How to Do More with Less

It seems that's the question every company is asking these days: How do we do more with less?

Well for one, we need to agree on what "more" means. If "more" means "more value" (which is the way I'd intepret it), then it's not a difficult problem. We just tend to make it difficult by creating complex processes and systems.

What we need to do is simple. We need to apply more focus on valuable activities toward valuable outcomes. I addressed this in Napoleon on Project Management via the concepts of Concentration of Force and Economy of Force. In business, this takes the form of a lean approach, favored by Japanese companies.

As simple as this is, most organizations ignore it. They spread their resources thin across so many projects that nothing gets accomplished, and what does often misses the value boat. And then they compound it with red tape and wasteful activities.

In a sense, what I propose is actually doing less with less, but achieving more value. If we have less resources, we must focus them where they will have the greatest impact. We must optimize our energy toward the few primary objectives that will achieve the most value, giving only the minimum effective amount of resources to secondary (but also valuable) objectives. Then we can attack the next primary objective, and so on.

Also, we must get rid of wasteful practices, processes, and projects---anything that does not create value, or that creates little value compared with other activities. I use "value" in a holistic sense, as opposed to strictly financial value. This reduction of waste is also a key principle of the famous Japanese swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi, as noted in The Book of Five Rings. The principle is this: Do nothing useless.

How many useless forms, templates, standards, processes, and meetings do we have that destroys value instead of creates it? Wouldn't we be better off getting rid of these things and focusing our energy on the most value producing items?

I'd love to hear from you about what useless activities your organization or client engages in that could be eliminated or streamlined. No need to mention the company name.