants to survive has to accept it and embrace it. We never get to decide when change happens, and hence we can only learn to manage it. Self motivation is the only tool which will help employees cope with Change and make progress in today's workplace.

However, its easier said then done. Lack of Motivation to learn and improve among employees is a common problem in workplaces today. Its not only eating up the profit margins of the companies but also damaging their competitive advantage. HR managers all over the world are working out solutions to increase the motivation in employees to embrace change, with little success.

Photo courtesy leighblackall

Today's Managers & Micromanagement

Today's managers must understand that they must constantly assess and improve their workplace processes and mechanisms. They need to understand that accountability is much more than putting in time and swiping the attendance card. They shoould not insist on telling their employees how to do something because often the employee knows more about what they are doing than the manager. Todays managers must realise that employees can not only solve workplace problems but also can create and innovate. Beacause the employees that create and innovate do not appreciate being treated like the assembly line workers of the past,they feel micromanagers do not appreciate their contributions.

Micromanaging was a process that worked reasonably well when the work was simple. The bottom line was there. With the increase in complexity of work, micromanaging has lost its effectiveness. In today's workplace, micromanaging affects adversely. Micromanagement has led to bad bottom lines, poor performances and bankruptcies.

In today's fast-paced, highly competitive business environment micromangers are faced with fewer options. And even though micromanagers work harder and harder the brutal marketplace will continue to erode their bottom lines.

So micro guys wake up!!

Photo courtesy cote