Information that can help an organisation needs to flow through the business. In many cases this consideration, or the effort to produce the information, stops the information from flowing. The information does not need to be excessive. If you ask the members of your business what information needs to be produced you will often find that the requirements are refreshingly light. There are usually easy and low (or no) cost ways of getting the information out. Ask around there is usually something you can piggy back to help the information flow. Don’t spend too much time on the documentation. However you get the information out this is disposable, for internal use only. Quick and effective is order of the day. Creating a standard format to provide consistency is a good idea to help this information to both cascade properly and look acceptable. Find out what information can help oil the wheels in your business, it can reduce the level of unhelpful rumours and also improve productiv

When a task needs to be performed in a business it is straightforward to write a standard operating procedure and then hope that the results obtained are the ones you want. One way to improve this haphazard approach to results is to define the standard expected of the result. If you define the attributes of the result you can give people a far clearer picture to work with, this can help them to achieve your vision of the result more consistently. Explain which areas need to be rigid, and allow the other areas to include flexibility. The parts that are vital and really shape the result needs to be rigid, whilst the other areas can be done in a style that suits the individual. For example, if your business has a sign-off sheet that needs to include a signature, explain that it will not be accepted if there is no signature on the sheet. Be flexible as to what colour pen the signature is in - the important thing is that the sheet is signed. Maintain and measure the standard on a regu

Sometimes things just need to happen as quickly as possible to the point at which it occurred. When actions are delayed from this point a lack of detail can occur that can make a big difference to the outcome. For example if you have a meeting and need to agree the actions do it at the meeting, if you wait a day then you won’t remember the same amount of detail that you would have done yesterday – the oomph will have gone. If notes need to be written up then doing them as soon as possible after the event is key as clarity and accuracy decays quickly as time passes. Decisions made too long after the need to make the decision can skew the choice made, being able to make effective relevant immediate decisions is a great skill. In many instances closing out actions, making decisions and capturing information as close to the point of origin is a great business benefit. Is this worth reflecting upon in your business? Smartspeed Consulting Limited Deliver on Time with Smartspeed

Many people get hung up on 'getting it right first time'. This is a good motto in many instances. For example, 'right first time' is a great way to be when you are visible to your clients, or if you are repeating a process of some sort and getting wrong has significant cost implications. However, when we are trying to find a new solution, focussing on getting the result right the first time can result in people not trying new things. We need to be willing to experiment, and to tweak the approach until we get it right. If you can show your team and your staff that 'not right first time' is a pre-cursor to getting better results, you can lead them into more productive and innovative ways of working. Using small scale pilots for testing out new ideas and approaches in the workplace is low risk and a way of making effective changes happen. Experiment with the way that your business works so that you can make it even better. Smartspeed Consulting Limi

Many times you hear people talking about the lack of time in their day and the amount of tasks or projects that are building up. There is a simple approach to this that can be used to great effect and may be worth a go. It is the idea of drip feeding 10 minute tasks into your day. Ten minutes isn't a lot of time and you can get a surprisingly large amount of work done in a focussed slot of 10 minutes. Ten minutes isn't very long and so usually doesn't make us feel overwhelmed, this means that procrastination can be avoided. Ten minutes done every day is fifty minutes in a normal working week. Many projects can be moved on with nearly an hour a week. Moreover, if the tasks or projects you have chosen to spend 10 minutes a day on are important, you will probably gain momentum and decide to spend more time on these and stop doing something that is less important. So, if you find yourself getting stuck then try putting your hard to reach / hard to start projects into

When an improvement has taken effect and the results you need have appeared this can often be an opportunity to stop doing some things that you have done before. Do the same KPIs need to be reported upon? Do the same reports need to be submitted to your clients? Do you still need to hold the same meetings that you had before your problems went away? When you make an improvement to your business some activities you did beforehand will not be as relevant. Some tasks may only be present because they are at the request of an unhappy owner or customer. Make the decision to stop doing what is no longer required and do more of what is essential. Smartspeed Consulting Limited Deliver on Time with Smartspeed

This is the sequence to make change happen. Many times we see organisations determine what solution they want, when in fact that will give them a different result to the one that they really want. If you find yourself in this situation, or are about to embark upon a new project, then ask yourself this question - "will this course of action give me the result that I need?" From root cause problem solving we know that the 'evidence' that we see around us is usually a symptom of the real problem and by probing deeper we can find the simpler and more powerful problem to solve. So, before you start your next project or improvement activity consider the steps once more: - What result do we need? - What is the appropriate solution? - What is the most efficient and effective course of action? Smartspeed Consulting Limited Deliver on Time with Smartspeed

