Simplicity? It’s Quite Complex… But Worth The Effort
It’s ironic. To get your business to operate with simplicity and clarity requires going down a very complex route. While so many companies are striving for “growth” or “expansion”, these terms imply the very opposite of simplicity. But other terms are being bandied around nowadays, “transparency” is one, running a business with a “holistic” mindset is another, but these all are party to the same ideal. Simplicity is the best way to make your company benefits in every aspect, but how can we achieve this?
Get Focused
Specifically in relation to your goals. If you are looking to simplify your processes, you should have incredibly detailed goals. This could be in relation to anything from acquiring new customers, cutting down on your waste, and so forth, but the more elaborate the outline, the easier it is to make simple. If you go into an operation with a vague plan, simplicity will not come from it. You need to have every single part outlined and nailed down. This won’t just help you, this will help your employees because they will see the processes as simply as you do.
Decide On A Strategy
Once you pick your goals, you can then go about a strategy in achieving these. By picking a tool or process to overcome these obstacles, this will provide a solution to the problem. It depends on what areas you feel need addressing. If you have issues with productivity, there may be some specific IT services that can help, such as moving your data up to a cloud storage service or learning to manage your data more efficiently. Once you decide on the appropriate strategy, you can then go about solving the problem. But if this strategy is complex, and your employees struggle to understand it, it’s not going to be the solution to the problem.
Establish What Your Obstacles Are
You know what your goal is, and you know how to go about getting it, but if you don’t know what your obstacles are, the previous two methods are redundant. Identifying the challenges means that you have to research and spend a lot of painstaking time figuring out what the issues that could stand in your way now and in the future. This could be based on a process, for example, if the process you have established is too long and drawn out. Or your attempt at increasing productivity through specific programs and software is not working because the systems are too slow. So if you figure out exactly what your vehicles are in every part of your business, you will know what you’re up against so you can employ a suitable strategy to solve the goals you are focused on.
Simplicity requires going through the mill, and it sometimes involves going the long way round to get back to the start. In this respect, you need to trust your instincts, and you know when things feel right, or they feel wrong. To operate with an idea of simplicity, you need to consider these three aspects, and you need to implement them effectively.