Stop optimizing work that shouldn’t exist.
Let me say that again, but clearer.
STOPđź‘ŹCREATINGđź‘ŹPRODUCTIVITYđź‘ŹHACKSđź‘ŹFORđź‘ŹSILLYđź‘ŹTASKS.
Tasks you shouldn’t even be doing in the first place.
I talk to many teams about getting more efficient.
And every time, I get questions about timeboxing, email batching, “focus hours,” timer apps, and whatever new productivity system is trending that week.
The intention is good.
People are trying to make their workflow more effective
…but they’re not looking at the real problem.
Here’s the problem:
“Productivity hacks won’t fix bad processes. They just make them more tolerable.”
That’s what I told Jessica Macleod in an interview for her newsletter and Thought(ful) Leaders YouTube channel.
The truth is that timeboxing your day—picking a time that you answer your email and don’t answer your email—only creates challenges and barriers for the other people working with you. There is no team player who vomits their inbox out to the rest of their colleagues at 3pm who I want to work with.
What you should be focusing on is deeper than the email.
- What is causing our partners or customers to make requests over and over again?Â
- What would happen if we didn’t have 3 required approvals…or the 7 I normally see??Â
- Can this question be answered in a guide or checklist?Â
If it takes seven emails to resolve an issue, you should reconsider how the service is being delivered.
What is causing this email to come to me in the first place? Can this service or process be accomplished without an email?
Think of every email as an error with a root cause…
…and once you remove the error, you remove the obstacle.
The goal is to get the email to stop coming in—or reduce the amount of back and forth from 3 to 1.
You solve the email problem by solving how the service is delivered.
When I think about the best organizations that I’ve worked with, here’s what they have in common:
They eliminate the useless work altogether.
They give their employees the tools to be autonomous.
They prioritize self-service.
Their processes are strong enough that their employees know what to do. And hint, hint, all their processes are documented.
This work isn’t just about improving productivity––it’s about building a culture of trust with your team.
You want your teams to trust each other so…
Stop making people chase down information.
Stop scheduling meetings to confirm what everyone already knows.
Stop creating new rules for systems that never worked.
In our interview, Jessica and I talked about a few approaches to help you identify and get rid of wasteful work.
My most tried-and-true method is:
See It. Say It. Solve It.
Remember—the best solutions are always the simplest ones.
Don’t optimize work that shouldn’t exist.
Get rid of it.
If this is the kind of thing your team is struggling with…good news.
We’re partnering with ICMA to help city and county managers across the world with our ICMA Innovation Bootcamp: Click here to learn more.
Interested in removing useless work from your organization? Drop me a line here for a free chat.
And you can watch my full interview with Jessica here.