Deadlines driven workflow is the perpetual detractor of actual efficiency in process. As a disclaimer this is coming from my experience as a former habitual procrastinator, that was often purely driven and fully embraced deadline motivation. But over the years of observing many different and often times very unique business workflows as well as beginning to reflect on my own personal and professional workflows and process, I started to realize the detriment of being so reactive to deadlines especially in our world of almost constantly being wired in in some way.
In many professional settings the idea of speed or velocity of process over everything trumps all. It can get tricky to identify the threshold of this error, especially when it lends itself to being covered up by the concept of “validated learning” or in more direct startup phrasing “failing fast”. While I fully understand and embrace the idea of validated learnings that can be drawn from innovation or adaptation of process, if this is something that is a result of process that was poorly planned or executed at the mercy of speed it is neither learning nor validated. The excitement of a new process or workflow to deliver a new product can be overwhelming and inflate expectations quickly, that’s a natural human reaction. But if the process is immature and developed quickly as well as implemented without further tweaks and opportunities for learning then it will likely fall prey to a sort perpetual inefficiency and ineffectiveness in the long-term.
Now I am not saying all sense of urgency should be lost to learn or explore potential scaling of process or new opportunities. What I am proposing is the idea that if perhaps the ultimate goal was optimized efficiency of process and person that both tangible and intangible value derived would be increasingly higher over time and intrinsically scalable as well as more enjoyable. Enjoyable? You may be thinking how can efficiency make a process intrinsically more enjoyable, well if you remove the imbalance of expectations and ability to perform at speed you’re likely increasing the opportunity for fulfillment of deliverables and reducing the friction involved.
Part of approaching process with an outlook of optimized efficiency is understanding the scope of the workflow and how it’s going to potentially grow or adapt. What is the level of uncertainty and have any gaps been identified yet not addressed? Is this process clearly mapped out with defined criteria and milestones? This piece can be tricky especially with a completely new business unit or process. In my experience many organizations face this context of uncertainty with new internal software or new product launches. There may be a tendency to glaze over things that are like as a sure-fire transition or that technology will solve any issues with process (or for odd reason people, yes it’s that common and asinine). To be frank this is as apples to oranges as it gets, your personnel or communication let alone process challenges most likely will not be solved by software without committing to the deep dive and work.
Now yes this is all conceptual, but let’s take a look at some measurements and objective analysis you can do for yourself (dig deep and think back to the grade school days of mental math). So let’s start with some definitions:
Speed
the rate at which someone or something is able to move or operate.
Efficiency
the ratio of the useful work performed by a machine or in a process to the total energy expended or heat taken in.
Taking a look at the above cut and dry definitions, from a professional standpoint (hell from personal standpoint think about yard work) which of the above would you choose to embrace the practice of? If you’re an Olympic athlete at the top of your game you may with good reason choose the first one for Speed, but the arguably obvious choice for growth or a new process appears to be Efficiency. This is where the argument can start to inherit and apply some measurable metrics to understand resource utilization, with one additional caveat – the perfect answer is both. If someone is completing their process and tasks with incredible speed, but an incredible amount of errors that also need to be thrown out or corrected what is the value being derived from the resources? To counter that what are the thresholds of efficiency, perhaps time that may also diminish the returns of not having to correct errors?
This is not a plea for perfection or to slow down processes that derived their end value from delivering a product in a timely manner. What I would like to explore further and see more focus brought to is the combination of these two concepts implemented and monitored together. It may require an initial period of patience, inefficiency and practice that will return exponentially in the long-term. Creating metrics to track these things may seem daunting or perhaps worse tedious and further unproductive, but they will certainly create a consistent, concise and objective picture of how optimized your workflow is. This I feel is the true daunting piece of my proposal, when the facts are laid out “inconvenient” or “unpopular” truths may expose gaps or inefficiencies.
Remember the Bobs from office space, basically the 90s personification of efficiency consultants. In an organization that is looking to scale or even be effective in current day these guys would be more suited asking “why is that you do what you do here?” and that’s shouldn’t be directed or taken as a need to defend your role, workflow or process. But if that’s your first time considering that question it may seem like a threat. In my experience if phrased and delivered tactfully this can be one of the most powerful paths to new or adapted process. It may in fact not reflect poorly on you at all especially if said process predates you and no one has questioned it since it was created. This would then in theory open the opportunity for you as the expert in current state to help lead the shift or new process development, which should inherently be slow and calculated to derive the needed learnings to ensure future success.
So whether you’re in a management role, an entry level actor, freelancer or looking to initiate change in your personal life consider if you’re asking the right why and more importantly focused on the right velocity measurement. Use the opportunity for objective discourse, measurable analysis and creating a path forward that will reduce unnecessary friction and optimize your process and results. Change does not come easy, especially with unrealistic expectations and assumptions. Let’s start to build productivity with awareness and build a deeper awareness together. -Ad Astra Per Aspera