Design Versus Reality

When you get into the thick of things it can be very difficult to see what needs to happen to a process or a business. The noise from the day to day activity can blur the distinction between what the business needs to do and what it is currently doing.

Knowing what the 'design' of the business should be is something that you need to keep visible at all times. If the business is not working in the right way then the design becomes the compass for you to guide your actions by.

Bad practices form over time and when you are looking for ideas for improvement comparing where you need to be with where you are is a way of providing this guidance.

Also, when you look at the design of a business, you can work out backwards how things are meant to work. So if you know how many 'things' you need to do in a day, for example, you can work out how fast your process needs to be in order to cope effectively.

If you are getting lost with your improvements then look at the design. It will keep you right when things look like they are going wrong.

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