Get rid of non-productive time wasters

Gene Mage

Too much time is non-productive. Waste not only exists, but abounds. Very little valuable work gets done, and what does get done must fight for air against a thousand distractions. Truly productive workplaces are the exception. Those few exceptional workplaces also happen to make the lion’s share of the money in their industries.

When we say that a product or service has “value”, we are saying that someone is willing to pay cold hard cash for it. If we believe that an activity in a business, such as receiving phone calls, greeting visitors, filing papers, or assembling mop buckets “adds value” to the product or business, we are saying that someone is willing to pay more, buy more, or favor that product over the competition because of that activity. In other words, if customers do not benefit from an activity, that activity is “non value-added”.

Let us take a real-life example. How many of you have tried to procure something recently for your organization? Perhaps you were trying to purchase simple office supplies. Maybe you were acquiring a complex high-tech medical device. You identified a need for supplies and equipment, and went about the process of getting the required items.

Have you thought about how much actual time is spent doing the work of procurement, versus all the organizational hand-wringing and bureaucratic nonsense that attaches itself to the work? The real work of procuring an item might include: needs analysis, specification, finding suppliers, gathering quotes, selecting the best option, getting approval, placing a purchase order, receiving the goods, and paying the invoice. Each of those steps takes a few minutes. But we always find a way to expand a few minutes of real work into weeks of useless frustration. It is not easy to make the simple complex, but most organizations have developed significant expertise in this area. Let us consider an example.

The Need: Perhaps you, as the supervisor, notice that employees are wasting time because of outdated computers.

The Analysis: You do some quick calculations and realize that your workers are spending an hour or more each day rebooting after computer crashes. You realize that new computers will pay for themselves in a few months.

The Proposal: You draft a neat proposal in about thirty minutes. During your next meeting with your boss, you plan to ask for approval. This decision is a win/win/win for all concerned. The elapsed work-time is about an hour.

What Really Happens: However, things are not always as they should be. Phyllis from across the hall sees a draft of your proposal at the copy machine. She reads it and is furious. “We’ve been waiting for six years for new computers! Now little miss supervisor comes in here with bells on her feet and thinks she can do anything she wants!” she bellows. Phyllis takes her rage to the nearest bystander, the lunch room, and even a customer in the lobby. “Can you believe how unfair this is?” she bellows.

When you present your proposal to your boss, he insists that you also do an analysis of Phyllis’ department to calm her down. That will take an extra week.

In addition, Phyllis has complained to her boss, and you now must attend a conflict resolution meeting with Human Resources, which will take two hours.

Finally, your boss asks you to involve the newly appointed “Chief Technology Officer” since he feels “out of the loop”. Your boss figures this would be a good time to build bridges. Since the new CIO is out of the country until the 15^th, you must wait another week. Then, when he comes back, he explains that the IT department is reevaluating all the computer vendors, and asks that you wait three months until their analysis is complete before making any purchases.

One hour of work expands to ninety days of frustration massaging the tender egos of every toddler in the office. What a waste.

For more ideas on becoming “Free to Lead” from Leadership Development Author and Speaker Gene C. Mage, visit www.makingitwork.com.

©2004 Gene C. Mage