Balancing Process, Tools, and People
Knowing when to bring in the right people, tools, and process into your company is hard. Is there a magic formula about how to build a team, create a new department, implement processes, or roll out tools at the right time? How do you know when all of these things are needed? In short, it depends. There are potentially a lot of factors at play and each organization is different. To start to put the puzzle together, it’s important to get clear on two things: what your company strategy is and what your current bottlenecks are.
I could write a whole blog post on strategy - specifically what it is and what it isn’t - but for now I’ll just reference a nugget of wisdom from Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works by A.G. Lafley; strategy requires making choices about the future of your organization. It’s not a goal or a revenue target, but a series of decisions about what you will and will not do in order to win. I highly recommend the book if you haven’t read it already.
Now, on to your bottlenecks. To identify what those are, look for some key indicators that point to a larger issue. I refer to these as symptoms. Here are some examples:
Your sales are consistently declining.
Profits are not where they should be.
Your turnover rate is high.
Your customers’ expectations are not being met.
Your teams are consistently underperforming.
You have no idea whether any of the above are true or not.
It takes some detective work to find the root cause and you’ll find that it stems from a process issue, a tool issue, a people issue, or sometimes all three. I could write separate articles on each of these subjects so for now, I’ll break it down into a few short pieces of advice.
Process
Too much process and too little process will cause issues, so it’s important to maintain a balance. My advice here is simple and twofold - don’t create a process for a problem that doesn’t exist yet, and ask yourself how much having or not having this process is costing you in time and resources.
Tools
Tools will often grow with you, so don’t be afraid to pick one that works and go with it. Not having one in place can cost you just as much as having it implemented, so look at this carefully and don’t overthink it.
People
This topic might require a book. For the sake of brevity, I’ll just say this: no tool, process, or system will make up for weak leadership. I have too often seen CEO’s try to implement a process because they are trying to force an employee or leader to perform something that an A-player would do naturally. Select your team wisely from the start and invest your energy into building that team.
Once you identify your bottlenecks and their root cause issues, then it’s just a matter of selecting your highest priority, aligning your efforts to your company strategy, and then tackling them one by one.