Every one of our “yeses” and nos” has a cost. When I say yes to something I will do, buy, think, talk about, I am saying no to other options I have for how I am going to spend that portion of my time, money, energy and focus. We aren’t always conscious of all of that as we are making our choices and often end up surprised that our life, work or business does not look like we want it to.

As a management consultant and business coach, I am often called on to help executives and business professionals in their strategic planning process. A big part of strategic planning is deciding where an organization will focus its limited time and resources to best achieve its mission and vision. It’s deciding what to say no to and what to say yes to. The wrong yes can mean pouring valuable time and money into a certain direction that ends up draining resources with little return. On the other hand, saying yes to the right things, can mean increased revenues, lucrative new ventures, loyal customers, an energized workforce, and most importantly, positive progress toward achieving the vision.

This principle applies to our personal lives as well. Read the rest of this entry »

Maybe you’ve read the previous post I wrote on living “The Lean Life”, or maybe you’re just reading about this concept for the first time. In a previous post, I had listed eight areas of waste that companies are looking to eliminate when they want to become more “lean.” In these challenging economic times, both business owners and individuals wanting to pull in their belts a bit and simplify can protect valuable resources if they spend some time eliminating waste that is sucking time and energy away from critical areas of their personal life or business.

I want to focus on the first category of waste that I listed in the previous post: Overproduction.

First of all, why do businesses tend to overproduce product? Well, oftentimes, it’s because they’re trying to create a safety net for themselves in case they produce some scrap. In other words, they’re incurring the cost of overproducing instead of eliminating the root cause of why they’re producing bad parts. In the lean concept, business owners are encouraged to fix the system, not put in a bunch of costly measures to “work around them.”

Here’s an example I heard that I use a lot in my workshops. Let’s say you have a leaky faucet that is creating a big mess on the factory floor and also creating a safety hazard given that some people could slip and fall. You could put a bucket under it to keep catching the water and then you could hire someone to keep throwing it out. Or, you could spend the money once and fix the faucet! Fixing the faucet may cost you upfront, but in the long run, it will save you valuable time and money. So where in your business or your life are you “putting a bucket” under a problem, instead of “fixing the faucet?” This concept of finding what is wrong with your systems or processes and fixing the root cause is a principle behind eliminating each of the waste areas that are part of the lean concept.

Okay, back to overproduction. In addition to overproducing parts or products at work, another common area most of us can relate to is the overproduction of paper. You have an electronic copy of something, but you want to make a paper copy “just in case” something happens to your computer. Instead of making extra copies, how could you build a storage system that is more secure? Well, how about automatic daily backups or taking some time regularly to back up to an external hard drive? What about using a secure web-based storage system for your files? Another common area of paper waste is making copies of handouts at meetings for people to review. We’re not sure how many people are going to attend, so we make extra copies “just in case.” What about sending people electronic versions before the meetings and creating the expectation that they make their own copies and bring them to the meeting? If they forget one time and have to look on with someone else, chances are they won’t let that happen again.

How about an example from our personal lives? Food. Most of you reading this post live in the US where for most people, getting enough food to eat is not an issue. But let’s look at the stat’s regarding food waste. While it’s impossible to get exact numbers, Americans waste approximately 30% of food, an estimated $48.2 billion per year! How much food are you wasting each week because your producing (preparing) more food than you or your family can eat? How much food goes down the garbage disposal or in the trash each day because we “made too much?” How many of those leftovers in your refrigerator, never make it back out to your plate and get thrown away? Here’s another twist on this, maybe you’re feel bad about throwing food away so you eat more than you really need to and then you’re enlarging a different type of “waist!”

If you’re at work and see an area where you or your company are overproducing, find ways to eliminate that or at least recommend a solution. Unless your boss is Atilia the Hun, there is a good chance this will earn you some points. At home, find ways to stop overproducing, save yourself some money and experience the great feeling of being a good steward of the resources you’ve been given.

In an effort to simply our lives and our work, we can learn a lot from a concept long practiced within the manufacturing industry. Early on in my career as a management consultant back in the 90’s, I became aware of a concept called “lean manufacturing” often known just as “lean.”

Photo by Flickr user CanadaGood

One of the main goals of the lean process is to identify and eliminate wasted time or material in every step of a given process. In business, eliminating waste means lower costs and more profitability. In our personal lives, it means we have more time and money to spend on the things and people that are most important to us.

Do you ever feel that too much of your one precious life is being frittered away? I do. I saw one statistic that stated that companies waste 70-90% of their available resources. Wow! That’s a major loss for those of us that own a business. I wonder how much that statistic could apply to the way most of us live our lives? Maybe some of you will think it is a stretch to apply concepts from the world of manufacturing to your personal life, but just as businesses needs to continually focus on eliminating waste, so do those of us who want to live lives that will profit us and hopefully, others as well.   Read the rest of this entry »