When you hear that information is not available and that it won't be discussed you can be fairly sure that there is something going wrong within a business. Whatever the reason is for not wanting to discuss the facts the outcome is clear. You cannot make decisions properly without the facts. Many times you can see this lack of engagement through the minimisation that takes place. Comments are made that make the situation look less important than it really is and the necessary fact finding never takes place. Keep your eyes and ears open for times when facts are being ignored or played down, there could be a significant opportunity lurking behind the scenes. Smartspeed Consulting Limited Deliver on Time with Smartspeed

Businesses run on routines. Every day there will be some kind of activity that needs to take place like clockwork. If the routine task does not take place it will probably not be the end of the world, but if the task is never done the quality of the service, or the standards in the business may well drop. If routines of work are important then why do we struggle to keep them in place? One answer for this question is that we don't create formal rotas / schedules of activity that are clearly visible and located in a public place within the business. It does require discipline to maintain routine activities - especially when we become really busy. With a rota we are more able to remember what we need to do in order for the business to run smoothly, professionally and efficiently. If you need more help than just a rota then you may want to try implementing an end of week checklist for your own personal use, or put a reminder on your phone / email calendar. As the habit forms an

On our travels we see many projects getting behind schedule due to the people involved not the 'taking the rough with the smooth'. By this we mean that during the course of the project there may well be some elements that are highly enjoyable and some that are boring or difficult. If all of the tasks listed for a project are required to complete the project then all of them will need to be completed. By actively managing the parts of the project which appear, or are expected, to be in the difficult / confusing / tedious camp then you will have a better chance of others completing all of the tasks in a timely manner. If it is you who is struggling with these tasks then it might be worth considering the advice given by Brian Tracy in his book 'Eat that frog'. Basically, start your working day with the most unpleasant, difficult (and most important) task. Once this is done you don't have to think about that task again. Try it and see what it does for your proje

It's interesting to watch and take note of what happens when people rush their jobs. Things get missed off. Parts of the job that normally get done, and can be done from memory, don't get done. Depending on where you work this may or may not be critical. For a surgeon this may be life and death (or a fire fighter, or a pilot for example), for everyone else this could at least mean a poor customer experience for our clients, or the reworking of a job at a later date. Two improvements spring to mind with this problem in mind. 1 - using checklists can make life a lot easier (so when you are pushed for time you don't need to rely on your mind!). 2 - appropriate time should be given to a task and scheduled accordingly (or deferred if possible - should there not be enough time). Business does go quickly - but reworking the same problems time and time again is even slower. Look at the areas where you find mistakes occuring. If they are due to people rushing the job the

One of the simplest things we can do if we want to improve our business is to stop and think. Just stopping to reflect upon what we are doing can give one of the greatest impacts we can have within our own business. When we take a look at what we are doing we are able to see activities and arrangements that don't lend themselves to being the best possible way. These areas for improvement become more obvious when we take the time to stop what we are doing and take a step back from the (hectic) day-to-day. 'Does it work?' is a great question to ask when we step back - does it work well? By taking the time out to ask this question you will most likely find opportunities to improve leaping towards you. This is not hard - it just takes the discipline to periodically stop and think about what we are doing. Smartspeed Consulting Limited BESPOKE BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT | LEAN TRAINING | OPERATIONS TROUBLESHOOTING www.smartspeed.co.uk

One item of conversation that crops up time and time again is that of wanting a boost in productivity. Projects get delayed and don't seem to move, let alone the piles of paperwork on your desk that seem to build up from normal working; these all detract from our ability to be productive. Well, there is a simple approach to improving productivity. It can give a one time boost, or can be used on an ongoing basis to maintain higher levels of productivity. It's quite simple and all to do with 'keeping your house in order'. Write a list of everything that you think you need to do to get all of your tasks / projects back on track. Resolve to sort out this list and focus on clearing as many items as possible. In fact don't stop until you do clear the list. When you have finished you will be in a position to tackle new jobs and hence become truly productive. The list that was holding you back was stuff that should have been done already and therefore a case of obliga